Video games! Are they hopelessly embedded in an algorithmic culture that privileges ruthless exploitation and toxic power fantasies? Can they be a tool to unpack and dramatize our technocultural dilemmas? Can they provide visions for a post-capitalist future? These questions, and many more, will torment us during this journey through twenty years of making games against the grain.

Paulo Pedercini is a game developer, artist and educator. Prior to teaching experimental game design, creative coding, and animation at CMU, he studied integrated media arts at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  Pedercini's artistic practice deals with the relationship between electronic entertainment and ideology. Working under the project name “molleindustria” he produces videogames addressing various social issues such as environmental justice (McDonald’s videogame, Oiligarchy, Phone Story), religion (Faith Fighter) and labor and alienation (Every Day the Same Dream, Unmanned, To Build a Better Mousetrap). Molleindustria obtained extensive media coverage and critical acclaim while hopping between digital art, academia, game industry, media activism and Internet folk art.

In addition to his studio practice, Paolo advocates for independent and socially conscious gamemaking, within and without artistic contexts. He lectured in a wide range of venues, from the oldest squat in Rome to the venues like the Game Developer Conference, the Digital Games Research Association, Ars Electronica, The Centre Pompidou, and Cabaret Voltaire.

Although his work exists primarily online, it has been exhibited internationally at festivals, galleries and museums including the Sundance Festival, the EMP Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Hammer Museum, Games for Change, Gwangju Design Biennale, Indiecade, FILE Brazil, LABoral, and ZKM.

Join the IHGC's Games Lab for this public lecture. No registration required.