The first Game Arts International Assembly happened in Buenos Aires at the end of November with over twenty participants having travelled from a dozen different countries.
We had a very ambitious program set, not only in content but in form: we took advantage of the participants’ playful mindsets to experiment with a number of unconventional approaches outside of the panel and talk formats, many inspired by Liberating Structures.
We had a number of excellent talks, two of which have been released online by the creators.
- Shalev Moran’s Frag the DJ is a passionate exhortation for a post-celebratory games culture, getting beyond the parties and positive vibes to more emotionally diverse presentation formats.
- Paolo Pedercini’s Can You Be Like LikeLike? described the experience of running a pop-up arcade in his spare time. Despite beginning with the answer to his own question below, he goes on to describe the curatorial objectives and share nuts-and-bolts practicalities that have allowed his exceptional game art space to flourish.
Pietro Righi Riva gave a workshop where he challenged us to sketch out unexpected exhibition formats for curated selections of games he came up with….
One of the best things about it being in Buenos Aires was the opportunity for members of the international community to connect with Argentinean game creators and organizers. Lorenzo Pilia wrote a great Twitter thread about it:
While we can’t do justice to the full three day event in this post, we did have very industrious note takers. To allow for candid discussions we didn’t want to post them publicly but we are willing to make them available on request for the education of our peers who were not able to attend.
We wish to thank the following for support: The Ontario Arts Council, the British Council, The Goethe Institut, Creative Industries Fund NL, Italian Cultural Institute, Israeli Embassy in Argentina, Canadian Embassy, FUNDAV and the San Martín Cultural Center.
The next GAIA will take place in Toronto in 2021. To be notified about our call for applications, please subscribe to GAIN’s email list.