Anti-Social Media

Talk today at University of Leicester for Social Media: uses and abuses here's what I said, more or less.

[slideshare id=1646461&doc=miah2009antisocialmedia-090626170618-phpapp02]

#antisocialmedia By Professor Andy Miah, PhD

The rhetoric of social media appeals to notion of collaboration, sharing and democratized participation. Web 2.0, open source, and syndication are all exemplary concepts of new methods of exchanging content and platform development. Moreover, their collaborative architecture extends from developers to end users. Yet, the environment of web development and the symbolic capital that accompanies the use of the Internet remains a highly competitive and monetized form. These circumstances compel us to scrutinize the rhetoric of social media and to reveal the complex financial and experiential sociologies that underpin its trajectory. In short, to fully attend to the emancipating and subversive potential of social media, we must address ways in which processes of exclusion remain intact, despite the opening up of technology. This paper addresses such matters and investigates how the culture of participatory media can be both enabling and disabling of social collaboration.

Paper

In the early days, the Internet was rubbish. There were no pictures We had to write everything in code. We didn’t really talk to anyone.

Thankfully, we had games consoles. First there was pong, then space invaders Followed by all kinds of other stuff like pit fall, frogger, and manic miner (which, in retrospect might be seen as a prescient of the decline of industrializtion – the miner strikes happened a year later - but don’t quote me on that)

There were also incredibly complex adventure games, which required us to open doors and so on, like this one.

(just in case you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, you can Bing any of this #ungoogle)

By the way, one of the things I really like about twitter is its revival of @. Remember how everyone used this in everything to signal anything online?

These games were social Computing was social. We played games together We even played them outside, in the world with others

Then Games became anti-social We were told that they made us violent

So, we created new worlds through the Internet First, email (suddenly everything was @ this and @ that) Then chat rooms We made Utopias through Sims, Second Life, World of Warcraft Gaming and Internet came together

Games were social again, but in a different kind of way. The notion of sociability had changed.

It meant something else now.

At the same time, we were now mobile.

But again, In the early days, mobile was rubbish. First, there were problems of size Then problems of signal After this, we have the damn contracts

(we were even charged loads for very little eg. sms)

But then it got better. Things got small, more functional And then they became more sociable

The companies began to realize they can’t charge us for voice So, some gave us 3 network allowing skype to skype calls While others gave us other ‘freebies’, some of which were bad, others good. Lots of stuff will now be free.

We could then integrate platforms Mobiles could do more stuff Like use twitter Or play twitter games, like vampire.

We could even use very small apps for very big things eg. Twitter for Iran Democracy

so this is what happened but there is a dark side to this period and that’s really what I want to talk about

so let’s look at some examples

First Facebook - Friending and unfriending

Are you Interested 2.7m users (1.5% of current user base)

Second Life Paedophilia playground (2007)

Top-Down use, rather than bottom-up Flickr and 10 downing st

This week.... Habitat tweets Iran

Others are more subtle......

Dopplr – tells me how bad I’ve been

Worst (and best) of all my Wikipedia entry (I’m a big fan of Wikipedia) but my entry really pisses me off

So what went wrong? Well, nothing of course. It has always been at least as bad as it has been good. Anti-social activity has always been part of computing culture Spam, Viruses – even when my computer crashes, I sometimes think it’s just trying to get at me.

And for those who know me – as I expect most of you here – I champion the good way over the bad – though learn a great deal from the bad

But if we want to understand how to promote more good than bad, then we need to understand that concept better – what is social media?

Convergence just doesn’t cut it. Technological enhancement doesn’t do the job either. Something more profound is taking place.

To conclude “social media is a product of various trajectories across computing, gaming, mobile and online development, but most importantly our socialization into these cultures

If we fail to socialize, we will struggle to get social media”

Anti-Social Media (2009, Jun 26, Leicester)

Talk tomorrow in Leicester for Social Media: Uses and Abuses will mention the ZX Spectrum, Flickr, Dopplr, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Bing, iPhone, Second Life, The Sims, World of Warcraft, and much, much more.

