A non survey of the artist`s entire catalog by Tamires Para

EDDO STERN THE TEKKEN TORTURE

TOURNAMENT

THE EXPERIENCE

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• How the artist influences me

• Eddo`s life

• His artworks

• Deep critique of the piece Tekken Torture Tournament

• Why is it an installation

• Why is Eddo Stern`s work significant

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO ME?It`s all about gaming, dude.

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

THE NEMESIS EFFECT

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

ENDLESS MOTION

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

MY SEARCH

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• NO PAIN, NO GAIN

• No clear objective set. The player has to figure out what to do inside the game and where to go next.

• DEALING WITH FRUSTRATION

• Impossibility of winning. What does it mean to win when you have no objective so far?

• VIRTUAL REALITY AND IMMERSION

• Immersion through imagery VERSUS immersion through pain, tactile

• THE GAZE OF THE VIEWER

• How can our gaze upon the avatar enhance our sense of immersion and familiarity

EDDO`S LIFE

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• Artist and game designer born in Tel Aviv, Israel currently living in LA

• Teaches courses on game design and culture at the Design | Media Arts Department

• Themes:

• physical existence and electronic simulation, violence, memory and identification, GAME ART, ART GAME and FAN ART

• Computer software & hardware, game design, live performance, digital video, and kinetic sculpture

• Independent game production

ARTWORKS

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• TTT was made in 2001

• Reuse of PlayStation game Tekken 3

• During the performance, 32 willing participants received bracing but non lethal electrical shocks according to the damage taken by their onscreen avatars

• Series of tournaments

• Performed in different places

TEKKEN TORTURE TOURNAMENT

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

WHY PAIN?

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• Desire to be part of the virtual world

• Pain takes sensorial experience to the next level = Skinner`s box

• Adrenaline

• Coercive measure

• Social thinking and violence

• Social numbness

WHAT COULD MAKE IT BETTER?

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• PEOPLE FEEL DIFFERENT THINGS.

• The big YES on the piece is its way of achieving IMMEDIACY

• Could have explored aspects of COERCION

• Critique social numbness and conditioned thinking

• Explored the gaze of the gaze

• The viewer who watches the game but is never a part of it but still feels good when watching

• Social S&M relationships

LANDLORD VIGILANTE, 2006

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• Eddo Stern and Jessica Hutchins

• Digital Video TRT, 30 minutes

• Used MODs of the game Grand Theft Auto and other games

• Turned the character from a black 20-something into a white 60-something

• Documentary critique

• The game becomes a film studio

• Documentary inside the game

MAN, WOMAN, DRAGON, 2007

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• After World of Warcraft

• Kinetic Sculpture

• Plastic, paper, electronics

• The figure in the center is Chuck Norris, and he is being revived by a Night Elf from WoW and attacked by Nixia the Dragon

• FanArt and how it shows games as a form of inducing art

• Got rejected by Blizzard because you can see the nipple of the Night Elf.

BEST FLAMEWAR EVER, 2007

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• Animated recreation of a game site flamewar between two EverQuest players

• Back and forth discussion about the game that becomes a whole discussion about life

• What it means to be a man in the modern world

• Using the game culture as “found imagery”

DARKGAME 3.0, 2011

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

DARKGAME 3.0, 2011

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• Computer game, hardware, software

• Sensory deprivation game

• Blind and seeing players play together

• The more sensory deprived the player, the more the avatar gets stronger

• Changes of perspective and field of view

WHY IS IT INSTALLATION ART?

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

"We can only develop as human beings if we actively inquire into and interact with our environment. Being thrust into new circumstances means having to reorganize our repertoire

of responses accordingly, and this in turn enlarges our capacity for 'experience’.”

John Dewey

• Focus on the experience and interactivity

• Deep thought about different ways of interacting with the piece

• Focus on immediacy and perception

• The gaze and the relationship between player and avatar

RESEARCH BASED ON

TAMIRES PARA ~ UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ~ SPRING 2013

• http://www.eddostern.com/texts.html

• http://www.eddostern.com/

• http://dma.ucla.edu/faculty/profiles/?ID=85

• http://vimeo.com/user748660

• http://fora.tv/speaker/16061/Eddo_Stern

• http://fora.tv/2012/09/20/From_Michelangelo_to_Mario_Kart_The_Arts_in_Video_Games