BAM

bio

Michaël Samyn (1968) and Auriea Harvey (1971) have been working together since 1999. First under the name Entropy8Zuper! (entropy8zuper.org) and since 2002 as Tale of Tales (tale-of-tales.com).

Tale of Tales develops digital entertainment for those who are looking for something different in the available choice of video games. The games of Samyn and Harvey disrupt the conventions that determine game culture (rules, competition and action) and introduce new forms of interaction and storytelling. Their purpose is to create more elegant and emotionally rich interactive entertainment. For this purpose, Tale of Tales features innovative forms of interaction, engaging poetic narratives and simple controls. Their creations are high-tech but deeply rooted in cultural tradition, with references to religious and mythological texts and folk tales and an aesthetics derived from pre-modern pictorial art.

Tale of Tales wants to bring back an art where artisan craft is important and cynicism and irony are excluded, art that is unashamedly beautiful and communicates via the senses. Tale of Tales started off with the design of 8, an epic single player PC exploration game inspired by the various versions of the folk tale Sleeping Beauty.

The Endless Forest is its second big project, it is an online multiplayer game that was launched in September 2005.

The Path is their first commercially available single player game. A spiritual sequel to 8, The Path is a short horror game inspired by the tale of Little Red Ridinghood. Tale of Tales is also involved with research projects, such as Drama Princess, and theoretical discussions, as expressed in their Realtime Art Manifesto.

Solo Exhibitions (selection)

2007

'Inmerso ', Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (Mexico)

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Group Exhibitions (selection)

2010

'Estacion Futuro', Intermediae Matadero, Madrid (Spain)
'GaMe!', Dam, Berlin (Germany)
'Art History of Games', High Museum of Art, Atlanta (USA)

2009

'Play Belgium', Kelders van Cureghem, Brussels (Belgium)
'Best of the IGF', ACMI, Melbourne (Australia)
'FILE', Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro (Brasil)
'Fantastic Illusions', Broelmuseum, Kortrijk (Belgium)
'48 Hours', Inspace, Edinburgh (UK)
'IndieCade Europe Showcase', Gamecity Nottingham (UK)
'Arcadia', LABoral, Gijón (Spain)
IndieCade Festival, Culver City, California (USA)
'How to Play it Right', Klik! Amsterdam Animation Festival, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
'Fantastic Illusions', MoCA, Shangai (China)
'Tales of Play', Centro Fundación Telefónica, Lima (Peru)
'WoW', Laguna Art Museum, California (USA)
'Namahn event', Namahn, Brussels (Belgium)
'Splashback: Rhizome's Splash Pages, 1998-2002', online exhibition
'Victorian Circus', Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
'Game on!', Objecto a, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
'Ik R.I.P.', Mediamatic, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

2008

'Digital Night', Saint-Exupéry, Reims (France)
'IndieCade 2008 @ Open Satellite', Bellevue, Washington (USA)
'Picnic', Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
'AVATAR the new you', Paddington (Australia)
'File', SESI, Sao Paulo (Brasil)
'IndieCade' independent games showcase, E3, Los Angeles (USA)

'Le Cube Festival', Issy-les-moulineaux (France)
'The Art of Play', Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (USA)
'Play Cultures', Museum of Contemporary Arts, Belgrade (Serbia)
'IGF Pavilion', GDC, San Francisco (USA)
'Gamezone', De Singel, Antwerp (Belgium)
'Jeugdfilmfestival', Antwerp-Bruges (Belgium)

2007

'Velocity, f.city Festival of Digital Culture', Lancaster (U.K.)

'Inmerso', Cyberlounge Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (Mexico)

'Play Cultures', Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad (Serbia)

'Els Límits de la nature', Centre d'Art Panera, Lleida (Spain)

'Entropy8Zuper retrospective', Furtherfield, London (U.K.)

'Game World', Laboral, Gijon (Spain)

'IndieCade', IndieCade, Game City, October 24-28, Nottingham (U.K.)

'IndieCade', E for All, October 18-21, Los Angeles (U.S.A.)

'IndieCade', E3, July 11-17, Santa Monica, California (U.S.A.)

'144', The Game Is Up, Vooruit (Belgium)

2006