Dr Nolan’s presentation explored graffiti photo archiving in and through video games, exploring the synergies of material reappropriation between graffiti art materials and the surfaces their marks are made upon, and photographic image creation both of and through game engines. It links into the fields of game art studies, and graffiti and street art research, offering new paths of discourse on in-game photography and its relation to graffiti and hip-hop culture.

Fotoludica coincided with the Milan Machinima Festival and had over 500 attendees during its two days. The event brought together artists and researchers working at the intersection of photography and digital games, to delve into the state or the art of theory and practice in-game photography as well as machinima, aka machine-cinema, which is the art of creating movies through video game engines and platforms.

 Dr Nolan said of the research he presented,

“My research presentation on in-game photography from Fotoludica 2024 is part of a project I’m working on which is exploring the synergies between graffiti art and video games. This research also aligns with my teaching on the BA (Hons) in Creative Media as I include in-game photography and machinima as part of my teaching and assessment for the year 4 module Creative Digital Culture. Immersive game worlds provide rich expressive canvasses beyond their main narrative roles. The increasing realism of video game graphics has driven the professionalisation of in-game photography, and in turn new opportunities for creative practice within digital worlds”.