April 2–27
A Procedural World. From Random Wanderings to a Collective Intelligence: A workshop in Creative Programming
August 27 – September 17
Game of Life. Cellular Automata in Art, Science, Architecture, and Games: A Creative Programming Course
August 19, 13:00–15:00
A masterclass on creating chatbots from Ilya Kulish
August 3–August 10
Overcoming Reading: A Series of Digital Literature Workshops by Ivan Netkachev
June 18–July 9, 11:00–13:00
Difficult Questions about the Internet / Uncomplicated Internet: A Computer Literacy Course for Older People
June 4, 13:00–15:30
A Workshop by Maxim Anpilogov and Vera Barkalova on Assembling a Dirty Video Mixer
April 30, 13:00–16:00
“Concluding Statements” from Participants of the Second Season of Alek Petuk’s Seminar The Door Opens from the Other Side
April 15, 17:00–18:00
On Stumbling: A Lecture by Lera Kononchuk
April 9, 15:00–17:00
An Extended Lecture by Anatoly Osmolovsky and Alek Petuk
April 4, 20:00–21:00
A Paper by Max Naimark
April 2, 15:00–17:00
Coincidental Institute Stream of the Game Dark Souls: Remastered
March 24 — April 7
A Seminar by Ellina Gennadievna
December 22, 19:00–21:00
Passport to the Shredder, or On the Other Side of Bureaucracy: A Workshop on Generative Poetry by Ivan Netkachev
December 17, 14:00–17:00
“Concluding Statements” from participants of Alek Petuk’s Seminar on playing Dark Souls
December 15, 19:00–20:30
A discussion about the importance of digital adaptation of sites for users with disabilities
December 7–21
Harun Farocki Operational Images
A series of seminars and practical sessions
December 7–20
Harun Farocki Operational Images
December 4, 16:00–18:00
The Genesis of Cyberculture. A Cyberfeminist View: Seminar by Irina Aktuganova and Alla Mitrofanova
December 4, 13:00¬–15:00
Women’s Self-Organized Communities of the 1990s. A Cyberfeminist View: Lecture by Irina Aktuganova and Alla Mitrofanova
November 24–December 1, 19:00
A Place for Writing: A creative laboratory by the collective Digital Object Alliance
November 13–December 7, 2022
Computer literacy course for third agers
November 9, 19:00
A performative non-lecture by the art collective Digital Object Alliance
November 8 — December 3
Alek Petuk’s seminar on the game Dark Souls
November 5, 15:00–16:30
Presentation of The Motherboard, a project by Mascha Danzis
October 23, 14:00–16:30
A lecture and a masterclass on neural networks and image generation
September 18, 17:00–18:30
Game session with Mikhail Maksimov creator of the video game The Tool
June 10–November 19, 13:00–16:00
Playing the Game: A Game by Asya Volodina
Saturday, October 23
Performance and public talk Hydrogen City
October 19, 19:00–20:30
Science Fiction Reading Group
September 22
Film screening: World on a Wire
August 12
Discussion of Lu Yang’s performance
DOKU Giant – LuYang the Destroyer
August 4, 19:00–20:30
World on a Wire Dialogues
July 11
Stream of the survival game Still Alive
Sunday, 23, 30, May
Performance by Lu Yang
May 24–26
A series of remote presence events in a digital object by Aleksei Taruts
March 19–21, 18:00–20:00
Digital Workers’ Conference
Until October 15
Open call to select participants for a performance by the multimedia artist Lu Yang
June 30
Science Fiction Reading Group
April 16
A Performative Lecture by Kirill Savchenkov
April 12
A practical session by Sofa Skidan
February 23
Letsplay by Aleksei Taruts and Sergey Babkin
February 20
Letsplay by Sara Culmann
December 1
Sasha Puchkova’s Speculative Concilium
November 30
Performance by Sofa Skidan
November 29
A lecture by Daria Kalugina
November 23–24
Eco Jam Hackathon
November 15
A lecture by Alexander Vetushinsky
November 10
100 Games on Ecology. Postlecture and workshop
November 3
Public Talk by Jose Sanchez
October 17
Artist talk and Let's Play by Lu Yang
October 6
Let's Play by Dasha Nasonova and Dima Vesnin
16:00–17:30 at Garage Auditorium

“Minecraft as an Ecological Horror”

The natural landscapes of “sandboxes” are often used as a space for reconstructing scenarios of sustainable development, as if the demonstration of virtual voxel wind generators and solar panels is designed to turn gamers’ attention to environmental issues. However, here lies the main contradiction between the representation of an ecosystem and the mechanics of “sandboxes.” This Let’s Play lecture by Dasha Nasonova and Dima Vesnin will explain how to distinguish between game and real types of ecology, what kind of problems are promoted by popular games, and which recently developed video games cultivate a more realistic idea of ecology.

“Sandboxes” reveal the player’s creative potential through construction work based on a strict hierarchy of materials and tools. Complex structures require more advanced instruments which, in turn, are impossible to create without increasing the rate of resource extraction. As a result, the building of an abstract ecological structure in a “sandbox” will repeat uncontrolled technological progress, which is essentially inconsistent with the ideas of sustainable development.

Looking closer, the entire creative process of building virtual structures is nothing more than a reiteration of humankind’s domination of nature and the landscape, meaning that even when addressing the environmental agenda, the mechanics of “sandboxes” translates the scenario of modern economic development, which is the reason behind climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

In games such as Minecraft, the space exists for the player to conquer and resources—minerals, animals or aborigines—are used to fulfill the player’s plans and ideas. The creative construction process very much resembles humankind’s colonial past. Can games translate postcolonial opinions, and are there any projects that currently work in this area?                      

This collision will be the basis of our Let’s Play session, when participants will be asked to complete a level especially designed for the lecture and featuring artefacts from the games Minecraft, Eco, DayZ, ARK: Survival Evolved, Terraria, The Forest, and Subnautica. Using them as examples, Dasha and Dima will discuss the problems and the potential of “sandboxes.”

Dima Vesnin

An architect, indie video game developer, owner of a blog about the interconnection between architecture and gaming. For over four years she worked in the field of architecture and urban planning, including more than two years in strategic consulting. Her articles on the links between architecture and video games have been published in Tatlin, Novaya Gazeta, and Strelka Mag. Dasha runs education initiatives focusing on the topic of game urbanism: she taught a course about contemporary art in video games within the Digital Arts master’s program at the Far Eastern Federal University (fall 2018), read a lecture cycle as part of the public program accompanying the education program Moscow Game Center (fall 2018–spring 2019), moderated Game in the City—a discussion within the project Startup Village at Skolkovo (2019), and has been reading a lecture course at Moscow’s Nekrasov Library since September 2019.
Dima Vesnin

A game designer, teacher on the master’s program The Art of Literature at the Higher School of Economics, and author of the Telegram channel Backtracking on game design and procedural generation.
October 4
Public talk with Hideo Kojima
September 28
A lecture by Sergey Rozhin
July 22
Let’s Play. Lawrence Lek: 2065
Search
Join our newsletter
Contact  
About