What do you know about video games?
Toss away first-person shooters, beat-em-ups and dating simulations. Ignore the white male narratives, the pixelated pornos and virtual vices.
Beneath it all, there’s a storytelling medium that’s been dominated by mainstream conventions; where triple A companies dictate what everyone will be playing, what experiences and identities are “appropriate”.
If challenging what video games are really capable of is what you’re into, Game Curious has got what you’re looking for.
For six weeks, the Hand Eye Society and Impossible Arts are holding Game Curious, a video game outreach program for a diverse range of participants interested in the untapped art of video games. Regardless of experience, people are encouraged to join.
Game Curious will look into indie video games — the sometimes raw and messy, always creatively-driven works with themes like death, queer, trans and racial identity, mental illness, drug usage, and anything else mainstream games excludes — artists develop. Like perzines, these works can be highly personal perspectives.
In a medium where people considered the Other have been continually under and wrongly represented, the fact that there are video games out there for those not inside the homogenous gamer culture can be mind-blowing. If you’re interested, check out the information below:
GAME CURIOUS?
A 6-week exploration of the untapped art of video games.
Saturdays 5 – 7 pm, Oct 5 – Nov 9 (6 weeks)
Academy of the Impossible (231 Wallace Ave)
Organizations: Hand Eye Society and Impossible Arts
Facilitator: Sagan Yee