Masterclass: Total Refusal - Introduction into Critical Gaming and Machinima

In this 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.

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.

This programme is realized with the collaboration and support of the Austrian Cultural Office.