On Monday June 8, the research focus area Game Research will host its third Games and Play Research seminar. The aim of these regular meet-ups is to create a physical space for game scholars and excellent students to present research, to provide room for game-related discussions, and to expand our academic and professional network. On the programme for this meeting are four game-related presentations.

The Hackable City – Michiel de Lange (UU) & Martijn de Waal (UvA/HvA)

In the hackable city, new media technologies are used to open up urban institutions and infrastructures to systemic change in the public interest. It combines top-down smart-city technologies with bottom-up “smart citizen” initiatives. Playful hacker mentality and practices play an important role in making the city hackable, a place in which citizens can be agents of change and shapers of their own environments and experiences.

 

Body Travel: Zooming into Games in Healthcare with Microscopic Vision – Stephanie de Smale (RMA Media and Performance Studies)

Studying the early reception and invention of medical media visualises a recurring pattern of fantasy and pleasure in discovering new corporeal realities. Examining claims about serious games in healthcare as a starting point, this presentation uses the microscope as a media-archaeological case study. It illustrates that the act of visualising the invisible is a powerful imaginative trope used in medical culture and ludic practices.
Ludic Selfies: Playing with Mobile Phones in Grand Theft Auto V – René Glas (UU) & Imar de Vries (UU)
The ability of the selfie as both a communicational and representational tool has already attracted some academic attention. In this presentation, Glas and De Vries extend the existing body of work by building upon notions of mobile phones as playful devices and investigating the selfie as a manifestation of playful cultural practices. They will do so by focussing on the gameworld of Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North 2013).

From Game Studies to Studies of Play in Society – Joost Raessens (UU)

Recent years have been a period of changes both in game cultures as well as in the study of games and play. Such changes include transfer of focus in the subject matters, methodologies, theory frameworks as well as in the institutional placement and allegiances of game studies. Joost Raessens will discuss the changes in the focus areas of academic game studies and the possible ongoing transformations in how play informs and shapes culture and society.

 
 
 

Start date and time: 8 June 2015 10:00
End date and time: 8 June 2015 12:00
Location: Muntstraat 2a, room 1.11