A FESTIVAL OF DIGITAL MEDIA 16 - 30 NOVEMBER 2020 Exhibition/installation of VR Films and Video Games and online workshops and talks
in partnership with
For registration and details:
www.jibambenatecfestival.space
HEAING Introduction Covid-19 has accelerated transition to the digital space in countries all round the world. It has seen creatives turning to digital platforms and technology to create and connect with audiences. This rapid uptake of digital technologies is expected to continue into recovery. Given the important role of the digital services for creative industries, the Alliance Française de Nairobi and the Goethe-Institut Nairobi present a hybrid festival of digital media with the support of the French German Cultural Cooperation Fund. This Festival will highlight new digital practices in the Arts and the Gaming sector using a variety of digital technologies to create immersive, alternative, and experimental experiences and celebrate the emergence of new works of art and playful media in the digital era. Through in-person activities at the Alliance Française de Nairobi and online action, including workshops and talks, on the A MAZE. / SPACE - a virtual multiplayer 3D game environment, audiences will share knowledge, interact, have fun, and discover a whole new world in Covid-19 times. Curators
Isabelle Arvers Isabelle Arvers is a French artist and curator who has been involved in the field of digital art and video games for over twenty years. A pioneer in the field of game art in France, she has curated and produced festivals and exhibitions around independent games, game art and retro gaming around the world. She has also been conducting machinima workshops (films made within virtual worlds using real-time 3D engines or video games), machinima screenings and VJ performances.
Thorsten Wiedemann Thorsten Wiedemann is the founder and artistic director behind the international brand A MAZE which produces festivals, exhibitions, and workshops at the intersection of independent games, virtual reality, and alternative games culture. Established in 2012, the A MAZE brand generates inspiring, controversial, and openminded formats, giving room for experimentation, collaboration, and exchange. Thorsten’s focus is on the interdisciplinary discourse and filling the gaps between games, art, and technology.
VR Films African Spacemakers A 360° interactive mockumentary that will give you an urban tour of Nairobi with your preferred guide. You can choose to visit six different spaces in Nairobi from the biggest dumping site in Africa in search of objects and wild animals bones, to painting trains and running from data police with graffiti artists, or challenging the religious fanatics, skating in liminal spaces and drinking khat juice with trendy musicians before flying over the CBD. The film, produced by the NRB Bus, with Black Rhino VR & INVR Space, was selected for the Venice VR Expanded Competition at the 77th Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica 2020. This will be the African Première of first-ever Made in Africa interactive VR series on creative African cities. The Forgotten Ones Winner of the Best XR Project in the social field at the 2019 Virtuality XR Awards in Paris, this 360° degree immersive video gives voice to the communities living around the dumpsite – The Forgotten Ones – raising awareness on social and environmental injustice. It takes you into the world of the almost 1 million people living around this 30-acre site. It has been directed by Charles Muchiri, an enthusiastic immersive content creator using technology as a storytelling tool. Produced by BlackRhino VR, it also features the Kenyan spoken word artist, Mufasa Poet.
Daughters of Chibok Daughters of Chibok is a VR documentary by Joel Kachi Benson that tells the story of Yana Galang, whose daughter, Rifkatu, was among the 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April 2014 from their school dormitory in Chibok, northeast Nigeria. It won the Lion Award for Best VR Story at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival.
16 - 30 November // Alliance Française Nairobi
In-person visits welcome on prior registration. Register here : https://bit.ly/3lljMEO
Video Games Tron’s Factory This game for Windows PC has been created by the Ghanaian artist, Afrane Akwasi Bediako. His works explore the idea of augmentation and extensions between technological gadgets and humans. He works with discarded electronic gadgets which he refers to as “amputees”. He refashions and repurposes these amputees into machines and micro- organisms he describes as “Trons”.
Semblance Semblance is a puzzle platformer game where your character and the world it inhabits is made of playdough. Squish, squash and deform your character and the world to solve puzzles in Semblance’s soft, bouncy world. Semblance asks, what if you could deform and reshape the world itself? It is a game that takes the idea of a ‘platform’ in a platformer and turns it on its head. It has been developed by Nyamakop, South African game developer.
