D&D in Contemporary Art: Video of the Panel & Discussion

Thanks to Allegra LaViola, who hosted the “Dungeons & Dragons in Contemporary Art” panel at her gallery on November 6, 2011 and arranged for the proceedings to be recorded,  and youtube user crentao, who segmented and uploaded the footage, these videos capture the complete discussion!

In Part 1, the artists who were present introduce themselves: from left to right, Casey Jex Smith, Sean McCarthy, Ryan Browning, Chris Hagerty, and Tim Hutchings. Mat Brinkman and Zak Smith, who are listed in the opening title, contributed videos that were shown during the event (segments 2 & 3). Brody Condon also sent a video of Lawful Evil, a Hackmaster session he helped organize at the ART LA 2007 fair, which we weren’t able to present due to time constraints. It’s a fascinating piece that raises lots of questions, which I hope we’ll be able to explore in a future panel when Brody is in town.

Part 2 presents the video Mat Brinkman contributed, but unfortunately without the benefit of the information he gave us about the video. I’m told that Mat has graciously accepted our explanation of the screw-up that led to this being omitted, but I want to apologize here all the same. Here’s what he said in the email attachment I was missing:

HAILS PANEL~GOERS! MY NAME IS MAT BRINKMAN.  I’M A DRAWER AND A DUNGEON MASTER (1^ST ED AD&D ONLY) AND HAVE PLAYED D&D ON AND OFF SINCE 1980. I DON’T HAVE TOO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT CONTEMPORARY ART, ANYTHING REALLY. HERE ARE TWO DRAWINGS FROM MY CAMPAIGN:

BOTH ARE HALF~OGRES. BOTH ARE DECEASED.

OTHERWISE, I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THIS TIME TO PAY HOMAGE TO MY FAVORITE D&D ARTIST, JIM HOLLOWAY (2^ND DAVID TRAMPIER, 3^RD EROL OTIS), AND TO MY FAVORITE D&D PLAYING MUSIC, THE BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA SOUNDTRACK.  THESE ARE, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF ONE I BELIEVE, NEW JIM ARTS.

ALL DOWNLOADED FROM DRAGONSFOOT.  THE VIDEO MONTAGE IS CONSTRUCTED BY DAMON PACKARD…       ROLL FILM PLEASE!

Here is the video itself, rather than a video of the video being projected on a wall:

In the Dragonsfoot thread, hellhound passes on some info “From Damon the producer:”

The clips are mostly from a 1981 TV movie called “The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire” which was essentially a dungeons & dragons plot and some bits from “The Raven Flies” (1983) and “Sorceress” (1982) They’re all fairly obscure (unavailable on DVD) and came from old VHS transfers.

Back to the panel discussion, Part 3 has Zak Smith’s video, and the start of Casey Jex Smith’s presentation.

Here is Zak’s video itself:

Casey’s presentation concludes in Part 4:

Part 5 has Sean McCarthy’s succinct and incisive presentation, and the start of Ryan Browning’s.

Part 6 has the conclusion of Ryan’s presentation and the beginning of Chris Hagerty’s.

Chris’s presentation continues in part 7.

Part 8 has the end of Chris’s presentation and the start of Tim Hutching’s.

Tim’s presentation continues in part 9.

Part 10 has the end of Tim’s presentation and discussion of questions from myself and the audience.

In retrospect I fault myself as moderator for not leaving more time for discussion, which hopefully I can rectify by organizing another panel to pursue this topic further!