Have you experienced anti-socia behaviour in social media environments?

http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/bulletin-board/2000-2009/2009/06/nparticle.2009-06-17.3587483528

http://usesandabuses.wordpress.com/

Digital Games Research Association Scotland (2004, Dec)

Digra ScotlandDec, 2004-12-14

James Carse – game theorist at NYU – ‘finite and infinite games’

Sutton-smith – the ambiguity of play -    seven rhetorics of play -    modern o    play as freedom o    play as development o    play as imagination and creativity (arts, media, science) -    ancient o    play as power and contest o    play as group identity o    fate and chaos o    play as laughter, subversion

prodigy90_med – advert on gaming – sport related narrative

relationship between ethics and gaming

aint misbehaving: play in organisations, matt statler et al, imagilab, 2002

Daniel Livingstone

AI in Games -    ai = adding behaviour or character -    not officially AI -    e.g. Guard State Machine o    player, guard, player doesn’t want to be seen by guard. o    Basic programming is using a ‘state machine’, not really AI, but creates illusion of AI. o    If we make a noise, guard will ‘hear’ and investigate

Natural problem solving systes -    brains, evol, -    immune syst -    artif o    – artif neural networks o    genetic algorithms (and evolstrategies) o    artif immune sytems

The Genome -

European Federation of Sexology (2004, Brighton)

European Federation of SexologyMay, 2004, Brighton.

Monica Whitty - cyber infidelity -    check 2003 paper in CyberPsych and Behav

Kitzinger and Powell (1995) story completion method Representations of internet infidelity Gender differences -    Taylor (1986) men judge husbands affair as more justiable -    Sheppared nelson, andreoli-Mathie (1995) men rate infidelity as more acceptable -    Women more unset by emotional -    Sex intercourse main act to case jealousy

Content analysis on hypothetical situation

Is it betrayal? -    51% betrayal as unfairful -    84% act of betayal

reasons for why scenario not infidelity -    just friends -    just flirtatious and fun -    it’s a computer -    don’t know person will never meet -    no physical sex -    person cheating with is of same sex

why wrong? -    emotional infidelity o    “it Is cheating” -    sexual infidelity o -    secrets -    cant have relationship wit more than one person o    “not prepared to ‘share’ him with someone else”

impact on relationships: -    aggrieved feelings -    break-up -    loss of trust -    revenge stories -    betrayer feels hurt/depressed/upset/anger -    less time together -    shock -    sexuality inadequate -    self-esteem

Griffiths and Young – online addiction

Conclusions -    limited to a hypothetical sitn -    cyber-affairs potential serious impat on relationship -    equal important given to emotional and sexual infidelity

Rules of acceptability in relation to online acts not clear defined. We know more clearly about this offline.

Louise Madden www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/ICT Locating t social in lang of computer mediated sexuality: case of sexualised spamming in realtime chat.

All messages are initial messages,

ME: what kind of utopia?

Trudy Barber

Brief history of technosex -    erotic imagery from China -    1734: mechanical vibrator -    1880: romantic novel -    1900: electrical vibrator for self tratement -    Rachel Maines: the Technology of Orgasm -    Devel of orgasm influ emancipation project

Vulcanisation of rubber – originally for industry, now a fetish -    unforeseen conseqs of technology -    covered in their technology of choice -    gas mask

new sexual expt with new digital technologies -    minority report: Pleasure emporium -    PVC Trinity – in matrix o    Whole of matrix is about fetishism (wanting to be in computer, computer in you)

Electro Stimulation -    electro sex pack

ET-312B – 100% Digital ecstasy -    programmes that can let you – Phaser – connect body to musical track that will let you decide when to have the orgasm -    technological determ or mediation?

Online we become subject and object of desire

www.fuckingmachines.com -    website for technology

mechanical metaphor (Brooke 1991)

technologies are mechanical ext of penis or clitoris

Master R’s Willing ‘victim’ – one of her subjects, (amazing fetishes, also loves artwork, critcket, etc) -    ‘intel inside’ -    possibly find him online -    cost and battery life main hurdles to this being possible -    Master R’s postmodern harem -    Adult digiplay -    Postmodern masturbation -    www.televibe.com o    can plug into -    do not have to be a bodiless entity in cyberspace.