Machinima Films
Media Institute.
Screening of films produced during the Machinima workshop conducted by Isabelle Arvers with students from the Dept. of Design & Creative Media of the Technical University of Kenya and the African Digital
Machinima is the art of filmmaking using video games. It approaches video games in a critical and artistic way, in the form of installation, performance, digital painting in movement, games, interactivity or video. The films are based on African folktales. A storytelling session with the seasoned and infectious Kenyan storyteller, Alumbe Namai, has provided the participants with the inspiration to create a series of unique films using real-time 3-D engines.
16 - 30 November // Alliance Française Nairobi
In-person visits welcome on prior registration. Register here : https://bit.ly/3lljMEO
Online Friday, 20/11, 12-2PM Pierre Friquet (France): VR + Story The arranged marriage of story-living So often confused with a futuristic cinema, VR has it own language. The uncharted territory of the new grammar draws from ancient traditions. It goes beyond traditional storytelling and captures the idea that engaging audience in VR requires interaction between the content and the user. In any virtual reality experience, you become an avatar of yourself, or a digital body in which you live and act within. Where am I? What am I? What can I do? This workshop reveals the new forms of immersive human-computer interactions, establishing body-based storytelling techniques. The talk will expand on both the grammar and workflow of immersive and interactive productions.
Friday, 20/11, 2.30 – 4PM Panel: Games and Playful Media in East Africa 4 Kenyan gaming experts will give us an exclusive view on the current status quo of gaming and playful media in Kenya, how the scene is currently developing and what the future might hold
Saturday, 21/11, 11AM – 1PM Tatiana Vilela dos Santos (France): A guided tour of the ALT CTRL wonderland For the past years, we have seen the emergence of a new movement in video games, the ALT CTRL or alternative controller games. These motley creations share a common trait: they are all played with weird gamepads. Some of them are even one-of-a-kind installations. The first part of this workshop will be an invitation to fall into the rabbit hole of ALT CTRL games. After a guided tour of these wonderlands including original gamepads, arcade cabinets and playful installations, we will chart this new territory to better understand the creative possibilities ALT CTRL offers designers. In the second part of the workshop, we will discuss the specific case of diverted use of standard controllers: can we create new ways to play with common peripherals. After the workshop, an online game jam will be open to anyone who wants to make their idea a reality.
Online activities accessible on Goethe-Institut Kenya Prior registration for participation contact: susanne.gerhard@goethe.de
Online Saturday, 21/11, 1.30 – 3.30PM Panel: Building from scratch an international renowned and successful independent games studio The panel will give insights into how the two internationally renowned gaming experts Evan Greenwood from South Africa and Olivier Madiba from Cameroon have started working on their respective careers in gaming and digital media and the lessons they have learnt throughout their careers. There will be a Q & A with both panellists after the session. Saturday, 21/11, 4.30 – 6PM Hyper Talks Designed and invented for A MAZE. Festival, this fast-paced 5min talk format evolved to a wonderful travelling platform for game and playful media creators to talk about their games and creations. Share, inspire, get inspired. Sunday, 22/11, 11-1PM Franziska Zeiner: Finding and defining your vision 2020 has been an odd year. The world as we knew it was put to a stop. For many this hasn’t been easy, for some it’s also been a time of reflection: Is this the world we want to be living in? It’s a question of privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility. Do we really live up to our responsibilities? What do you as a game developer stand for? In this workshop participants will be challenged to find purpose in their work. In small groups, participants will find and define their vision. This workshop is for anyone looking for more purpose in their work. Especially for those interested in starting their own company. Sunday, 22/11, 2 – 4PM Dennis Mbuthia: Unify UR Unity The workshop will give an already experience audience a greater insight into the possibilities and depths of some of the unity tools.
Online activities accessible on Goethe-Institut Kenya Prior registration for participation contact: susanne.gerhard@goethe.de