Isabelle Arvers

Isabelle Arvers is a french media art curator, critic and author, specializing in video and computer games, web animation, digital cinema, retrogaming, chip tunes and machinima. She is born in Paris in 1972 and currently lives in Marseille. She curated exhibitions in France and worldwide on the relationship between art, video and computer games and politics. She also promotes free and open source culture as well as indie games and art games.

Career

A graduate of the Institute of Political Studies in Aix-en-Provence and a Postgraduate Diploma in Cultural Project Management of the Paris 8 University, Isabelle Arvers specializes in new media since 1993. She wrote her thesis in french on "Digital virtuality as a way to apprehend reality". To better understand new technologies and content of tomorrow, she first worked in the field of special effects and DVD production at [EX MACHINA] then at DUBOI. She then collaborated to the non profit organization Art 3000, which is now in charge of a multimedia cultural space Le Cube at Issy les Moulineaux. Thanks to this experience she discovered generative and interactive techologies as well as an international network of artists and professionals in the digital art field.

She has coordinated ISEA 2000, Paris, and she has curated Video Cuts 2001, Centre Pompidou, Playtime the Gaming Room of Villette Numérique a gameart, retrogaming and gaming room and a net.art gallery on "sound games", 2002, Paris, Tour of the Web 2003, Centre Pompidou, featuring French and international artists, as Vuk Cosic or Miltos Manetas. In 2005, she curated three events for The Web plasticians, at the Pompidou center, about machinima, [[1]] and 8 bit music.

In 2004, she organized a Gameboy music concert with Bubblyfish and Glomag and she curated the wireless art event Wifiledefrance for la Region Ile de France, where she invited the project Noderunners, a wifi game in the city. She was the net.art curator for the 2004 Banana RAM festival, Italy. She curated the exhibit Gametime, Experimedia, Melbourne in October 2004 and la Nuit Numérique for the 2004 Bitfilms Festival, Hambourg, Germany, November 2004.

Her last exhibition and events projects attempt to portray video games as a new language and as a means of expression for artists : No fun games and the gaming experience, Bergen Norway, 2005; Mal au Pixel, Paris, France, 2006; Articule 3, emerging swiss creation, Annecy, France, 2007; Playing to real, Meudon, France, 2007, Gamerz 2008-2011, Aix-en-Provence, 2008 & 2009, Machinima screenings, Gameplay & Mostravideo Brasil, 2009, Game Heroes, Marseille 2011.

She is also a WJs and plays live with online creation through the multiscreen environment WJ-S created in 2006 by Anne Roquigny. She gives performances about: the relationship of art and games, about Neen, an art movement created by Miltos Manetas in 2000 and also about psychogeography.

She gives workshops of Machinima, movies created with videogames and also workshops of WJ-S and Pleade, an oline archive publishing application developped by AJLSM. The purpose of these workshops is to show that mass media can be used as a way of expression and as a tool for creation.

She writes essays and articles about digital art, game art and machinima in magazines like Amusement, Digitalarti, MCD, or Multitudes. Her last essay “Cheats or Glitch? Voice as a game modification in Machinima” was published by the MIT Press in 2010.

Publications

• "This Spartan Life, un machinima au congrès", Revue Multitudes, 2012
• "Penser l'eouvre d'art en dehors de l'économie traditionnelle", Archée, 2011
• “Cheats or glitch ? Voice as a game modification in Machinima”, by Isabelle Arvers in VOICE Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media, (MIT Press, 2010), Edited by Norie Neumark, Ross Gibson and Theo Van Leeuwen
• “Electronic Shadow : Habiter l’image”, Etapes graphiques, 2010
• “Game in the City”, Interview of Blast Theory, Amusement n°7, 2010
• “Low Rez Stories, kit d’assemblage aléatoire d’histoires du reel”, Amusement n°7, 2010
• “Jeux tu perds gagnes”, MCD, 2009
• “Player One”, Amusement, 2008
• “Let’s think about fun ! “, Musiques et Cultures Digitales, 2008
• “La muséographie au défi de l’immatérialité”, Art & Fact n°26, 2007
• “Le jeu vidéo, un moyen d’expression à la portée de tous ? “, ARCADI, 2006
• “Servovalve, doseur de temps et de hazard”, ARCADI, 2006
• "Neen ou la communication entre les anges", Sklunk.net, 2006
• "Milk, an artwork by She Lea Cheang", 56K Bastard TV, 2005

