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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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: Константин Шевцов RUS

“Границы игры”

11:00 – 11:20 Coffee

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

Chair: Александр Ленкевич

Ориентирование субъекта в пространстве видеоигры: к онтологии картографии вымышленного
Федор Корочкин, РГПУ им. А.И. Герцена

Umwelt и видеоигры о животных: помогают ли интерфейсы познать иную реальность?
Иван Кравченко, КФУ им. В.И. Вернадского

Игра в танец: тетрис идеальных фигур
Ольга Сорокина, СПбГЭУ

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

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

Chair: Сергей Буглак

Контроверза порядка и свободы: социологический анализ серии игр Assassin’s Сreed
Наталья Орлова, ФНИСЦ РАН

Опыт roguelike: между чистилищем и событием
Никита Шевченко, СПбГУП

Игры со временем
Виктория Лобатюк, СПбПУ
Дарья Быльева, СПбПУ

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: Константин Очеретяный

“Антропотехники цифрового человечества: от органона к агонону”

Доцифровые (аналоговые) игры освобождают человека от сил природы, позволяют осмыслить природный потенциал психики и физиологии, а также использовать его не по назначению в ритуалах, обрядах и т.п., формируя культуру; цифровые игры позволяют осмыслить арсенал культуры — всю сумму антропотехник, которые освободились от своих утилитарных целей и стали открыты современному человеку. В компьютерных играх открывается возможность использования инструментов не для производства чего-либо (прагматическое действие), но для понимания того, что производится (эпистемическое действие). Компьютерные игры таким образом служат инструментами понимания новой онаученной инструментальной реальности — средствами проигрывания/продумывания новой социальной, политической, культурной, экзистенциалной ситуации человечества в мире технических медиа.

Keynote: Константин Шевцов

“Границы игры”

Центральный тезис доклада состоит в том, что игра сама по себе не может быть предметом анализа, потому что в основе ее лежит не полагание смысла или определение структуры, а получение удовольствия. При этом есть возможность указать на границы игры, заданные тем, как проживается и оформляется это специфическое удовольствие. Игра работает с эффектами отражения, рефлексии, которые позволяют игроку осваивать границу своего присутствия и отсутствия, расширять реальное или виртуальное пространства существования. Значимость феномена компьютерных игр определяется как раз тем опытом чувственности и ориентации в современном мире, который не может быть получен никаким иным образом. Если традиционные игры противопоставляют повествовательным жанрам как невербальные жанры вербальным, и это отношение сопоставляют с отношением ритуала и мифа, то в компьютерных играх нарративный элемент становится конструктивным компонентом игрового мира, при этом игра воздействует на рассказываемую историю. В результате мир все больше уходит из собственной истории в пространство игры, а вместе с ним в пространство компьютерных игр перемещается и сама возможность игры как эффективного действия со всем его магизмом и мифологией.

 

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