DOUBLE GAME PHILOSOPHY CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

20th October (Pushkinskaya 10 Arts Centre)

19.00 – 22.00 Pre-conference Panel Discussion: Theoretical Approaches to Digital Game Ecologies

Virtual Reality as the Realm of Affordances
Pawel Grabarczyck, IT University of Copenhagen

Stare by Default: Visual Ecology Criteria in Digital Space
Alina Latypova, St Petersburg State University

Ludic Similarity Spaces
John Richard Sageng, Games Philosophy Network

Game Objects in/as “Intra-ecologies” (video presentation)
Conor McKeown, Kings College, London

Common Discussion

21st October (Institute of Philosophy, SPbU, Mendeleevskaya, 5)
Room 24, 2nd floor

10:00 – 10:15 Double Game Philosophy Conference Opening

Valery Savchuk, St Petersburg State University, and Alina Latypova, St Petersburg State University
Feng Zhu, King’s College London

10:15 – 10:30 Philosophy of Computer Games Opening

Feng Zhu, King’s College London

10:30 – 11:30 Philosophy of Computer Games Keynote: Olli Leino

“The tragedy of art games”

11:30 – 11:50 Coffee

11:50 – 13:30 Philosophy of Computer Games Session 1

Chair: Souvik Mukherjee

Transformative Power of Gameplay: Negotiating Textures of Play
Justyna Janik, Jagiellonian University in Krakow
[PAPER]

Thrown into the World. Transformative Aesthetics of Avatars’ In-Game Awakenings
Stefano Caselli, University of Malta
[PAPER]

Aesthetics of Care and Caring for Aesthetics in the Game Play of Walden, a Game and Eastshade
Sebastian Möring, University of Potsdam

13:30 – 14:30 Lunch

14:30 – 14:45 Interfaces of Media Reality Opening

Konstantin Ocheretyany, St Petersburg State University, and Alexander Lenkevich, Laboratory for Computer Games Research

14:45 – 16:30 Interfaces of Media Reality Session 1 ENG

Konstantin Ocheretyany

Stratifying Digital Games, Ethics, and Digitisation
Anders Falk, Blekinge Institute of Technology

Diegetic Interface. Procedural Dimension
Sergey Buglak, Laboratory for Computer Games Research

Bauhaus-Effect. From Design Utopia to Interface Culture (video presentation)
Daria Kolesnikova, Bauhaus University of Weimar

16:30 – 17:00 Coffee

17:00 – 18:30 Double Game Philosophy Joint Panel: Media Philosophy and Game Philosophy ENG
room 108, 3rd floor

Chair: Feng Zhu

Sebastian Möring, University of Potsdam
Konstantin Ocheretyany, St Petersburg State University
Pawel Grabarczyck, IT University of Copenhagen
Margarita Skomorokh, Laboratory for Computer Games Research

19:00 Welcome party

22nd October (Institute of Philosophy, SPbU, Mendeleevskaya, 5)
Room 24, 2nd floor

10:00 – 11:00 Philosophy of Computer Games Keynote: Susanna Paasonen

“Repeat, Repeat, Repeat: Ambiguous Pleasures in Casual Gaming”

11:00 – 11:20 Coffee

11:20 – 13:00 Philosophy of Computer Games Session 2

Chair: Justyna Janik

Matchmaking Games and Art: What’s the Best Fit?
David Myers, Loyola University New Orleans USA
[PAPER]

Games as Participation — on the Application of Roman Ingarden's Aesthetics to Video Games
Pawel Grabarczyck, IT University of Copenhagen
[PAPER]

Video games, Art and the Human Condition: An Existentialist perspective
Charles D. Trahan, École NAD
Jocelyn Benoit, École NAD
Dave Hawey, École NAD
[PAPER]

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 16:20 Philosophy of Computer Games Session 3

Chair: Jose Zagal

Queer Aesthesis in Robert Yang’s Marathon (2018)
Caroline Bem, University of Turku
[PAPER]

Experiencing the Passage of Time in Video Games
Federico Alvarez Igarzabal, Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health
[PAPER]

“Here Be Dragons”: Aesthesis, Affect and Ethics in Videogames
Souvik Mukherjee, Presidency University, Kolkata
[PAPER]

“New Extremity”: the Affective Aesthetics of Selected Video Games Made in France (video presentation)
Filip Jankowski, Jagiellonian University
[PAPER]

16:20 – 16:40 Coffee

16:40 – 17:40 Interfaces of Media Reality Workshop by Sergey Buglak ENG
room 108, 3rd floor

“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Begin Making Games”

17:40 Cultural programme

23rd October (Institute of Philosophy, SPbU, Mendeleevskaya, 5)
Room 24, 2nd floor

10:00 – 11:00 Philosophy of Computer Games Keynote: Daniel Vella

“The Promise of Being Otherwise: Games and the Aesthetics of the Self”

