Angela Washko
When: 25.05.2015-29.05.2015 Where: R 201
In the workshop students gain both art historical and technical tools to create a collaborative and performative intervention inside an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). The territories of these densely packed and rich landscape spaces are largely unexplored by artists whose practices, schedules and political endeavors do not align with the computer gaming world. I will use tactical media artists like The Yes Men, Dara Greenwald, Institute for Applied Autonomy, Electronic Disturbance Theater, Eva and Franco Mattes, subRosa, and VNS Matrix as precedents for more recent interventions specifically in video games – highlighting works by Joseph DeLappe, Molleindustria, Anna Anthropy, Anita Sarkeesian, Kenton Sheely, Micha Cardenas, Eddo Stern, C Level, JODI, Stephanie Rothenberg, Anne-Marie Schleiner and more. As a group we will look at historical precedents and current practices as a departure point for exploring a game space as a collective. During the workshop we will wander, observe, communicate with other players and learn about the specificity of one particular game space in which I've worked extensively: World of Warcraft. After three days of exploring, learning game mechanics and the game's distinct culture as well as documenting our experiences in the space via video capture software – we will have the tools we need to collectively choreograph a site specific (within the gamespace) performative intervention inside World of Warcraft.