1) Ways of Converging Games and Art 

Among various characteristics of the “MZ generation,” one common point would be their memories pertaining to games since childhood. Games that are deeply permeated into their daily lives have a huge impact on the way they perceive the world. Recently, even within the field of art, works using games as a medium or the main material are frequently appearing. The artist puts his or her personal game experience into his or her work, brings the image or format of the game, or develops a new game. The artistic potential of games was examined through works using games, practices of making games, and recent cases of appropriating game spaces.

Leesun Park (Game culture researcher)

Majored in cultural studies, Leesun studies various cultural phenomena, especially those surrounding games. Leesun is interested in the realistic conditions for entering virtual reality, and sometimes she makes little games. Park received a master’ s degree with a thesis, “Games without a Player: A Study of Automated Idle Gameplay in Mobile Game Culture” from Yonsei University Graduate School of Communication and Art.

2) Art Game: Coordinating Heavy Game and Light Audience

The process of delivering the artist’s message while balancing the gap between the audience and the work is a great burden for media artists who use technology. However, compared to the artist’s heavy concerns, the audience shows an infinitely light attitude toward “games in the exhibition hall.” From spectators passing by without showing interest to the audience who deliberately causes errors in the game. The past works that conveyed the artist’s message through various game media are introduced, and a way for the audience to experience the work more successfully is suggested.

Jooyoung Oh (Media Artist)

Jooyoung is a media artist who uses interactive technologies such as games and artificial intelligence chatbots. She has developed her work under two interdisciplinary backgrounds: visual design and engineering. While researching and utilizing technology as a researcher, the artist has constantly asked questions about the limits of science and technology. Oh has participated in the exhibitions at Nam June Paik Art Center, Art Center Nabi, Ilmin Museum of Art, Daejeon Museum of Art, Leeungno Museum, Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, etc. Also, Jooyoung has received a sponsorship as a creator of NCSOFT.

3) Education of an Artist, Dreaming of a Community of Oppressed Digital Objects

What if game characters tied to iterative algorithms have free will? What if our future requires coexistence with uncomfortable digital neighbors? Questioning these, this program introduces projects such as <Companion Acceptance Test> (2018) and <KIN Online> (2020) produced and conducted through game research and collaboration with artist colleagues. As an artist and an educator, I try to converge concerns I had during the development of “Meta Playbook: Hacking a Character.” Based on this, a workshop as an art practice was proposed, focusing on game production education and exhibition-related education programs.

Gayoung An (Media Artist) speaka85@gmail.com

Gayoung produces works that are grafted on games and art, focusing on the culture in the online and offline world with the screen as the boundary between them and the practical problems that arise from them. Although Gayoung works with media using the interaction of games, the core question lies in the experience of women in the digital environment of games and the search for alternatives. Gayoung has participated in solo exhibitions <Iridium Age: Making New Relatives> (2021), <KIN Living> (2019), <The Box of Hermes> (2016) and a number of convergence art projects and exhibitions. She also organized game art workshops.

4) World of Quest: Utilization of Artistic Questions and Technology

Plinqer produces various new media contents related to arts and culture education based on technology. Including <Dream Art Lab 4.0> and <Test Operation of Culture and Arts Convergence Education at School> in collaboration with the Art Collider Lab of the Center for Art Convergence. It has created playful contents with various institutions, organizations, and artists. Through Plinqer’s creative method to create content that incorporates appropriate technology to solve problems and collaboration with artists who find numerous quests in the world, we looked at the potential of content that changes in various ways depending on the subject and medium.

Subong Jeong (Head of Plinqer, Media Artist)

Subong is a programmer, planner, and media artist, and produces new media contents in various fields. He created a team called Plinqer to think about the proper use of technology in culture and arts education and to create content.

5) Talking about Reality through Gameplay

How can we communicate with people after the pandemic? After the “DocGame” workshop in which individuals’ stories were mashed up with many voices while playing games together on Google Docs, Loopntail, which is looking for a way to talk together even in unpredictable situations, tested another way of playing a game. This time, a workshop was held with anonymous participants in an open chat room. Through an alternative reality game, the problems that need to be solved together in our daily lives were presented through an alternative reality game, reminding us of the point that games can be a conversational medium.

Youngju Kim (Loopntale Game Designer)

Established by Youngju Kim and Hoyoun Cho, Loopntale is a game designer and artist duo. This duo produces works based on the experiments of game mechanics on various platforms and genres, such as video games, interactive simulations, real-time co-creation using SNS, and participatory plays. Loopntale is also interested in creating workshops and platforms for the production of alternative games, exploring games as a new medium of expression.