Exhibitions

• "When machinima talk about video games and when games reflect reality" 2011 – MACHINIMA @ GAMERZ 7, Aix en Provence
• "Digital Salon" 2011 – DIGITAL SALON, Games and Cinema, Maison Populaire, Montreuil
• "Game Heroes" 2011 – GAME HEROES, a retrogaming exhibition, Alcazar, Marseille
• "Zapatistas game by Fran Illich and machinima program" 2010 – MACHINIMA @ GAMERZ 6, Aix en Provence
• "Gamerz Festival" 2009 – GAMERZ 5, Brazilian artists, Fondation Vazarely, Aix-en-Provence
• "Machinima @ Itau Cultural- 2009 in Sao Paolo for Gameplay and for the Mostravideo in Belo Horizonte
• "Gamerz Festival" 2009 – GAMERZ 4, Aix-en-Provence
• "Playing to real" 2007 – PLAYING TO REAL, Art and Games exhibitition, Meudon
• "Articule 3, emerging swiss creation" 2007 – ARTICULE 3, Emerging swiss creation, Bonlieu Scène Nationale, Annecy
• "Mal au Pixel Festival" 2006 – MAL AU PIXEL, Mains d’Oeuvres, Saint Ouen
• "No Fun, Games and the gaming experience, Piksel free and opesnsource software Festival"2005 – NO FUN! Games and the gaming experience, Piksel, Bergen
• "France Numérique" 2004 – FRANCE NUMERIQUE, Vjing and animation, Bitfilm Hamburg
• "Reactivate Games, music and cinema" 2004 – REACTIVATE, Gametime, Experimedia State Library, Melbourne
• "Mind Control" 2004 – MIND CONTROL, Net.art section, Banana RAM, Ancona
• "WIFILEDEFRANCE" 2004 – WIFILEDEFRANCE, Wireless art event, Région Ile de France, Paris
• "Playtime, Villette Numerique" 2002 – PLAYTIME, the retrogaming room of Villette Numérique, Paris
• "Sound Toys, Villette Numérique" 2002 – SOUND TOYS, the online gallery of Viilette Numérique, Paris

Machinima screenings

• Maison Populaire, Montreuil, 2011
• Gamerz 6, ARCADE, Aix-en-Provence, 2010
• Gamerz 05, ARCADE, Aix en Provence, 2009
• Gameplay, Itau Cultural, Sao Paulo & Mostravideo, Belo Horizonte, Brasil, aug 2009
• Symposium Imagine the Future, Neuchatel, 2 jully 09
• Récréations, Scène Numérique, Aix-en-Provence, 12 feb 2009
• Ciant, Cinema Svetnor, Prague, february 2007
• Animation Film Festival Annecy, june 2007
• Flash Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2006 – 2007 – 2008
• Némo Festival, Regional cultural action in Ile de France, Espace Cartier, Paris, april 2006

Conferences

• « La lévitation dans les jeux vidéo et la réalité virtuelle », Ecole d’art Aix-en-Provence, 2009
• « Art et pensée collaborative », Ecole Supérieure d’Art de Bourges, 2009
• « Pensée collaborative, économie, social, politique, art », Haute Ecole d’Art, Genève, 2008
• « Les scénographies de l’interactivité, création et jeux vidéo », Beaux Arts de Marseille, 2008
• « Les jeux sonores et interaction avec des espaces virtuels », Ecole d’Art, Aix-en-Provence, 2008
• « La création en réseau et les nouveaux lieux de monstration », Haute Ecole d’Art, Genève, 2008
• « Les Machinimas : un nouveau genre cinématographique », Imaginove, Lyon, 2007
• « What is Machinimas », Bâtiment d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, 2006
• « Relation between art and video games in France», Digifrance, HTC, Helsinki, 2006
• « To Play in family», Cité des Sciences et de l’industrie, Paris, 25th 2006
• « Games vs networks », Ecole Supérieure de l’Image, Poitiers, 2006
• “Reactivate : Curatorial’s talk“, Symposium Game Time, ACMI, Melbourne, 2004
• “French digital creation“, School of Visual Arts, New York, 2004
• “How Curating new media”, Pompidou Center, Paris, 2004
• “Art and video games”, Fine Art School, Dijon, 2004
• “The Web documentary”, General Meeting of Documentary, Lussas, 2003
• “ Curating new media in a game room “, Festival Transmediale 03, Berlin, 2003
• “ Video Games and Electronic Music “, Pompidou Center, Paris, 2002
• “ How to distribute short films on the net “, Pompidou Center, Paris, 2001

Press review and interviews

Le jour où j'ai vu des ados machinimer, Côme Tessier, Nantes actu, avril 2012 http://nantes-actu.info/content/le-jour-o%C3%B9-jai-vu-les-ados-machinimer

Revenir à l'écriture par le bias de jeux vidéo, interview by the Little media, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0X50YNwI0Y

Interview about machinimas, by Le Collectif Orange, 2011 http://lecollectif.orange.fr/jeux/des-films-partir-jeux-video

