THE ART WIRE

In this episode, host Evgeni Pozankov talks with Aleksandra Jarosz, the lead designer of Fantastic Annihilation, a subversive and intense “action-clicker” game made for Briefs 2024: Death. Developed with collaborators Thomas Feichtmeir and Alejandro Rodriguez Ramallo, the game challenges players to systematically eradicate all life on Earth— not as an idle diversion, but as a demanding, real-time experience.

Aleksandra discusses the game’s philosophical roots in Peter Wessel Zapffe’s “The Last Messiah” and her inspiration from conceptual art exploring ecological destruction. The gameplay riffs on idle genres like Cookie Clicker, but turns them on their head: instead of passively waiting, players must actively and aggressively click, sterilize, upgrade, and annihilate, facing a relentless struggle against organic reproduction and time.

The game’s standout feature is its dark, finite ending: players are ultimately forced to kill their ever-cheerful guide “Annihilation-chan”—a nihilistic cheerleader quoting existential philosophy—and finally, themselves. It’s a deliberate, unsettling closure that reflects on ecocide, ego, and the human desire for control, presented through grim humor and genre-bending design.

This episode dives deep into game design as narrative, balancing mechanics with message, and flipping conventions in both storytelling and player reward. A true clicker with an end, Fantastic Annihilation is a radical experiment in existential gameplay.

 Fantastic Humans are: Alejandro Rodriguez Ramallo, Aleksandra Jarosz, Thomas Feichtmeir, Hexenkraft

BRIEFS: https://www.goldextra.com/en/briefs-a-microgame-series

In this episode of ArtWire, host Evgeni Pozankov interviews Eva and Andrea of Studio Lichene, the creative duo behind Death to Venice, a visually rich Twine game developed for Briefs 2024: Death.

Studio Lichene—named after the symbiotic organism “lichen”—embraces themes of mutualism over competition, which echo throughout the game. Death to Venice is a hybrid of interactive fiction and visual novel, depicting a near-future Venice in ecological and social collapse, seen through six poetic vignettes told from the perspectives of humans, animals, a plant, an AI, a glass object, and even prisoners.

The team explores death in layered ways: ecological decay, cultural loss, social isolation, and forgotten memory. Each district (sestiere) of Venice is rendered with real photographs and manipulated visuals, creating a surreal yet grounded sense of place. Eva and Andrea reflect on the creative challenges, including managing agency across non-human protagonists and creating interactivity without traditional puzzles.

They also discuss lessons learned from their previous Briefs game (Parallelepipedon) and the deeper clarity and emotional resonance they aimed for this time around.

https://www.goldextra.com/en/briefs-a-microgame-series

In this episode of ArtWire, the Gold Extra podcast, host Evgeni Puzankov speaks with Soph Podestá, the developer behind A Pearl on the Road, a narrative-driven driving simulator created for the Briefs 2024: Death microfund. Soph shares insights into the formation of her team, Cameria Art Games, and their development journey.

The game follows an old trucker navigating through the Sierras of Córdoba, facing a choice: stop to reflect on meaningful moments or push forward to outrun an inevitable storm. The narrative explores themes of life, memory, and the inevitability of death.

Soph discusses the challenges of game development, including switching to Unreal Engine, long build times, and team coordination. Despite the struggles, she expresses gratitude for the experience and the opportunities Briefs provided.

The episode wraps up with reflections on game jams vs. Briefs, and advice for future participants: just apply and start early.

Check out A Pearl on the Road and other Briefs-funded games via the links in the show notes.

Note:

This episode includes discussions of explicit sexuality, adult themes, and violence in the context of art and creative projects. We explore unconventional materials and themes, which may be sensitive or uncomfortable for some listeners. Please be advised that this content is intended for mature audiences only.

About the episode:

On a lovely early-summer day, Sarah and I (Sophia) sat down at the steps outside of St. Virgil conference center in Salzburg. We met at the conference "AI between responsibility and innovation" where Sarah was part of gold extra's panel "AI an Art, Culture and Media". In this podcast episode we talk about Sarah's art projects, including "So tell me, GPT" and "Fan Fiction Wishing Well". Sarah even shares some inside information about her art project about an alter ego named "Horst" and his sexual relationship to chicken. Furthermore, we dive into the topic of fan fiction, AI and humankind and a lot more. Did you know, that "50 Shades of Grey" started as a fan fiction about "Twilight"? Me neither. So enjoy the episode!

