Games Peoples Play
Lecture and Exercises
Module 2: Wednesday, July 17 th
Abstract
- theories on game + play
- interaction and cooperation
To play is to open up spaces: of ecstasy, of competition, of connecting ideas.
Play transgresses borders, relates worlds and creates visions. At the same time
games are ordered, they follow patterns of orientation and action.
How these two levels, of order and the breaking down of borders, of patterns and
transgressions, can be thought through traditional and current play and game theories
in the realm of new media will be "played out" on this day.
Course Outline
play and culture 10 a. m. - 1 p. m.
The first part of the day will consist of an overview of play theory focusing
on play and culture, for a better understanding of the activity of play as the
creative space of human development in social communities. These three main texts
will guide us:
Johan Huizinga, 1938, Homo Ludens. A Study of the Play Element in Culture (source
of culture in play and universal character of the play element)
Roger Caillois, 1958, Man, Play and Games (competition, chance, simulation and
vertigo in play)
Brian Sutton-Smith, 1997, The Ambiguity of Play (quirkiness, redundancy and flexibility
of play)
play and cult 2 p. m. - 6 p. m.
In the afternoon we will begin with the play with pictures: empirical material
about embodied and subverted images and television genres created by kids: video
performances between every day life and television. Following we will focus on
games in designed virtual realities, connecting the ideas of play and culture
with the themes of the homo ludens electronicus: games and the internet, virtual
realities, the body and game communities.