Artist Lecture - Matteo Bittani

I have been playing video games for as long as I could remember. Through all my years sitting in front of the television screen, the countless hours button mashing trying to beat every game thrown my way, the numerous controllers and game systems I've sent to the junkyard after losing my temper for a split second after being bested by a silly machine, not once had I imagined combining video game culture with art culture. That was until I attended Matteo Bittani's lecture at UNR November 4. Bittani has found a unique way to combine these two similar cultures to create a new and interesting form of artwork. Bittani not only creates video game art, but also catalogs and shares other artist's work on his website www.gamescenes.org. Naturally, being a fan of both video game and art culture, I appreciated much of the work that Bittani was creating and sharing on his website. Bittani's project Bruno, about his friend's suicide, was one that intrigued me the most. He reenacted what he imaged the final several minutes of his friend's life was like through the game Mirror's Edge. Before Bittani explained the concept behind this piece I was utterly confused by it. After he had explained what it was about though, I found it very compelling and conceptually very deep. All in all, I greatly enjoyed Bittani's lecture as it opened my eyes up to a whole new genre of art work through the use of video games.