In 2023, for the third year, Fabbula was the artistic director of Octobre Numérique – Faire Monde, a festival in Arles, France, exploring more inclusive, open and sustainable virtual worlds at the crossroads of video games and arts.
From October 11th to November 10th 2023, exhibitions, conferences, performances, and workshops, take place in the emblematic places of Arles and its region.
The theme of this third edition is Intelligences of worlds. As chatter around AI develops, the 2023 edition of the festival explores what constitutes our world’s very diverse intelligences: human, artificial, but also animal, vegetal & planetary.
Intelligences of Worlds
Group show
Intelligences of Worlds, exhibition view, Église des Trinitaires, Arles, 2023 – Sahej Rahal, Anhad, 2023, simulation.
Intelligences of Worlds, exhibition view, Église des Trinitaires, Arles, 2023 – Will Freudenheim, Schema, 2023, video game.
Intelligences of Worlds, exhibition view, Église des Trinitaires, Arles, 2023 – Viktor Timofeev, Bob Doesn’t Ever See David, 2022, film.
Intelligences of Worlds, exhibition view, Église des Trinitaires, Arles, 2023
Alice Bucknell, The Alluvials – Fire Walk With Me, 2023, video game.
Intelligences of Worlds, exhibition view, Église des Trinitaires, Arles, 2023 – Viktor Timofeev, Four Characters in Search of a Random Exit, 2017-2021, simulation.
Intelligences of Worlds, exhibition view, Église des Trinitaires, Arles, 2023.
FROM 11.10 TO 05.11 → ÉGLISE DES TRINITAIRES – FREE ACCESS
2PM – 7PM WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY / 10AM – 7PM SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
Presented as a playful quest, this exhibition of playable works explores the many facets of AI and offers a broader vision of the notion of intelligence. Often reduced to a mechanisation of the mind, the artificial intelligence of these worlds brings us face to face with multiple intelligences – human and non-human, animal, plant or even planetary – and gives us a sense of the cross-fertilisation of multiple intelligences to come.
ALICE BUCKNELL, THE ALLUVIALS, 2023, VIDEO GAME. @alicebucknell
The world premiere of her highly-anticipated world in which the artist revisits and speculates on the role of rivers in urban ecologies.
SAHEJ RAHAL, ANHAD, 2023, INTERACTIVE ARTWORK. @sahejrahal
With his work Anhad, Sahej Rahal takes us on a journey to discover a world inhabited by sublime creatures that we can meet in a skillful interplay of voices and sounds.
VIKTOR TIMOFEEV, FOUR CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A RANDOM EXIT, 2017-2021, SIMULATION. @viktortimofeev
A self-playing game in which one poetically inhabits multiple viewpoints over the same reality, drawing absurd and parodic comparisons to AI as conceived by Google.
WILL FREUDENHEIM, SCHEMA, 2023, VIDEO GAME. PRESENTED BY CALDO WORLDWIDE GALLERY.WORLD PREMIERE. @freudenheiim
In the intricate landscape of Schema, participants find themselves drawn into a symbiotic relationship with a mesmerizing forest creature, morphing as they interact with the objects, animals and substances in the sylvan world. Guidance for this creature’s journey comes from a place of communal interaction—the collective consciousness of the audience communicated through Twitch livestream chat interface on CALDO. This introduces a layer of engagement where spectators become active participants, influencing the creature’s path and experiences.
KEIKEN, MORPHOGENIC ANGELS, VIDEO GAME, 2023. @_keiken_
An exceptional and temporary presentation, in conjunction with Mati Brakowski’s live demo.
Everything in Morphogenic Angels is in simulation mode, so the screening is always live and responding to the choices of the player. Within an immersive installation that encourages rest and pondering, audiences are invited to discover the genesis story behind Keiken’s speculative world. It explores a future where people have gained post-human capabilities through the organic reengineering of their cells, therefore tapping into non-human consciousness. In this future world, post-human entities are now considered “angels,” and they value and draw from all kinds of consciousness; ancestral, bodily, extraterrestrial, as well as animal, nature, cellular, and the cosmos.