In this special episode of The Art Wire, we delve into the unsettling parallels between Russia’s media transformation under Putin and concerning trends in the U.S. Drawing from my research in digital and AI literacy, recent talk feedback, and a detailed analysis of Putin’s tactics, I explore how small steps toward media control could gradually reshape democracies in the West. This AI-driven dialogue, grounded in my comprehensive document—which references the so-called Project 2025, Bob Woodward's recent book War, and many other sources—examines how "Putin's Media Playbook" might influence the future of U.S. media and society. For deeper insights, check out the supporting document here. Join us as we explore the line between influence and control.

This episode somewhat an AIxperiment:

Picture this: I’m at "Fantoche", this funky animation festival over in Switzerland. Not so random this time, because both Leonard Mülner from the Total Refusal collective and I were invited to showcase our works and sit on a panel to discuss them. All was so spontaneous and comfy, I only realized afterwards I had recorded the whole thing in German. So what to do now, throw it all away? ooor turn this into an AI experiment? So, I decided to clone our voices, run the interview through some text-to-speech magic, and voilà—an English version! The result however was, let’s say, a bit on the "wooden" side. Turns out, using reading samples instead of conversation samples wasn’t the best move.

Nevertheless, give it a listen: Explore the worlds of digital subversion with Leonard, a key member of the activist art collective Total Refusal. In this spontaneos interview Leonard reveals some insights to the creative processes and motivations behind their work, and how they define the boundaries between art and activism. From exploring virtual landscapes to challenging societal norms through digital mediums, this episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, art, and resistance. Tune in to hear his thoughts about dystopias, brain-appetizing game concepts and some glimmering rays into an utopian future: Solarpunk. (By the way, you can find the german - unedited - interview attached at the end: 44:10 )

What is an Artifical Musem? What is Artivism? What does all of this have to do with Augmented Reality?

In this 90-minute episode you can dive deep into the world of augmented reality, art and activism. Find out how artworks can be made immortal and how to get from Toronto to the moon (and much more, of course)

This podcast episode was produced as part of the research project "AR Communities". Host of this episode is Sophia, project collaborator at AR Communities.

Links: https://www.goldextra.com/en/ar-communities

https://thesystem.at/

https://artificialmuseum.com/#z=6&lat=49&lng=14.7&s=about

//Photocredit: mandi knospe

Augmented Reality - technology or philosophy?

Sophia Reiterer and Irina Paraschivoiu chat about Augmented Reality as a philosophy and as a tool for games and everyday life. Besides many other topics like reverse engineering or the game "Escape Fake", Irina talks about her experiences at the game developing company "Polycular" and her academic research about AR.

This podcast episode was produced as part of the research project "AR Communities". Host of this episode is Sophia, project collaborator at AR Communities.

Links:

https://www.goldextra.com/en/ar-communities

https://www.polycular.com/

https://escapefake.org/

https://uni-salzburg.elsevierpure.com/en/persons/irina-elena-paraschivoiu-5

Was steht bei der Entwicklung eines Spiels am Anfang des Prozesses - die Technologie oder die Idee? Wie verändert die Technologie die Ideen und beeinflussen umgekehrt die Ideen auch die Technologien? Was bedeutet es, die Realität zu erweitern? Und wie können ernste Themen wie die Klimakrise in einem Spielkontext behandelt werden?

Über diese und andere Fragen diskutieren Christian Knapp und Sophia Reiterer in dieser Folge von The Art Wire.

Diese Podcast-Episode wurde im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts "AR Communities" produziert. Host dieser Folge ist Sophia, Projektmitarbeiterin bei AR Communities. In dieser Folge von The Art Wire wird ausnahmsweise auf Deutsch gesprochen.

When developing a game, what is at the beginning of the process - the technology or the idea? How does technology change ideas and, conversely, do ideas affect technologies? What does it mean to expand reality? And how can serious issues like the climate crisis be addressed in a game context?

Christian Knapp and Sophia Reiterer discuss these and other questions in this episode of The Art Wire.

This podcast episode was produced as part of the research project "AR Communities". Host of this episode is Sophia, project collaborator at AR Communities. Exceptionally, this episode of The Art Wire is spoken in German.

DE:

Diese Podcastfolge wurde im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts "AR Communities" produziert. Host dieser Folge ist Sophia, Projektmitarbeiterin bei AR Communities. Ausnahmsweise wird in dieser Folge von The Art Wire auf Deutsch gesprochen.

In dieser Folge teilt Florian Jindra von der FH Salzburg seine Erkenntnisse zu Augmented Reality, Spieleentwicklung und Technologie-Accessibility. AR wird sowohl als Technologie als auch als Philosophie diskutiert. Zusätzlich sprechen Flo und Sophia über Niederschwelligkeit, Partizipation, verschiedene Softwares, Spiele, gesellschaftliche Veränderung und Verantwortung. Auch geht es um die Frage von Partizipation , also wie man Leute dazu einladen kann, bei Projekten/Game-Entwicklung/Spielen etc. mitzumachen. Im Podcast werden Möglichkeiten angedacht, in den öffentlichen Raum einzugreifen - auch durch Augmented Reality.

