"videogame traversal: Kingdom Hearts II" © http://softwarestudies.com

“Visualization as a New Language of Cultural Theory”

22.04.2010, 18 – 20h

Location:
University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, house 08, Audimax, room 145

The language will be English and the entry is free.

Any changes of the programme or locations etc. will be published first on http://www.digarec.org. This lecture is funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg. Following lectures: schedule.

[only English version available]

Abstract:

Over the last 20 years, information visualization became a common tool in science and also a growing presence in the arts and culture at large.
However, the use of visualization in cultural research is still in its infancy. Based on the work in the analysis of video games, cinema, TV, animation, Manga and other media carried out in Software Studies Initiative at University of California, San Diego over last two years, I will present a number of visualization techniques and methods particularly useful for cultural and media research. The talks will be illustrated by example from our current work including visualizations of 100 hours of game play and 1 million Manga pages.

Software studies initiative: http://softwarestudies.com Examples of media visualizations: http://www.flickr.com/photos/culturevis.

Bio:

Lev Manovich is Director of Software Studies Initiative, Calit2 http://softwarestudies.com, Professor at Visual Arts Department, UCSD http://visarts.ucsd.edu, Professor, European Graduate School http://www.egs.edu and Visiting Professor at De Montfort University. Lev Manovich’s books include Software Takes Command (released under CC license, 2008), Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database (The MIT Press, 2005), and The Language of New Media (The MIT Press, 2001) which is hailed as “the most suggestive and broad ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan.” He has written 90+ articles which have been reprinted over 300 times in 30+ countries. More: http://www.manovich.net

04.02.2010, 18 – 20h

Location:
University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, House 8, Room 60/61, 14469 Potsdam

The language will be English and the entry is free.

Any changes of the programme or locations etc. will be published first on http://www.digarec.org. This lecture is funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg. Following lectures: schedule.

[only English version available]

Abstract:

The fundamental character of games has been the source of considerable theoretical discussion in the field of emerging field of game studies during the last decade. The lecture will focus the idea that games can most fruitfully be approached in dialectical manner: as particular hybrid phenomena that exists both as certain type of digital media, and as acts or performances within and around them. The philosophical issue of the ‘being’ of games becomes thus re-proposed as a question of methodology into their meaning, use, and cultural significance: if games are what we do with them, think about them, and speak about them, how should we approach them in scholarly practice? Drawing from examples of some recent research projects, the lecture will illustrate the challenges and benefits of doing interdisciplinary and multi-methodological study into games cultures. Are there ways to consolidate the requirements of fundamental research with that of applied, design oriented and collaborative research practice typical of today’s industry and innovation oriented research world?

Bio:

Professor Frans Mäyrä (b. 1966), PhD, University of Tampere, Finland

Frans Mäyrä has studied the relationship of culture and technology from the early nineties. He has specialised in the cultural analysis of technology, particularly on the ambiguous, conflicting and heterogeneous elements in this relationship, and has published on topics that range from information technologies, science fiction and fantasy to the demonic tradition, the concept of identity and role-playing games. He is currently teaching, researching and heading numerous research projects in the study and development of games, interactive media and digital culture. He has also served as the founding President of Digital Games Research Association, DiGRA. Publications include: Koneihminen (Man-Machine; ed., 1997), Demonic Texts and Textual Demons (1999), Johdatus digitaaliseen kulttuuriin (Introduction to Digital Culture; ed., 1999), CGDC Conference Proceedings (ed., 2002), Lapsuus mediamaailmassa (Childhood in the World of Media, ed. 2005), The Metamorphosis of Home (ed. 2005), An Introduction to Game Studies (2008), and a large number of articles and conference papers.

Contact Frans Mäyrä:
Department of Information Studies and Interactive Media (INFIM)
FIN-33014 University of Tampere
Finland

e-mail: frans.mayra@uta.fi
web: http://www.uta.fi/~frans.mayra/
blog: http://www.unet.fi/fransblog
Tel. +358 50 336 7650

Georg Spehr “Game Sound (not Effects)”

21.01.2010, 18-20h

Location: Universität Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, Haus 8 Raum 60/61, 14469 Potsdam (Plan)

The lectures are in German. The entry is free.

