The Fields of Algorithms, curated by David Blandy, is a mixtape of poetic machinima lasting exactly 60 seconds.
_“When I originally asked for people’s poetic machinima, the pandemic was just beginning,” says David Blandy. “Since then, the online world has increasingly become part of many people’s reality, some discovering the virtual space for the first time, others becoming even more immersed, as outside spaces become gated off. Machinima takes many forms, from the 3D swooping virtual cameras made possible in games like Red Dead Redemption 2 to the bold pixel graphics of early videogames. Video games are often dismissed, but as they become more ubiquitous it’s natural that these spaces become a place where we wonder at a vision of nature, or a suitable subject for a poem. Video games turns us all into directors, creating stories with our actions inside these gated realms, both a place for encounters with the sublime and a space to forge community.”
As the screening came together, it appeared there were two intertwined themes: politics and personal identity.
“The virtual space is a place to reassess and to reform, both the self, and our vision of society,” Blaney explains. “These products of capitalism, vessels of thousands of hours of labour, can become a space for satire and deconstruction, and the space to imagine and enact radical alternatives.”_
Screenings:
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Het Nieuwe Instituut Online, Watch the series online
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Twitch, online premiere
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Museum Hilversum (NL)
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Remise, Amsterdam (NL)
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Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam (NL)