InfoDialogue (2004, Barcelona Forum)

BCN2004, InfoDialogue From May 19 to 21, 2004 Information. Power and Ethics in the 21st Century

Program Wednesday, May 19

From 8.00 AM Accreditation of participants (participants may choose to register for one, two or three days).

10.45-11.30 Opening Ceremony Jaume Pagès, CEO of the Universal Forum of Cultures – Barcelona 2004. Joan Brunet, Acting Dean of the Catalonian Journalists Association. Elisenda Roca, Vice-Dean of the Catalonian Journalists Association and President of the Association’s Forum Commission. Manuel Campo Vidal, Dialogue Director.

McBride Report -    freedom of info is sine qua non communication

Ethics should be keystone of our profession

Iraqi pictures –without cell phones or digital camera, would not have had this info.

Have been no vitos against groups. Total freedom in this dialogue. EMPHASISES.

Forum gave budget for 30 speakers, but found this was not enough – needed more speakers -    we will have 121 communications over next 3 days.

Mustapha Masmoudi, writer of the McBride report. -    emphasised ethics

11.30-13.00 Opening face-to-face session: Information and Misinformation in the Wake of 9/11 Opening -    though moving towards info soc, is inc. stratification

Manuel Castells, Sociologist, Senior Lecturer at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). -    Links between info, media, and power, since 9/11 -    Main links between politics and media o    In info age, politics (broad) play preponderant role in media o    Politics decided in media (not that media decide), but where the links between worlds of power are generated (presence and absence, on and off) o    Present in media are materials with which we build our opinions, what isn’t there isn’t something we build upon o    Sole material on which can elaborate is info that is received through media (collective comm. Processes) o    What is imp is not direct messages, but subliminal ones o    Certain versions of facts become important o    Negative messages 5 times more powerful than positive -    Day to day praxis, disting between amateur and professionals -    Journalists have complex task -    3 separate strategies for 3 different audiences o    independence (not for prof ethics or dignity, but because cannot be autonomy without it) o    tension between sensationalism and rigorousness: in search for prestige and enhance negotiating influence, this means that is tension between info that can improve career (scoops, etc – more negative),  bad news is the only news, in conflict with seriousness o    keep your job: how make this compatible for scoop and search for independence -    media companies need to sell, of course –not necessarily earn money (for votes) -    also media companies want an impact on area of comm. -    From media company’s perspective, basic tension between carrying out task to have influ to sell and apply interest and retaining credibility o    If lose credibility, are devirtued – deprived of characs -    What is analytical context between power and media -    Varies between countries (institioanly, commercially) -    First, most countries, main point of media is direct or indirect control ofgovernment of media o    In Spain, control by gov or govs -    How have public sector tv that is not governmental tv? -    Need statute for independence of public sector media o    In countries like England before Blair, BBC was upto a point was good model, but in most other countries, certainly including spain, this matter is unsolved o    In recent years Spanish tv has broken all records of prestige (or is it opposite) -    Having a media that is controlled is something that people have endeavoured to resolve o    So called Berlesconi model •    Ie. If I have my own stations, etc, then solve credibility problem •    Prevent people from watching anything else, but clearly more complex than this – lead to political crisis o    Franco – got info out of regime and not from Pirenaico station -    Murdoch group leading example of giving specific view o    Chosen to go for conservative sector o    As little info as possible and as much manipulation as possible •    Particularly for Fox News in US (a patriotic medium) and will eject any journalist who dissents -    Links between politics and media are complex -    Sometimes change in gov that means media must accept more pluralism -    Pluralism of info and constant management of medium’s credibility and respect for prof independence, are critical -    As such, here big q is how produce industry that can represent interest of country and yet be credible -    Of course, is subtext – there is no company whose interest is pure o    Doesn’t exist, empirically – and info to prove  it -    Thus, complex reasons for why info is biased, without being corrupt -    Embedded journalists – ‘in bed with journalists’ (translated! Joke) -    Either embedded for story or for journalist’s protection -    Other implication is that if not embedded, you’re in danger -    Andcant be that many pure accidents that so many have been hurt -    How does all this tie in with 911? o    1. politics managed in media and similarly wars are won and lost in counries that make decisions about military •    wars won and lost in minds of men •    US, since Vietnam, obsession with how to wager a war that is not lost in way that Vietnam was lost in minds of US •    How do job as military power without rebellion -    Latest book argues: o    Iraq war began long before 911. o    911 combination of circumstances that bush admin grasped to launch new form of geopolitics and info and comm. That would enable new geopolitics o    there are those that say electrions don’t matter? But look at US, radical change from Clinton to Bush – no interntional experience, illuminated by religious fervour and surrounded by v articulate and serious intellectuals (neo-cons – neo conservative), but these people are really leaders of a strategy tha has been developed for over 15 yrs now – devel by Richard Pearl o    it goes back 30 years o    a philosopher who was influ here?? Who? o    Direct line from series of professors – eg levi strauss who influ this o    Our values are so fragile that when have to be ruthless must be ruthless to defend them o    Bush admin saw 911 opp to mobilise eth that would be different to achieve, and launched misinfo campaign and pressure on media o    Create conditions so that media would provide desired info and make poss to launch war – much of it was lies o    But media manip has limits – e.g political pluralism, civil society, new technology enviro where horizontal comm. Such as email, internet, and sms can influ o    Most recent events in world and spain is coming against resistance from civil soc – this happened in US – coffins of dead coming home – first on internet o    But if observe media and what Bush, Aznar, and Rumsfelt – counter strategy is to deny evidence and repeat, and also to step up fear policy (i.e. if people scrared will allow gov. to continue)

