Serpentine Twitch Programme

“We wanted to expose a complex system through game play.” – dmstfctn 

Set among the lined shelves of an infinite, simulated supermarket, players race against time to train an AI to identify products. Frustration on the part of the AI leads it, at times, to stop training and seek refuge in its memories – a separate game map where players can collaborate to discover cheats and use them in their own game to jailbreak limitations and speedrun the training. Godmode Epochs is a reciprocal training programme: players train the AI to understand our world, while the game trains players to understand AI.

Arts Technologies Curator Eva Jäger and dmstfctn play through Godmode Epochs and explore other games, tools and research informing the artists’ practice. Godmode Epochs is a continuation of the interactive performance GOD MODE (ep. 1), held at Serpentine in December 2022. 

Catch up on dmstfcn: Godmode Epochs here.

“Why does big tech dominate our data landscapes? Capitalist models use binary, outdated modes of classification, which have led to well-documented prejudicial biases and rising societal polarisation.” – Libby Heaney 

Join artist Libby Heaney, video game writer and narrative designer Meghna Jayanth, and Arts Technologies Producer Alex Boyes from 18:00 on Serpentine Twitch (@SerpentineUK) as they play through Heaney’s Wild Data and other games celebrating non-linear narrative design. Wild Data leverages Libby’s existing rewilding research, as well as non-human perspectives within virtual worldbuilding. This playthrough will also demonstrate Wild Data’s back-end that has been built in the Unity game engine. 

Wild Data is part of an ongoing project led by Libby Heaney proposing new ways of speaking about data collection, stewardship and usage in relation to her research into how rewilding practices can be applied within the UK and Europe. 

Catch up on Libby Heaney: Wild Data here.

“Have you ever thought about how people will perceive the world in 1000 years? How will we feel and,think, and what society will long for?” – Keiken 

Morphogenic Angels is the latest speculative worldbuilding game by artist collective, Keiken. It explores a future in which people gain transhuman abilities through organic modifications – these new beings are understood as angels. They can live for hundreds of years and possess the consciousness of all species: ancestral, extraterrestrial, animal, microbial, and cosmic. 

As part of the game’s premiere co-presented with HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU4) Berlin, drag artist Hungry aka Johannes J. Jaruraaks will perform a special preview production of the game on their Twitch (@hungxiety) Monday 15 May from 20:00 Berlin time/19:00 London time. This will be followed by a Part 2 playthrough, focussed on the production of the work, with Keiken and Serpentine Arts Technologies on Serpentine Twitch on Thursday 27 July.  

Morphogenic Angels is a game is a commission by HAU Hebbel am Ufer / In co-presentation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

Catch up on Keiken x Morphogenic Angels Part 1 here.

Serpentine Arts Technologies, 180 Studios and Fact present the XR online launch and playthrough of Third World: The Bottom Dimension that is powered by Tezos. Third World is a single player multi-level game designed by artist Gabriel Massan and collaborators.

Hosted by Gabriel Massan and Serpentine Arts Technologies Curator, Tamar Clarke-Brown, join us live for an exploration of Third World’s characters, lore, and world-building design that has been born from an exploration of post-colonial queer Black-Brazilian experiences.

This event will be live streamed from 180 Studios’ XR Metaverse Studio London and will be accessible through Serpentine’s Twitch and 180 Studios/Fact’s YouTube Live from 7pm London time (BST) on 6 July 2023. .

Third World: The Bottom Dimension the exhibition will be running from 23 June – 22 October 2023 at Serpentine North within London’s Hyde Park Kensington Gardens and is free to attend. Third World: The Bottom Dimension will be available for download for Windows OS via Steam from 22 June 2023.

Catch up on Gabriel Massan’s Third World: The Bottom Dimension here.

Following the premiere of the game Morphogenic Angels in Playthrough Part 1, , Serpentine Arts Technologies hosts Morphogenic Angels: Playthrough Part 2 live on Serpentine Twitch (@serpentineUK).  

Morphogenic Angels explores a speculative future in which people gain transhuman abilities through organic modifications. This second playthrough will explore Keiken’s experimental approach to using the game engine, Unreal Engine 5, as well as world building, production processes and approaches to designing custom animations, such as the lead characters and eventual lovers, Yaxu and Anamt’u’ul. 

Morphogenic Angels is a game is a commission by HAU Hebbel am Ufer / In co-presentation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer