In early February, Matteo Bittanti, artistic director of the Milan Machinima Festival, sat down with the eclectic members of the Random (P)arts collective in Oakland, California, for an in-depth conversation about the evolution of the festival and the upcoming events in Los Angeles. What followed was a multifaceted exchange, which we’re pleased to present here, with minor edits for clarity.
Random (P)arts: Alright, so the theme for the 2025 Milan Machinima Festival is REBOOT/RESTART/RESET. That’s a mouthful. What’s the deal? Why three words that are essentially variations on the same thing? Why not simply go with REBOOT or RESTART? What’s up with this redundancy?
Matteo Bittanti: Right, I get it. It does seem like a bit of overkill, doesn’t it? But the choice to use a trifecta of terms was intentional, and here’s why. Let me explain.
REBOOT is all about starting fresh, maybe even from the ground up. In machinima, it’s not just about doing the same thing over and over again, but embracing new technology and themes. It’s about questioning the systems and structures that inform videogames, game engines and game technology as well as using this tech to question tech itself, the role it plays in society. For example, the generative AI debate has certainly not left machinima untouched, and AI itself is playing an increasingly pivotal role in the medium’s evolution.
Then there’s RESTART. This one’s a little different. It’s about returning to the beginning, sure, but with a few more lessons learned along the way. The festival, as it turns out, is actually going through a kind of restart this year. After seven editions held in Milan, we brought the festival to Los Angeles for the first time. It’s not quite a clean break, though; it’s more like picking up where we left off, but with a fresh perspective. The Milan team is still with us in spirit, of course, and some grad and PhD students are still collaborating remotely. But the setting has shifted, and that shift inevitably changes the dynamic. We’re now in IRL Los Santos, and it’s a real game-changer, if you’ll excuse the cliché. In short, the festival is literally restarting.
And then, of course, there’s RESET. This one’s a bit loaded. It carries the idea that something’s gone wrong, or maybe something needs to be recalibrated, overhauled, or disrupted. A big part of what I’ve been working on in the past few years is a project called Reset (2023), which explores the intersection of politics and gaming. We’re living in a world where politics have basically been gamified, and, let’s be real, today non-elected tech broligarchs are calling the shots in the U.S., along with special interest groups and their well funded think tanks. So, the RESET part is really about acknowledging that things are broken in fundamental ways, and maybe it’s time to rethink, well, everything. It’s not just about the digital sphere per se, it’s about the dystopian forces shaping the world we live in today.