[German only]

Stephan Humer “Digitalität und Imagination – Grundlagen für die Analyse einer neuen Epoche” and

Georg Spehr “Game Sound (not Effects)”

21.01.2010, 18-20h

Ort: Universität Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, Haus 8 Raum 60/61, 14469 Potsdam (Map).

Language: German.

Stephan Humer

“Digitalität und Imagination – Grundlagen für die Analyse einer neuen Epoche”

Abstract:
Das Digitale fordert und fördert unsere Imagination in einem enormen Maße. Seitdem analoge Zustände in digitale Einheiten gewandelt werden, hat eine Entwicklung eingesetzt, die wohl als epochal bezeichnet werden kann. Für den Computer gibt es nur Nullen und Einsen, den kleinsten gemeinsamen Nenner der Digitalität – für uns entsteht daraus aber viel
mehr: „Es ist die Arbeit der Interpretation im Kopf, die aus den Zeichen, die Computer anzeigen, eine Information macht.“ (Joseph Weizenbaum). Für den Umgang mit digitalem Gerät ist die Imagination somit unentbehrlich, da sie den „Missing Link“ zwischen der Digitalisierung (durch den Computer) und Analogisierung (in der Wahrnehmung des Menschen) darstellt. Man kann der spielenden, chattenden und twitternden “Generation C64″ deshalb wohl kaum vorwerfen, daß es ihr an Vorstellungskraft und Abstraktionsfähigkeit mangelt – zwei Eigenschaften, die in einer vernetzten, globalen Welt sicherlich nicht ganz unbedeutend sind.

Der Vortrag soll aufzeigen, warum es ein Fehler ist, die digitale Welt als “virtuell” zu bezeichnen, welche Rolle Digitalität und Imagination in unserer heutigen Lebenswelt spielen, wie sich diese beiden Elemente entwickeln und welche Folgen das für die Analyse digitaler Phänomene wie Computerspiele und die Entwicklung unserer Gesellschaft haben kann.

Bio:

Dr. Stephan Humer ist Forschungsleiter in der Digitalen Klasse der Universität der Künste Berlin. Nach Beendigung seines Studiums der Soziologie, Psychologie, Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaften an der Freien Universität Berlin folgte dort zwei Jahre später seine Promotion. Seitdem leitet er ein Forschungsvorhaben zur Analyse der Digitalisierung der Gesellschaft und ist in diesem Zusammenhang u.a.
Projektpartner am Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft der Technischen Universität Berlin. Darüber hinaus ist er an der Fachhochschule Potsdam im Fachbereich Informationswissenschaften als wissenschaftlicher Leiter des dortigen Digitalisierungslabors zuständig für die Weiterentwicklung von digitaler Forschung, Lehre und Anwendung.

Publikationen:

Beck, F., Humer, S., Kunze, I. (eds.): Networked Systems. Berliner Seminare. Berlin, 2009 (in press)

The Beauty of Thinking. In: Ängeslevä, J., Humer, S., Sauter, J. (eds.): Digital Media Design Yearbook 2008. Beauty of Data & Indie Design. The Berlin University of the Arts. p. 60-65. Berlin, 2009

Hier bin ich Mensch, hier darf ich’s sein: Identitätsarbeit in digitalen Systemen. In: Ternes, Bernd (ed.), „Menschen“ formen Menschenformen. Zum technologischen Umbau der conditio humana. Berlin, 2009.

Digitale Identitäten. Der Kern digitalen Handelns im Spannungsfeld von Imagination und Realität. Berlin, 2008.

Georg Spehr

“Game Sound (not Effects)”

Abstract:

Game Sound wird in der aktuellen Computerspielforschung kaum gesondert hervorgehoben. Dabei sind Computerspiele ohne eine Klangebene quasi nicht existent. Selbst die ersten populären und kommerziell relevanten Spiele beinhalten Klänge, die trotz ihrer scheinbaren Einfachheit wesentliche informative und ästhetische Funktionen erfüllen und somit für den Spieler handlungsrelevant sind.

