OPEN ENDED STORIES. Masterclass by Total Refusal collective

Master class by Total Refusal collective. In their films and performances, they recycle images from video games to reveal the political apparatus beyond the glossy, hyper-realistic textures of contemporary images.

Free admission until full capacity is reached. English with simultaneous translation.

The rendered spheres of video games are an attempt to recreate fantasies of our world as superlatives. However, these interactive excesses of the moving image usually end at some point, becoming fragile at their edges. Wallpapers with painted landscapes, mountains or oceans are mounted at their edges. These fascinating Open Worlds, which seem to stretch to infinity, astonishingly resemble the physical-real counterpart and even surpass it: a pastiche of Earth, that is, an imitation that mimics and alienates its template. Other games never end, stretching to infinity with the help of procedurally generated galaxies. Sometimes, the hinterland beyond the border territory is subject to other alien laws, stones float in the air or sunken islands of times past suddenly appear. The end of the world as such, however, finds its preferred setting in video games: the apocalypse becomes one of the most frequently used narratives.

In the master class “Open Ended Stories” we explore the limits of the representability of games, both in their programming and in their economic logic. Structurally conservative, the media industry remains immobile under the weight of best practice models and thus trapped in a loop of sequels, unable to break new ground. The masterclass examines these issues in the example of Total Refusal's range of work, from founding the collective in 2018 as a pacifist Digital Disarmament Movement to critiquing capitalism as a Pseudo-Marxist Media Guerrilla.

After the masterclass, it will be possible to attend a session of shortfilms from the collective at Cineteca: 19:30 h. Sala Plató (Cineteca) Retrospective Total Refusal Session 1 Tickets here

Program:

October 23rd

18:00 h. Nave Una (Medialab) “RED REDEMPTION: A Marxist Crash Course in Red Dead Redemption 2”. Performance by Total Refusal collective.

19:30 h. Sala Plató (Cineteca) Retrospective Total Refusal Session 2 Tickets here

October 24th

19:30 h. Sala Plató (Cineteca) Retrospective Total Refusal Session 3 Tickets here

TOTAL REFUSAL

The pseudo-Marxist media guerrilla Total Refusal is a collective of artists, researchers and filmmakers who reuse the resources of mainstream video games to create political narratives in the form of videos, interventions, performances and classes. The collective's themes draw from critical play studies and social theory in an attempt to promote and popularize a counter-hegemonic left. Their work has been screened at over 300 film and art festivals and exhibited in diverse spaces.

Since its inception in 2018, Total Refusal has won over 65 awards and honorable mentions, such as the Diagonale Film Award for Best Short Film Doc, the Contemporary Visual Arts Award of the Province of Styria and the Vimeo Staff Pick Award among others. Total Refusal has screened at over 130 film and video festivals such as Berlinale (2020), Doc Fortnight at MOMA New York and IDFA Amsterdam (2018) and have exhibited at various exhibition spaces such as the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, HEK Basel (2020) and Ars Electronica Linz (2019).

Robin Klengel (1988, Graz) lives and works as an artist and cultural anthropologist between Vienna and Graz. He researches, writes texts, gives lectures and courses and makes films in the field of artistic-scientific research of urban and digital spaces. He studied cultural anthropology in Graz and Berlin. Since 2021 he is co-chair of the interdisciplinary art and cultural space Forum Stadtpark in Graz. He co-founded the collective Total Refusal in 2018.

Adrian Jonas Haim (1991, Vienna) is a filmmaker and political activist based in Vienna, with work that extends beyond the city. He studied Political Science and Experimental Game Cultures at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Adrian has been actively involved in various writing, music, and art projects, focusing on Marxism and ideology within cross-media culture. He previously served as an editor for MALMOE Zeitung and has programmed film series centered on the politics of remembrance for organizations such as Filmclub Tacheles, the Vienna Jewish Film Festival, and the This Human World Film Festival. In 2020, he joined the collective Total Refusal.