Presented in collaboration with Penn's Department of Cinema & Media Studies and Public Trust
From physical practice in paint to digital sculpting for video games, Jeremy Couillard’s multimedia background continues to draw eyes with his newest title Soul Injector Commando. The work uses a pastiche of old school first person shooters alongside a surrealist narrative to provide a utopian future where the authoritarian class can regain humanity — ‘to get normal jobs like the rest of us.’ Games provide us not only with a rich textual material to engage and a practice fundamental to art, but a practice of playing that offers new opportunities to critically experience themes of economic disparity and alienation. Through these interactions, mechanical traditions established within popular gaming can be reoriented towards more thoughtful play that engages class consciousness in still developing methods.
Guests will have an opportunity to preview Jeremy Couillard’s video game works before a conversation with Couillard (via Zoom), Mark Stockton, and Mason Le.
Jeremy Couillard is a media artist specializing in video installation and games. With an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Michigan State University, Couillard is known internationally for art installations like the List Project 30 (2024) at the MIT List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge, MA), various showcases at the Denny Dimin Gallery (New York, NY), and video games such as JEF (2020) and Fuzz Dungeon (2021). His works interrogate normalities of social structures through absurdist, humorous scenarios that use games as a medium of insight through art and design. In recent keynotes and panels, he argues that new media is not only immediate, but close to everyday experience, where processes of creation, experience, and participation intertwine in a world that has become an interface. He now is based out of Kassel, Germany, lecturing at Kunsthochschule Kassel in game design and in production of his newest title Soul Injector Commando (2026).
Mark Stockton is a Philadelphia-based artist. His drawings have been shown both nationally and internationally with exhibitions in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Beijing. Originally from the West Coast, he received his BFA from Oregon State University in 1996 and his MFA in Painting and Drawing from Syracuse University in 2000. Since 2009, Mark has worked with the independent arts organization Vox Populi as both a contributing artist and as a board member. His work is in many private and public collections, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the West Collection. He currently teaches design and drawing at Drexel University, where he also directs the Pearlstein Gallery. He lives in Philly with his wife –Cindy– his two kids- –Otto and Iona– and his dog– Elsie.