11:00 – 11:20 Coffee

11:20 – 13:00 Philosophy of Computer Games Session 4

Chair: Mathias Fuchs

Immersion as the Experience of World Involvement
John Richard Sageng, Games Philosophy Network
[PAPER]

A Lattice and a Sneaker. Digital Games as “If-Images”
Margarita Skomorokh, Laboratory for Computer Games Research
[PAPER]

Haptivism: Formation of Aesthetic Experience in Computer Games
Alina Latypova, St Petersburg State University
Alexander Lenkevich, ITMO University

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 16:20 Interfaces of Media Reality Session 2 ENG

Chair: Margarita Skomorokh

Adventure Chronotope in Video Games: the Present and the Past*
Alexey Salin, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow Game Center

In-Game Instances
Roman Voronin, Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod

Game Platforms and Their Monsters: How Do Technologies Determine Images of the Evil?
Alexander Vetushinskiy, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow Game Center

Fade to Black Mirror: Video Games Through the Black Mirror(video presentation)
Gregory Wanda, University of Washington

16:20 – 16:40 Coffee

16:40 – 18:20 Philosophy of Computer Games Session 5

Chair: David Myers

On the Ultimate Goals of Games: Winning, Finishing, and Prolonging
Jose Zagal, University of Utah
Michael Debus, IT University of Copenhagen
Rogelio Cardona-Rivera, University of Utah
[PAPER]

Masculine Text, Feminine Skin: Rules vs Aesthetics
Renata Ntelia, University of Malta

This Game Is Broken — a Note on Fractures, Glitches and Dysfunctional Rule Systems in Ludic Art
Arne Kjell Vikhagen, Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg
[PAPER]

18:20 Conference Dinner

24th October (Institute of Philosophy, SPbU, Mendeleevskaya, 5)
Room 24, 2nd floor

10:00 – 11:00 Interfaces of Media Reality Keynote: Konstantin Ocheretyany ENG

“Anthropotechnics of Digital Humanity: From Organon to Agonon”

11:00 – 11:20 Coffee

11:20 – 13:00 Interfaces of Media Reality Session 3 ENG

Chair: Alina Latypova

False Affordances in “Bad” Video Games
Alesja Serada, University of Vaasa

Like Mother, Like EarthBound: Kimo Kawaii as an Interface
Oleg Ushakov, independent researcher

Encyclopedic Games. On Historical Reflection in Videogames
Vladislav Kirichenko, St Petersburg State University

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:40 Philosophy of Computer Games Session 6

Chair: Anita Leirfall

Computer Games, Image-Consciousness and Magic
Daniel O’Shiel, Universidad Diego Portales
[PAPER]

Rhythm and Subjectivity in Digital Games
Johan Kalmanlehto, University of Jyväskylä
Pauline von Bonsdorff, University of Jyväskylä
[PAPER]

Towards an Aesthetics of Intra-active Videogames(video presentation)
Conor McKeown, King’s College London

15:40 – 16:00 Coffee

16:00 – 17:10 Philosophy of Computer Games Session 7

Chair: Renata Ntelia

Becoming an Emotionally Better Player: Virtue Ethics and Guilts in Spec Ops: The Line
Maxime Deslongchamps-Gagnon, University of Montreal
[PAPER]

The Ethics of First-Person Shooter Aesthetics
Markéta Hrehorová, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
[PAPER]

17:10 – 18:00 Philosophy of Computer Games Closing

25th October (Institute of Philosophy, SPbU, Mendeleevskaya, 5)
Room 24, 2nd floor

10:00 – 11:00 Interfaces of Media Reality Keynote: Konstantin Shevtcov RUS

“Game Boundaries”

11:00 – 11:20 Coffee

11:20 – 13:00 Interfaces of Media Reality Session 4 RUS

Chair: Alexander Lenkevich

Orientation of the Subject in the Video Game Space: Ontology of Cartography Thinking
Fedor Korochkin, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia

Umwelt and Video Games about Animals: Do Interfaces Help to Comprehend Another Reality?
Ivan Kravchenko, Vernadsky Crimea Federal University

Dance Game: Tetris of the Ideal Figures
Olga Sorokina, St Petersburg State University of Economics

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:40 Interfaces of Media Reality Session 5 RUS

Chair: Sergey Buglak

Order and Freedom Controversy: the Sociological Analysis of the Assassin’s Creed Series
Natalia Orlova, Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Roguelike Experience: Between Purgatory and Event
Nikita Shevchenko, St Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Games with Time
Victorya Lobatuk, St Petersburg Polytechnic University
Daria Buleva, St Petersburg Polytechnic University

15:40 – 16:00 Coffee

16:00 – 17:00 Interfaces of Media Reality Closing

17:00 – 17:30 Double Game Philosophy Conference Closing

 

KEYNOTES

Keynote: Olli Leino

“The tragedy of art games”

In this talk I address the technological specificity of computer games as an artistic medium and its implications to experience and interpretation in computer game play. Describing similarities and differences, I will situate computer games on the art-historical trajectory of interactive art, and discuss them as played both in first person, and, by other people as ‘performances’. I will identify failure as the origin of significance as a characteristic of computer game form, and discuss how this feature sets computer games — or “playable art(ifacts)” — apart from interactive art. Discussing the avenues this explanation opens up for hermeneutics and criticism of ‘art games’, I arrive at the notion of the ‘tragedy of art games’.