Anhand des Vortrags soll verdeutlicht werden, dass die Klangebene in allen Eigenschaften des Computerspieles gleichbedeutend zur Bildebene bewertet werden muss. Das Klangspektrum ist nicht nur in ästhetischer Hinsicht sehr vielfältig, sondern umfasst auch auf funktionaler Ebene einen komplexen Aufgabenbereich. Klang ist sowohl Informationsmedium und Interaktionsinstrument als auch Erlebnismoment des Virtuellen.

Bio:
Georg Spehr ist ausgebildeter Kommunikationstechniker und Multimedia- Designer. 1989-98 als Studiotechniker für professionelle Audiotechnik bei Studer Deutschland und 1999-2002 als Multimedia Designer bei Agenturen im Crossmedia- und Internetbereich angestellt, ist er seit 2002 als freier Sound Director und Multimedia Designer tätig. Er ist Lehrbeauftragter für den Master Studiengang Sound Studies an der Universität der Künste Berlin und die Fachhochschule Potsdam, Fachbereich Design. Darüber hinaus organisierte er das Symposion “Sound Studies – Funktionale Klänge” 2007 an der UdK Berlin, war Referent für das Entwicklungs- und Weiterbildungsprojekt  “Aural City – Die hörsame Stadt” 2008/2009 und ist Herausgeber des Sammelbandes “Funktionale Klänge. Hörbare Daten, klingende Geräte und gestaltete Hörerfahrungen” transcript Verlag, 2009.

“Pokéwalkers, Mafia Dons, and Football Fans: Play Mobile with Me”

14.01.2010, 18-20h

Hörsaal 2 / Lecture Hall 2 (Anfahrt / Map)

Hasso Plattner Institut für Softwaresystemtechnik GmbH
Prof.-Dr.-Helmert-Str. 2-3
D-14482 Potsdam

Abstract:

This talk will address a theoretical reconfiguration of experience, a repositioning of the techno-social within the domains of mobility, games, and play, and embodiment. The ideas aim to counter the notion that our experience with videogames (and digital media more generally), is largely “virtual” and disembodied—or at most exclusively audiovisual.
Notions of the virtual and disembodied support an often-tacit belief that technologically mediated experiences count for nothing if not perceived and valued as human. It is here where play in particular can be put to work, be made to highlight and clarify, for it is in play that we find this value of humanity most wholly embodied. Further, it is in considering the design of the metagame that questions regarding the play experience can be most powerfully engaged. While most of any given game’s metagame emerges from play communities and their larger social worlds (putting it out of reach of game design proper), mobile platforms have the potential to enable a stitching together of these experiences:
experiences held across time, space, communities, and bodies. This coming together thus represents a convergence not just only of media, participants, contexts, and technologies, but of human experience itself. This coming together is hardly neat, nor fully realized. It is, if nothing else, multifaceted and worthy of further study. It is a convergence in which the dynamics of screen play are reengaged.

Bio:

Katie Salen is a professor of design and technology at the Design and Technology Department of Parsons The New School for Design in New York (USA). She co-authored “Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals” (2003), a textbook for game design and she is the co-editor of the “Game Design Reader” (2005). Both books where published at MIT Press and are two of the best recognized books about the theory of game design worldwide. Salen is interested in games as both aesthetic and cultural forms. She writes about game design, design education and play culture. Furthermore she has worked on projects as a designer for Microsoft, the Gamelab, the Hewlett Foundation and the Buckminster Fuller Institute. She has published her work in several magazines.

She recently opened a public school in the USA whose curriculum uses playbased learning. More on Spiegel Online (German): http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/games/0,1518,660777,00.html.

More information about Katie Salen at http://www.gamersmob.com/ (English).

The next lectures:
Thursday, January 14, 2010, 6 to 8 pm, location: HPI Hörsaal 2: Katie Salen.
Thursday, January 21, 2010, 6 to 8 pm, location: tba: Georg Spehr and Stephan Humer.
Thursday, February 4, 2010, 6 to 8 pm, location: tba: Frans Mäyrä.

Aus aktuellem Anlass wird die DIGAREC Lecture mit Stephan Humer (Forschungsleiter, Digitale Klasse, Universität der Künste Berlin) verlegt auf den 21.01.2010!!! Ursprünglich war der Votrag  geplant für den 17.12.2009.

