Topic: Reappropriation of Gaming
Speaker: Mr. Paolo Perdicini
Language: English
Time: 10:00-11:30, 30 September 2021
Venue: T7-105
Abstract: This talk will revolve around the work of Paolo Pedercini and his project, Molleindustria [soft industry/soft factory], which reappropriates video games and calls for more independent game developer. Since 2003, Molleindustria produced artisanal remedies to the idiocy of mainstream entertainment in the form of free, short-form, online games. Molleindustria’s titles range from satirical business simulations (MacDonald's Video game, Oiligarchy) to meditations on labor and alienation (Every day the same dream, Unmanned), from playable theories (To Build a Better Mousetrap, A Short History of the Gaze) to tactical responses to world events (The Best Amendment). Molleindustria obtained extensive media coverage and critical acclaim while hopping between digital art, academia, game design, and internet folk art.
About the Speaker:
Paolo Pedercini is a game developer, artist and educator. At CMU he teaches experimental game design, creative coding, and animation. He was born in Italy and migrated to the United States in 2007 to study integrated media arts at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Since 2003 he works under the project name “Molleindustria” producing games addressing issues of about environmentalism, religion, and labor. His work is enjoyed by millions of non-art oriented people over the net and has been exhibited in proper art contexts from over seventeen countries around the world. Although his work exists primarily online, it has been exhibited internationally at festivals, galleries and museums including the Sundance Festival, the EMP Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Hammer Museum, Games for Change, Gwangju Design Biennale, Indiecade, FILE Brazil, LABoral, and ZKM. He lectured in several universities in Europe and US and in venues ranging from the oldest squat in Italy to the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Paolo is also the director of LIKELIKE, a neo-arcade devoted to independent games and playful art in Pittsburgh, PA.
