ImGame

Globally, there are almost no playful and educational media that would teach the history of contemporary art. ImGame invites the user to dive into the immersive stylistics used in new media art and other types of modern culture.

The objective of the project is to develop a new genre of gaming in the crosscut of serious and art games that documents the cultural capital of contemporary aesthetics, especially focusing on the young artists’ work in the three partner states – Latvia, Hungary, and Greece. As well as, bringing closer knowledge about contemporary artistic to the general public not just to the connoisseurs of art.

The project continues to develop the prototype of game designed through a post-doctoral project of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. Next to the prototype of ImGame, a scientific article will be published to present the results of the project.

Latvia
Project manager, researcher PhD Ieva Gintere (Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences)
Leading artist, mag.art. Alvis Misjuns (Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvian Academy of Art)

Hungary
Researcher, PhD Ágnes Bakk (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design)
Assistant to digital artist Kristóf Szabó

Greece
Researcher, PhD Emmanouel Rovithis (Ionian University)
Sound artist: Vasilis Georgakopoulos

Partners
Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (Latvia)
Pro Progressione (Hungary)

Project No. 101054570

With the support of the National Cultural Fund (Nemzeti Kulturális Alap)

The ImGame project has strongly supported young researchers and artists, four members of the team in total. The project is a part of the research assistant’s Alvis Misjuns PhD thesis “System for intuitive shader programming for virtual reality web content” that is foreseen to be defended in 2026 in the ViA study program “Socio-technical systems engineering”. His artwork “Peace on web” was used in the ImGame virtual gallery that aims to promote the young artists’ work. The project has likewise supported the artistic activities of Hungarian young creative engineer Kristóf Szabó who helped building the VR environment, and Greek composer Vasilis Georgakopoulos who created the sound for the game. In the framework of the project’s research work, Ágnes Karolina Bakk defended her PhD thesis on immersiveness Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, on 31st March 2023 entitled “Hunting the impossible: the science of magic and the experience of immersion in analogue and VR theatre”.

The ImGame VR environment is being used as a matrix for the actual creative research project EcoMind at ViA granted by European Regional Development Fund with École Supérieure d’Art et de Design d’Orléans No. 1.1.1.9/LZP/1/24/009. The WebXR technology used in ImGame will be developed in the current project EcoMind by researchers Ieva Gintere and Alvis Misjuns (LV), and the ImGame platform will be home for the future art gallery devoted to ecology issues in new media art.

The project results have been documented in the following articles and presentations.