Chapter 1 of Morphogenic Angels commissioned and produced by Keiken and HAU Hebbel Am Ufer.
BÉRÉNICE COURTIN, DIGITAL JACQUARD, 2023. @berenuee
Bérénice Courtin’s installation takes as its starting point a study of the machine used by her Polish Resistance grandfather to encrypt and decrypt information. In her artistic practice, she compares the use of this cryptographic machine to the digital loom into which she inserts computer codes. The public is invited to take part in this dialogue between craft and the digital age.
In partnership with the Centre Pompidou-Metz and the exhibition Worldbuilding.
LAURE NERIA & GUILLAUME PASCALE, LES FANTÔMES DU DISQUE D’OR, 2023.
Based in Arles, Laure Neria and Guillaume Pascale are revisiting the contents of the famous golden disc sent into space in 1977. 50 years on, the work re-enacts this fragment of collective memory, crossing the original content of the disc, ordered, objective and universaliz.ng, with new, multiple legends, put into image and sound by an artificial imagination device
Opening days & conferences: From October 11 to 15, 2023
Octobre Numérique – Faire Monde 2023, Conferences & Round tables, ENSP, Arles.
Will Freudenheim (Artist, exhibited at the Église des Trinitaires), Alena & Christina Mayer (Caldo Worldwide).
Octobre Numérique – Faire Monde 2023, Conferences & Round tables, ENSP, Arles.
Angelo Careri (Editor-in-chief of Immersion) and Sahej Rahal (Artist, exhibited at the Église des Trinitaires).
Octobre Numérique – Faire Monde 2023, Conferences & Round tables, ENSP, Arles.
Eva Papamargariti (Artist).
Octobre Numérique – Faire Monde 2023, Conferences & Round tables, ENSP, Arles.
Pierre Jourlin (Computer scientist, lecturer and researcher at the University of Avignon) and Samuel Tronçon (Philosopher, researcher, founder of ANÁNKÉ and Résurgences)
The conferences, workshops, performances, and afterworks of the opening days question the interventions of artificial intelligence in the construction of virtual worlds, video games, and immersive experiences. Their challenges and new possibilities will be addressed for culture, the arts, businesses, for our society, and our humanity.
NUMÉRIQUE RESPONSABLE POUR LE SECTEUR CULTUREL
With Florian Guillanton (CTRL-S), Mathieu Rey (TNZPV) and Silvère Bastien (Town councillor, Employment, Formation, Innovation, responsible for the Arles Créative project).
IA, BLOCKCHAIN ET ÉDITION LITTÉRAIRE
With Ingrid-Mery Haziot (Lawyer, NFT specialist for the culture field), Chloé Cargnino (Teacher-researcher, PhD student in intellectual property rights and Web3), Gaëlle Arnaud (digital project Manager at Actes Sud) and Laurence Caillieret (Head of legal department at Actes Sud).
PATRIMOINE ET IMMERSION NUMÉRIQUE
With Basile Segalen (Chief Executive Officer at Timescope, immersive technologies for heritage) and Luca Fixy (Socle Collections, 3D scanning for the cultural field).
EXTENSION DU DOMAINE DU JEU VIDÉO: URBANISME, ENSEIGNEMENT, MODE,…
With Emanuele Coccia (Philosopher and senior lecturer at EHESS), Hugo Pilate (digitally conceived urban spaces Designer), Mourjden Bari (Founder of the real-time 3D studio Rêv(e)) and Fabien Siouffi (Vice-president of the Faire Monde association).
ESPRITS ANIMAUX
Introduction to the latest issue of Immersion, questioning our relation to animal nature and the way it is depicted in video games.
By Angelo Careri (Editor-in-chief of Immersion).
INTELLIGENCES AND GAMES
A conversation about AI, the ways in which living intelligences are represented in video game spaces and the challenges for the future.