Thema: “Digitalität und Imagination – Grundlagen für die Analyse einer neuen Epoche”

Abtract folgt.

18 – 20Uhr

Ort wird noch bekannt gegeben.

“Locating the Game in Computer Games: From Game Structure to Game Semantics”

3.12.2009 – 18h-20h

Hörsaal 2 / Lecture Hall 2 (Anfahrt / Map)

Hasso Plattner Institut für Softwaresystemtechnik GmbH
Prof.-Dr.-Helmert-Str. 2-3
D-14482 Potsdam

The talk will focus on a few central problems in Game Studies: The question of where to locate game meaning, game defintions and how to avoid them, and the conundrum of games vs stories. In all these problems, the choice of ludic perspective (e.g. are games artifacts, systems or activities?) limits our ability to discuss games across disciplinary boundaries. What is needed is a metaperspective that will offer the field a chance to move on.

Bio: Espen Aarseth.

This lecture is organized in cooperation with Hasso-Plattner-Institut, Potsdam and funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg.

The language will be English and the entry is free.

Following lectures: programm.

Universität Potsdam, Campus Neues Palais, Haus 08 Raum 075

Jan Derer, Mediadesign Hochschule Berlin. Studiengangsleiter Game Desig.

Thema: Herausforderungen an “Künstliche Intelligenz” im Game Design.

The lectures will be held in Potsdam on the following Thursdays:
Thursday, November 5, 2009, 4 to 6 pm, HPBG: Mark J.P. Wolf.
Thursday, November 19, 2009, 6 to 8 pm, UP Campus Neues Palais, house 08, room 075: Jan Derer.
Thursday, December 3, 2009, 6 to 8 pm, HPI, Lecture Hall 2: Espen Aarseth.
Thursday, January 14, 2010, 6 to 8 pm, HPI, Lecture Hall 2: Katie Salen.
Thursday, January 21, 2010, 6 to 8 pm, UP Campus Neues Palais, house 08, room 060/061: Georg Spehr and Stephan Humer.
Thursday, February 4, 2010, 6 to 8 pm, UP Campus Neues Palais, house 08, room 060/061: Frans Mäyrä.
Thursday, April 22, 2010, 6 to 8 pm, UP Campus Neues Palais, house 08, Audimax, room 145: Lev Manovich.

Das verwendete Kartenmaterial entstammt OpenStreetMap und steht unter der CC-By-Sa-Lizenz.

Getting there:

The closest public transport stations are “Campus Universität/Lindenallee” and “Bhf Park Sanssouci”. House 8 of the Campus Neues Palais lies in walking distance from these stations; see the (linked) map for walking instructions.

From Berlin Tegel Airport

From the “Flughafen Tegel” station take bus line X9 or 109 to “Zoologischer Garten Bhf”. From there take train RE1 to Potsdam “Bhf Park Sanssouci”.

From Berlin Schönefeld Airport

There is a direct train (RB22) to “Potsdam Hauptbahnhof” (Potsdam Central Station) approx. 5 minutes before every full hour. Take this and follow the instructions from Potsdam Hauptbahnhof to Campus Neues Palais below; or exit the train at “Bhf Pirschheide” and take bus line 695 to” Campus Universität/Lindenallee” from there. You can also take train RB14 from Flughafen Berlin Schönefeld Bhf to “Zoologischer Garten Bhf”. From there take train RE1 to Potsdam “Bhf Park Sanssouci”. Alternatively take train RE7 from “Flughafen Berlin Schönefeld Bhf” to “Ostbahnhof Berlin”, and take train RE1 to Potsdam “Bhf Park Sanssouci” from there.

From Berlin Central Station

Take train RE1 to Potsdam “Bhf Park Sanssouci”.

From Potsdam Central Station

Take bus lines 605, 606, 695 or X5 to “Campus Universität/Lindenallee”, or take train RE1, RB21 or RB20 to Potsdam “Bhf Park Sanssouci”.

Try the VBB fahrinfo route planner for current traffic information and further travelling.