10.5.2025 | Saturday | Hope Alkazar | 17:15
Total Refusal Masterclass
Introduction into Critical Gaming and Machinima
Total Refusal is a collective of game art partisans that appropriates contemporary video games to both shed critical light on their dominant ideologies and political significance and to misuse their resources to tell new narratives that fall outside the scope of mainstream gaming.
In the 90min masterclass, Total Refusal will provide an entry point into the critical reading and appropriation of gaming media. A look at some of the lesser known projects of the collective will provide an overview of different artistic strategies and tools of appropriation. The masterclass will also dive into the role of video games as hegemony machines, looking at how the neoliberal decades have shaped this poster boy media of late stage capitalist meritocracy and hypermasculinity.
Before the masterclass, there will be a Total Refusal Retrospective screening, showcasing a selection of the collective’s major film works. The screening will be joined by two members of Total Refusal, offering context and insights into their practice ahead of the session.
