A MAZE.Interact 2012 is the first international Games & Media Art Festival to be held in Johannesburg, and will take place in the Johannesburg CBD from Tuesday, 28 August until Sunday, 2 September.

The idea behind A MAZE is to bring various different artists, art lovers, art forms together, including video games. It also aims to bring European and African media artists and game developers together.

The festival is comprised of a six day program that will include lectures, panels, screenings, arcade, interactive installations, street games, workshops, concerts, performances, and parties. 38 international and local artists will be exhibiting over the six day long celebration of all things arty, and you can find out more about the event program here.

We decided to catch up with festival director Thorsten S. Wiedman to ask him a few quick questions about A MAZE 2012.

There has been a lot of debate over whether or not video games are considered art. Will A MAZE be facilitating this sort of discussion?

I think that most of the game designers ARE artists. You know, painters have their tools: they use colours, a canvas and brushes. Writers use paper and a pen or a computer. All the artists have in common that they create worlds by using different forms of expression. And so do game artists. I am convinced that A MAZE. facilitates the access to the game art scene – also for those people who normally just believe in the “classic” approach in fine arts. Just come and find out.

The program includes “street games” on its list of attractions. Can you give us an example of a “street game”?

Flipside – A GAME FOR JOBURG AND BERLIN

The project involves a collaboration between Berlin based site-specific games collective Invisible Playground and performance artist Anthea Moys. The collaboration began at the beginning of 2012 and has been a consistent forward and back ping– ponging of ideas for games and play in both cities. They will be developing a game together which will be played in Braamfontein and hopefully in Berlin in September. The project aims to investigate possible connections and/or mis-connections between Johannesburg and Berlin through the site-specific and performative game.

• Flipside website
• Artists: Invisible Playground/Anthea Moys
• You can find the other games here.

Having delved into the local indie game development scene, what are your thoughts on the current state of local game development?

Last weekend, we had a 48 hours game jam in cooperation with the University of the Witwatersrand, Digital Art Department – hosted by Hanli Geyser and Alec Larsen. Games developers, designers and other enthusiasts came together for one weekend in order to devise new games.

The brief time span of 48 hours (in the model of the incredible Global Game Jam) encouraged creative thinking and allowed for small but innovative and experimental games. The topic was secret and related to Johannesburg. Collaboratively coding, designing, illustrating, music-making, or whatever necessary, was a wonderful opportunity for participants to expand their horizons, challenge themselves, and meet new people.

I was really surprised as far as the results are concerned! All games will be showcased at the A MAZE. Interact Festival exhibition. Creators have the chance to give a short public presentation of their games on 2nd conference day, August 31. Please check the upcoming festival schedule.

Looking at the results of that game jam I think that the local game development is in quite a good shape. The interest will keep on growing – also because of the new game design curriculum at the University of the Witwatersrand. The only problem I see at the moment that the internet connections in SA are quite slow. And since it is important to reach the indie community, faster connections will be necessary in the nearest future.

If there are people reading this who are interested in getting involved in A MAZE, is there any way they can still be a part of the festival?

We are always open and happy to create new contacts – also for future events. A MAZE. plans for example a new version of A MAZE. Indie Connect, an international indie game festival taking place in spring 2013 in Berlin. As far as A MAZE. Interact is concerned we recommend being part of the Jump’n’ Run Party:

• Saturday September 1 at Alexander Theatre/ 10 pm
• Music, Media Art and Games, including DJs, live acts, performances, playful visuals, and interactive installations.

Game-inspired music is just one part of the emergence of party and pioneering art work based on experiments with computer game artefacts and aesthetics – expect hardware hack performances, chiptune celebrities, community building, fun, musical adventure games, as well as beautiful synesthetic experiences.

• See the whole festival programme

The festival will focus on music, art and games – what will the split be like? (ie. 30% games, 40% art, 30% music)

Well, music will be like 20%, art like 80% and games is “part of the art”…

In terms of scheduled events at A MAZE, what should gamers be most excited about?

More than 13 games from Europe and SA will be exposed in the basement of the Alexander theatre. And also a range of street games will be in action, installations, performances. Please check the programme here.

Will you be attending A MAZE. Interact 2012? What are you excited about seeing? Let us know in the comments below and on the MyGaming forum.

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