Power Up

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Technology, Performance & Identity

Hello All. Hope you are well. Yes, that's right, I've been inducted into the mysteries of the Information Superhighway, and am now able to 'post' a 'message' on this 'blog'. Welcome to the 90s.

Seth, many thanks for walking me through the process!

Please note the following call for papers. Many of you will have seen this already, but for those of you who may not have, this conference - which will take place on the last Friday of the Easter vacation - will attempt to tackle all aspects of technology and identity (including issues of anxiety, anonymity, and representation) and , of course anything from the world of gamestudies would be most welcome. This call also welcomes submissions from postgraduate/doctoral students, and we are planning to include a concession rate for young researchers. I will keep you all 'posted' as to the status of our website, which we plan to set up asap. Also, I should note that we already have a publisher who is very interested in releasing a textbook/reader based on the conference. Which is nice.

Technology, Performance & Identity:

Mediation, Remediation and the Politics of Self

A multidisciplinary conference

Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College

Department of Arts and Media 8^th annual conference

Friday 28th April 2006

Keynote Speaker: Tanya Krzywinska

co-editor of Screenplay: cinema/videogames/interface

co-author of TombRaiders and Space Invaders

‘Despite our self-protective escape mechanisms, the total-field awareness engendered

by electronic media is enabling us – indeed, compelling us – to grope toward a

consciousness of the unconscious, toward a realization that technology is an

extension of our own bodies. We live in the first age when change occurs

sufficiently rapidly to make such pattern recognition possible for society at large.

Until the present era, this awareness has always been reflected first by the artist,

who has had the power – and courage – of the seer to read the language of the

outer world and relate it to the inner world.’

-          Marshall McLuhan, March, 1969.

Anxieties surrounding identity fraud, anonymity, terror and the effects of video game

violence saturate the tabloids on an almost daily basis. With reports in the popular

media that we are now entering a ‘Third Stage’ in the development of interactive

media and virtual environments, these anxieties have been somewhat heightened in

recent years, especially in the light of sophisticated uses of computer generated

imagery in both mainstream film, and in the reporting of news events on TV, in

newspapers, and online, either replacing or ‘enhancing’ photographic images. It

seems the time is right for a retrospective analysis of how notions of identity,

the self, and the Other are variously reconfigured and reimagined through

contemporary formations of technology.

We invite contributions from researchers working in a wide range of disciplines,

including game studies, psychoanalytic studies, developmental and cognitive

psychology, multimedia, and technology design, research and development, as well as

all fields within arts and humanities. We would be particularly interested in

presentations, which seek to explore the innovative utilisation of virtual/multimedia

spaces.

Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

mibile technologies and the self

electronic surveillance and regimes of power

interactivity and the playful subject

multimedia and the performance of identity

technologies of disabitlity

modes of embodiment/disembodiment

cybersex and sexualities

technologies of sound and image in the construction of identities

ethnicity in technological formations

the anonymity of online identities

digital image and identity manipulation

authoring the self: legitimacy and value

Proposals of no more than 300 words, should be sent to:

Greg Singh or Dr. Ewan Kirkland

Department of Arts and Media (D28)

Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College

Queen Alexandra Road

High Wycombe

Buckinghamshire

UK

HP11 2JZ

greg.singh@bcuc.ac.uk

ewan.kirkland@bcuc.ac.uk

Deadline for proposals: Monday, 30^th January 2006.

Sorry about the messy post - this is my first time.

posted by: greg1 at 11:26 | link | comments (2) |

Friday, October 21, 2005

Some initial thoughts on AOP

Brief comments on Aesthetics of Play – longer report with more detail on the papers to come some time soon..

Thanks to Rune, Eli and the team who put together such an excellent event. It was extremely well-programmed and the quality of the contributions was very high. This really felt like a ‘mature’ game studies event and the delegates were on the whole very responsive to each others’ work and there was a general air of mutual respect and generosity.

Three general take-away comments:

There was implicitly and explicitly a discourse of aesthetics which returns us to the whole of our senses (ie beyond just the visual). An aesthetics that includes the body by way of considerations of kinaesthesis (so well-articulated by Melanie Swalwell), phenomenology and a very welcome consideration of the role of sound in the experience of games. The use of really rich ‘close playings’ to approach these issues is evidence of real progress in the analysis of games.

The relationships between proficiency, taste and experience (what in my work I have called technicity) seems to crop up in a number of different papers and whilst I worry that we might be in danger of creating a hierarchy of value around certain technicities (naïve versus sophisticated for example) I would welcome some more overt and non-judgemental discussion of this issue.

The whole issue of realism and discourses of realism came up in a number of papers. This left me with a sense that we need a more nuanced language through which to articulate our experiences with these gameworlds/game objects etc. Here at Bristol we are going to start a discussion/reading group around simulation as a means of engaging with some of the tensions/slippages that seem to occur in the discourse around realism. Look out for some feedback on that process in the future.

Thanks to everyone who participated in making it such an interesting and thought-provoking event.

More soon.

Helen

posted by: helen at 15:00 | link | comments (4) |

more Bergen fun

posted by: sethgiddings at 13:43 | link | comments |

Bergen fun

First-Person Tea Drinker, anyone?

posted by: sethgiddings at 13:32 | link | comments (3) |

play/don't play

Mixed messages in the streets outside Aesthetics of Play...

posted by: sethgiddings at 13:26 | link | comments (2) |

blogging AoP

I've copied this from Rune's comment in case it gets overlooked:

Meanwhile, have a look at Jill's 14-15 October AoP blognotes at http://jilltxt.net/

posted by: sethgiddings at 12:34 | link | comments |

Monday, October 10, 2005

revolution simulation

a seminar organized by the Centre for the Study of Children Youth and Media:

Playing to learn: a case study of MIT's Revolution Simulation

Thursday 24th November, London Knowledge Lab, 5.00 - 6.30
Russell Francis (Oxford University Dept. of Educational Studies)
The Revolution simulation allows students to role-play a day in the life of ordinary townsfolk in 18th century colonial Williamsburg.
"This paper reports the findings of a series of workshops held at MIT in the spring 2005 in which the Revolution simulation was used with groups of home schoolers and a group from a local high school to explore the educational potential of this new kind of educational resource. The presentation will include a demonstration of the simulation, a reflective discussion concerning the games based pedagogy that was developed for the workshops and a presentation and critical appraisal of the experiences of pupils who took part in the evaluation. "

Institute of Education

London Knowledge Lab

23-29 Emerald Street

London WC1N 3QS

Tel: + 44 (0) 207 763 2174

posted by: sethgiddings at 15:30 | link | comments |

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Aesthetics of Play - Bergen

A reminder that the Aesthetics of Play conference begins next week. The line up looks really interesting and a number of familiar 'Power Up' faces are strutting their stuff...

The programme can be viewed here: http://www.aestheticsofplay.org/programme.php

Seth and I will write a full report when we get back.