Keynote: Susanna Paasonen

“Repeat, Repeat, Repeat: Ambiguous Pleasures in Casual Gaming”

There is a tendency in studies of affect to focus on instances of notable intensity – on events that mark some kind of a gap, impact, or transformation between what has been and what is now possible. There is a sense of drama to such turning points and peak experiences, yet they help to turn attention away from how bodies are constantly being moved from one state to another in much more imperceptible ways in our encounters with the world and the other bodies inhabiting it. This talk focuses on such minor quotidian affective motions, that which Brian Massumi might identify as “microshocks” and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as “microflow experiences”, in the context of casual gaming. Writing on digital gambling machines, Natasha Dow Schüll argues that their pleasures lie in tactile interactions with the machines and their mechanical rhythms allowing for gamblers to enter “machine zones” as affective non-spaces of alternative experience. Extending considerations of such machine zones from the context of compulsive gambling to casual gaming, this talk examines their appeal as an issue of rhythm that is both affective and cognitive, and which involves repetition and affective modulation alike. A game of online solitaire, or a puzzle such as Tetris or 2048, played over and over again, comes with both focus and distractedness, and can be experienced as simultaneously boring, engrossing, relaxing, and frustrating. In exploring such ambiguous pleasures and attractions within mundane registers of feeling, this talk sets out to outline an aesthetics of affective micro-experiences.

Keynote: Daniel Vella

“The Promise of Being Otherwise: Games and the Aesthetics of the Self”

Videogames - and the discourses surrounding them - have often extended, in terms that often verge on the utopian, the promise that they afford us the possibility of becoming someone other than our mundane selves. An extensive body of research on identity exploration through self-representation in MMOs and other multi-user virtual worlds has framed this ‘being otherwise’ primarily in terms of being seen to be otherwise – that is, in terms of the presentation of self in a social context. This presentation aims to extend this understanding of the ‘being otherwise’ that videogames promise, by developing the idea of an aesthetics of subjectivity built upon the foundation of the philosophy of play of Eugen Fink, linked to contemporary work on existential ludology in the field of digital game studies. The argument will be made that this ‘being otherwise’ should be understood, in more existential terms, as the structuring of a particular comportment or way of being for the player in relation to the world of the game. Moreover, the ‘doubling’ of subjectivity that Fink identifies as being inherent to the activity of play – according to which the player is, at one and the same time, occupying her role within the game and her subjectivity as an individual outside the game – makes it possible for the player to stand in an aesthetic relation to her own in-game being. Finally, this will be qualified through a highlighting of the liberal ideologies of subjectivity that, in the first place, underpin the idea of games and play as techniques for ‘being otherwise.’

Keynote: Konstantin Ocheretyany

“Anthropotechnics of Digital Humanity: From Organon to Agonon”

Pre-digital (analog) games free a person from the forces of nature, make it possible to comprehend the natural potential of the psyche and physiology, as well as use it for other purposes in rituals, rites, etc., forming a culture; digital games make it possible to comprehend the arsenal of culture - the entire amount of anthropotechnicians which have freed themselves from their utilitarian goals and become open to modern man. In computer games, it is possible to use tools not for producing something (pragmatic action), but for understanding what is being produced (epistemic action). Thus, computer games serve as tools for understanding a new, scientifically learned instrumental reality - means of playing / thinking through a new social, political, cultural, existential situation of mankind in the world of technical media.

Keynote: Konstantin Shevtcov

“Game Boundaries”

The central thesis of the report is that the game itself cannot be the subject of analysis, because it is not based on the idea of ​​meaning or the definition of structure, but on pleasure. At the same time, it is possible to indicate the boundaries of the game, given by how this specific pleasure is lived and made out. The game works with the effects of reflection, reflection, which allow the player to master the border of his presence and absence, expand the real or virtual space of existence. The significance of the phenomenon of computer games is determined precisely by that experience of sensuality and orientation in the modern world, which cannot be obtained in any other way. If traditional games are contrasted with narrative genres as non-verbal genres and verbal, and this relationship is compared with the relationship of ritual and myth, then in computer games the narrative element becomes a constructive component of the game world, and the game affects the story being told. As a result, the world is increasingly moving away from its own history into the space of the game, and with it the very possibility of playing as an effective action with all its magic and mythology is moving into the space of computer games.

 

Доклад подготовлен в рамках деятельности ведущей научной школы МГУ имени М.В.Ломоносова «Трансформации культуры, общества и истории: философско-теоретическое осмысление»