Interview by the blog Merlan frit on indie games, 2011 http://www.merlanfrit.net/Creer-des-ponts-entre-differents

Interview for the show Museogames, by Mathias Cena, 2011 http://museogames.com/?p=963

Qu'est-ce qu'un artgame? Interview for the website Culture mobile, 2010 http://vimeo.com/13120499

Game Art: Isabelle Arvers on the French Game Art scene, Interview by Mathias Jonnson, Gamescenes, 2010 http://www.gamescenes.org/2010/12/interview-with-isabelle-avers.html

Machinima at Gamerz festival, Régine Debatty, We make money not art, 2010 "I just interviewed the lovely and very frenchy Isabelle Arvers who not only curated a machinima show for the GAMERZ exhibition but is also one of the most respected experts in art and video games, 8it music and free + opensource culture in France." http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2010/12/machinimas.php

Petites questions à Isabelle Arvers, This is what I do, 2009 http://thatswhatido.fr/blog/?p=139

Interview sur les machinimas, Court Circuit, ARTE, 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EnrTSI3ob2s

Le Moi Jeux dIsabelle Arvers, Cimaise, 2007 http://issuu.com/zabarvers/docs/cimaise-mars2007?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222

Digital art with je ne sais quoi, Xeni Jardin, Wired.com, 2002 "Paris may be a world art center, but does France give digital art the respect -- or funding – it is due? Ask Isabelle Arvers and she lets out a sigh. "When you say 'new media' in France, nobody understands what you're talking about." To raise awareness of digital art in France -- and grease the wheels for funding -- Arvers organized the six-day digital art festival Villette Numérique, which debuts in Paris Tuesday. The biennial event features art installations, an audio art jury competition, concerts, club shows, cinema and video game "rooms." http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2002/09/55070

External links

1. http://www.maisonpop.net/spip.php?article1313, Salon numérique, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Maison Populaire, Montreuil, 2011
2. http://fr-fr.facebook.com/GameHeroes, Game Heroes, Pixellissime, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Alcazar, Marseille, 2011
3. http://www.festival-gamerz.com/gamerz05/, Gamerz 05, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Fondation Vazarely, ARCADE, Aix en Provence, 2009
4. http://festival-gamerz.com/gamerz04/, Gamerz 04, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Scène Numérique, Galery Susini, Aix en Provence, 2009
5. http://rybn.dyndns.org/malaupixel/2011/, Mal au Pixel, a french-finnish festival, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Paris, 2006
6. http://www.piksel.no/pwiki/P05Exhibition, No Fun ! Games and the gaming experience, PIKSEL, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Bergen, Norway, 2005
7. http://bitfilm.com/festival, Nuit Numérique, Bitfilm Festival, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Hamburg, Germany, 2004
8. http://www.novamedia.com.au/GameTime/, Reactivate, Experimedia State Library, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Melbourne, Australia, 2004
9. http://www.bananaram.org/index.htm, Mind Control, Banana RAM, a net.art show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Ancona, Italy, 2004
10. http://www.artesi.artesi-idf.com/public/article.tpl?id=7267, Wifiledefrance, Region Ile de France, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Paris, 2004
11. http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Manifs.nsf/AllCycle/Plasticiens%20du%20web%202005-2006?OpenDocument, Web plasticians, Cinema of Tomorrow, Pompidou Center, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Paris, 2003, 2005
12. http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Manifs.nsf/0/B2B7CB7EE5010A7CC1256C8A00527856?OpenDocument&sessionM=2.4.1&L=1&view=, Turn around the web, Cinema of Tomorrow, Pompidou Center, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Paris, 2003
13. http://www.cite-sciences.com/francais/ala_cite/expo/tempo/artsnum/main.php?pg=11&vr=f&lang=en, Playtime– the video game exhibit, Villette Numerique, Grande Halle de la Villette, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Paris, 2001-2002
14. http://www.cite-sciences.com/francais/ala_cite/expo/tempo/artsnum/main.php?pg=5&vr=f&lang=en", Audio games net.art gallery, Villette Numerique, Grande Halle de la Villette, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Paris, 2001-2002
15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7IckqshiG8, Online gallery of digital art, art games and animations curated by Isabelle Arvers, Gizmoland.com, 2000-2001
16. http://www.sperm.cz/2007/isabella-arvers, Swiss animation and videos and New visuals, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Sperm Cinema, Sperm Festival, Prague
17. http://www.ville-gravelines.fr, Brazilian animation, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Médiathèque de Gravelines, 27 october 2005
18. http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Manifs.nsf/0/82E4FC5020813E3CC1256A0F0052A3CE?OpenDocument&sessionM=2.10&L=1, Video Cuts, Cinema of Tomorrow, a show curated by Isabelle Arvers, Pompidou Center, Feb. and June 2001