Nicholas O’Brien’s The Trolley featuring my original score at LIMA in Amsterdam 1/17-2/28

Cultural Matter: Nicholas O’Brien (Pt.I)

The third solo exhibition in the context of Cultural Matter is the work The Trolley (2017) by artist Nicholas O’Brien. The Trolley is, in the artist’s own words, an essay game artwork. It revolves around the progressive disappearance of a mode of public transport in the urban landscape. The game is made into an installation and the story is a metaphor for the changes in public space and infrastructure in the US. A both medium specific and politically relevant work – that pushes the boundaries of traditional and new media. How does Nicholas O’Brien use storytelling, cinematic qualities and spaciality within the medium game? How does narration work in a game? How does the viewer relate to the installation as a whole and the moving image on the screen? The work can be characterised by a cross-medial approach.

The Trolley will be exhibited at LIMA from January 17 – February 28, 2018. Next to this, the two experts Isabelle Arvers and Filippo Lorenzin will shed their light on the work and its cultural and material implications.

Isabelle Arvers
Isabelle Arvers is a media art curator, critic and author specialised in video and computer games, net- and digital art. She lives and works in Marseille. Isabelle Arvers is invited to engage in a conversation with artist Nicholas O’Brien to talk about the work The Trolley. This will be the starting point for Arvers to further analyse O’Brien’s video game from a narrative and cinematic perspective, with a focus on location (sites / non-sites) in games.

Filippo Lorenzin
Filippo Lorenzin is curator and critic specialised in the relation of art, society and technology. Lorenzin lives and works in London and writes for, among others, Furtherfield, Artribune and Digicult. He is invited to analyse the technical and material implications of a game as a work of art.

Nicholas O’Brien
Nicholas O’Brien is an artist with a strong focus on game culture and game elements. As a curator he researched themes such as digital nature and digital romanticism, which also come up in his autonomous work. O’Brien lives and works in New York.

Cultural Matter
Cultural Matter is a series of exhibitions and events that provides a platform for the international discussion of digital art and aims to develop new strategies for the presentation and preservation of these artworks.
Participating artists: Nicholas O’Brien, Harm van den Dorpel, Constant Dullaart, Olia Lialina, UBERMORGEN.
Curated by: Sanneke Huisman and Jan Robert Leegte.

Opening Event
Cultural Matter: Nicholas O’Brien in Conversation with Isabelle Arvers (Pt.I)
Wednesday January 17, 8.00 PM
7,50 / 5 / free with Cineville
Attend the Facebook event here

Cultural Matter: Filippo Lorenzin on Nicholas O’Brien (Pt.ll)
Monday February 19, 8.00 PM
7,50 / 5 / free with Cineville
Attend the Facebook event here

Exhibition
January 17 – February 28, daily from 5 – 11 PM
LIMA (in the basement of LAB111)
Entrance is free

Keep an eye on our Facebook page to stay up to date

#LIMAculturalmatter

This programme is supported by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Democracy & Media Foundation, AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts) and the Mondriaan Fund.