[rohrpost] Katie Salen at DIGAREC LECTURES January 14, 2010 in Potsdam

Sebastian Möring | Digarec sebastian.moering at digarec.org
Mon Jan 4 10:25:39 CET 2010


Katie Salen

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

14.01.2010, 18 - 20h

Hörsaal 2 / Lecture Hall 2 (please see http://www.digarec.org for a map)
Hasso Plattner Institut für Softwaresystemtechnik GmbH
Prof.-Dr.-Helmert-Str. 2-3
D-14482 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. 

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 (English):
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).

Bio (deutsch):
Katie Salen ist Dozentin im Design and Technology Department an der Parsons
The New School for Design in New York (USA) und Koautorin von “Rules of
Play: Game Design Fundamentals” (2003), einem Lehrbuch zum Game Design sowie
Mitherausgeberin des “Game Design Reader” (2005), beide von MIT Press und
zwei der weltweit anerkanntesten Bücher zur Theorie des Game Designs. Salen
interessiert sich sowohl für ästhetische als auch kulturelle Formen von
Spielen. Sie schreibt über Game Design, Design Ausbildung und Spielkultur
und hat an einer Reihe von Projekten als Designerin unter anderem für
Microsoft, das Gamelab, die Hewlett Foundation und das Buckminster Fuller
Institute gearbeitet. Zudem schreibt sie für verschiedene Magazine. 

Erst kürzlich hat sie die erste öffentliche Schule in den USA eröffnet,
deren Lehrplan ausschließlich auf spielbasiertes Lernen setzt. Mehr dazu auf
Spiegel Online unter:
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/games/0,1518,660777,00.html .

Mehr Informationen zu Salen unter http://www.gamersmob.com/ (englisch).

This Message on www.digarec.org:
http://www.digarec.de/2009/12/16/digarec-lecture-am-14-01-2010-mit-katie-sal
en/

Contact:
DIGAREC
Universität Potsdam
Europäische Medienwissenschaft
Institut für Künste und Medien
Am Neuen Palais 10
D-14469 Potsdam

Tel: +49 (0) 331 977 1461
Mail: info at digarec.org
Web: www.digarec.org 

*** DIGAREC Lectures 2009/10 ***
with Mark J.P. Wolf, Espen Aarseth, Katie Salen, Frans Mäyrä
Further Information http://www.digarec.org/category/lectures.