ENG:

This podcast episode was produced as part of the "AR Communities" research project. Host of this episode is Sophia, project collaborator at AR Communities. Exceptionally, this episode of The Art Wire is spoken in German.

In this episode, Florian Jindra from FH Salzburg shares his insights on augmented reality, game development and technology accessibility. AR is discussed both as a technology and as a philosophy. Additionally, Flo and Sophia talk about low-threshold, participation, different softwares, games, social change and responsibility. Also the question of participation is discussed, i.e. how to invite people to participate in projects/game development/games, etc. In the podcast Flo and Sophia think about possibilities to intervene in the public space - also through augmented reality.

In this Episode gold extra's Reinhold Bidner and Tobias Hammerle discuss about the mystical creature Artificial Intelligence. Will it suck all life out of human artists, before it takes over the petty remains of what we used to call our home planet? Special guests: Hal2023, Skynet, a Kangaroo and a (pretty decent) vampire.

In this sixth episode on the micro publishing series Briefs Damien Crawford tells us how capitalism became the blight of the land in his creation Have-Nots Unforgiving, why gambling is at the center of this creation and why no one else in the world wants to create this kind of games.

In this fifth episode on the micro publishing series Briefs Joshua Hollendonner tells us all about the unholy platformer kerfufle titled Mosa Lina, the art of teaching and the not too trivial task to generate randomized levels that aren't not really random.

In this fourth episode on the micro publishing series Briefs Marta Fijak tells us all about Buildingo, her sinister take on the city building genre: Grab a hammer and ... follow instructions? Yes. You are not in charge. Someone else is. Go and build as you are commanded!

In this third episode on the micro publishing series Briefs Max & Alex Robbins give us an insight into their painful typing game Mondays and how they went about creating this wildly successful corporate email sim.

In this second episode on the micro publishing series Briefs (ETA 6th of July 2022) the game developer and artist in exile Evgeni Puzankov explains us why he made a game about dating a duck assassin with a steel beak that refuses the use of vowels for political reasons.

In this first episode on the micro publishing series Briefs (ETA 6th of July 2022) the narrative designer and translator Eva Jucci talks about her creation, the art of text based labyrinths and, of course, how to pronounce a black Parallelpipedon that one randomly encounters in a yellow field.

gold extra's Charlie Zechenter talks to Aleksandra Jarosz about game development and -psychology.

Aleksandra Jarosz is a Polish game designer and researcher. She speaks about her personal gaming history and how it influenced her game development ideas. Her background in psychology Aleksandra influenced her works Fantastic Fetus (a sarcastic pregnacy Tamagotchi) and Indygo (a game in depression). She shares insights in her projects on psychology in games and the game development of Indygo.

Aleksandra Jarosz is a psychologist and game designer at Purple Lamp Studio, Vienna. Her best known games are Fantastic Fetus and Indygo. Her PhD project at the Academy of Arts, Katowice, explored personality measurement in games.

Reinhold Bidner talks to creative director Kris Hofmann about virtual worlds, animated augmented reality documentaries, unreal fish fingers and insect decline.
Visit her website at krishofmann.co.uk

"The Art Wire" podcast is created and produced by gold extra.

Charlie talks to Bernard Gwiggner about Sculptures, Monuments and their performative context.

Bernhard Gwiggner speaks about the roles of monuments today and gves his perspective on counter monuments as temporary interventions. He explains contexts of three of his works which deal with Nazi sculptures in public space (Contra Position), prisons (Cell 2014) and a memorial on the resistance movement against Nazis in Neumarkt/Salzburg (Austria), which is currently in production. All his works deal with playful participatory interactions as a main component of the sculptural work.

Bernhard Gwiggner is a sculptor (Salzburg Mozarteum; Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna) and a professor at the Department of Fine Arts in Innsbruck and Salzburg. He created numerous artworks, often as temporary sculptural projects in public space blending political contexts and performative aspects.

Visit Bernhards website at: www.gwiggner.com

"The Art Wire" podcast is created and produced by gold extra.

Reinhold Bidner talks with with Leo Lass from Depart about hyperpoetic approaches and explores uncanny valleys, "actitechture" and downloadable spaces. https://www.depart.at/

"The Art Wire" podcast is created and produced by gold extra.

In this very first episode of "The Art wire" gold extra Member Georg Hobmeier and narrative designer Evgeni Puzankov address notions of play and the curious case of child development.

"The Art Wire" podcast is created and produced by gold extra.