With Angelo Careri (Editor-in-chief of Immersion) and Sahej Rahal (Artist, exhibited at the Église des Trinitaires)
MAKING MORPHOGENIC ANGELS, A VIDEO GAME BY KEIKEN
With Mati Bratkowski (Digital artist, Keiken’s Morphogenic Angels developer, via the video game editing software Unreal Engine).
DIFFUSER DES JEUX VIDÉO ÉTRANGES
With Elizabeth Maler (Abiding Bridge CEO, publisher of independent video games) and Fabien Siouffi (Fabbula, experimental video games label).
GAME AND SPACE, A TALK BY VIKTOR TIMOFEEV
With Viktor Timofeev (Artist), about his artwork Four Characters in Search of a Random Exit, exhibited at the Église des Trinitaires
L’IA AUJOURD’HUI: ENTRE UTOPIE ET DYSTOPIE, MYTHES ET RÉALITÉS
With Pierre Jourlin (Computer scientist, lecturer and researcher at the University of Avignon) and Samuel Tronçon (Philosopher, researcher, founder of ANÁNKÉ and Résurgences).
MAKING SCHEMA, A SYMBIOTIC AND PARTICIPATIVE ART GAME)
With Will Freudenheim (Artiste), about his artwork Schema, exhibited at the Église des Trinitaires, Alena Mayer (Founder and Director of Caldo Worldwide) and Christina Mayer (Creative Director at Caldo Worldwide)
ECOLOGIES AND GAMES
With Emanuele Coccia (Philosopher and lecturer at EHESS), Eva Papamargariti (Artist in residence at LUMA) et Alice Bucknell (Artist, creator of The Alluvials, exhibited at the Église des Trinitaires).
Game Jam
Held face-to-face and remotely, on Fabbula’s Itch.io and Discord, the Art Games Jam put together artists, students, researchers of all backgrounds and skills to create a video game over a weekend.With the theme “Anhad”, inspired by Sahej Rahal eponymous artwork, 9 games were created in 40 hours, by participants from Arles, Metz, Berlin, Chicago amongst other.
On Sunday 15 October, a jury made up of artists, teachers, exhibition curators and art critics selected the projects on show here: Mélanie Courtinat (artist and game designer), Joan Da Silva (Epic Games), Maxime Faraud (TNZPV), Anne Lesme (Art and Pop Culture), Mohamed Megdoul (founder, Immersion magazine). In partnership with MoPA, IUT Aix-Marseille, ENSP, Greta, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz schools and Immersion, a critical magazine on video games.
Link to discover and play all the games : itch.io/jam/onfm23/entries
JYOTIH – ARLES INTER-SCHOOL PRIZE
By Nathan Jauze, Marine Izoulet, Baptiste Paqueriaud, Louis Bouet, Aymeric Beck, Léa Renard, Célian Pennello, Yacine Keskas ; Music: Green Lights by Noé Guiton ; Sound effects from Soundsnap. Link itch.io
ACCESS GRANTED – SPECIAL MENTION ARLES INTER-SCHOOL
Developer: Baptiste Candela ; Character Design / Animation: Neil Delory ;
Environment : Doulière Noé ; Props 1: Tiphaine Chabanne ; Props 2: Enzo Cervilla ;
Sound design / Game design: Clément Bouvier; Game design: Denis Valery Ndayishimiye. Link itch.io
UNWAVERING – METZ INTER-SCHOOL PRIZE
Lead designer : Laura Henriques; Game designer & Graphic designer: Korwyn Millour ; Programmers: Aymeric Kreicher and anonymous. Graphic designers: Rémi Tauzin and Aphé Soudier. Link itch.io
CAKE – INTERNATIONAL PRIZE
Game design, code & visuals: Grégoire Delzongle ; Moral support: Eva Barenton
Link itch.io
Fabbula's selection
JUMP HAUS 3000 by Jira Duguid
A game about jumping and never landing by Jora Duguid. Music chromocursed by Marie Dior. Link itch.io
THE CITY HAS A PROBLEM
A short bitsy game about loneliness by Gabriel Helfenstein. Link itch.io