at 1pm, exhibitions open in hall.

Intro to Salima 60 dead journalists from 1993 in Algeria She learned to live in fear, from time as editor of La Nacion, since closed down by gov. She was part of fem movement in 1980s and in 1984 only editor of newspaper, she later became editor of. La Nacion considered editor of year She is currently living in a country in flames and warns against ideological trap -    either with me or against me she wants to raise obvious q: isn’t there a different way of doing things she also talks about a spectator – who is constituted by blood – impotence and fear in Mexico, similar situation

Salima Ghezali, Editor of La Nation (Algeria). -    agree with what Castells says, but why in public opinion, we are so little in agreement? -    The imposition of states and gov on media prevent this -    Although democratic soc tries to fight against pressure, do not manage to do so in democractic or non-democratic soc -    Why do people who struggle between this force, not seem to gird themselves with necessary force to carry out struggle successfully -    11-M is good example -    we were caught in a trap of silence after 911, not because of censorship, but because there are subjective data that influ this sitn that make it difficult to understand and place in historical context -    when 3 mins of silence for  911, was demonstration in Brussels. Was demonstration for victims. Other demonstrations did not make the headlines in way that 3 min silence did. Why? -    We had a silence that strikes us when we see this imbalance of forces, for fear of being misunderstood -    When commited journalist, we are not always as vigilant or as professional (there’s no professionalism in ethics) not as equipped in moments of strong emotion -    Many journalists, including those who work in most politically correct media, who, from ethical point of view are respectable, but nevertheless struggle -    Different to find intellectual interlocuters -    What do I have in common with the person whose policies I am contesting? o    This is basic for 911, but also means that, if in US or Europe, was more than an event that happened in US, if was a moment when something happened, as a Westerner, there was nothing new there -    Leaving aside gigantic nature of event, or it being live, eth that comes from US that has this massive nature -    Emotional shock, the earthquake in mankind’s vision of world which happened in the ‘west’ did not happen for me (and a good part of mankind), where violence is a day-to-day issue -    If in arab and muslim societies – the media focused on US and Arab world, we hve not seen reactions from rest of the world on this – it came later after meeting in Durben – HR and racism -    From journalist point of view, as fars as 911 concerned, main protagonists were US with cultural prolongation and knaivance and Europe and part arab countries -    Rest of world irrelevant -    When it comes to choosing comm. Gives rise to manip. -    After 911 that strategy or theory on clash of civilisations much more underlined today than it was before -    Must know where this choice will lead us -    Even htough describe facts, not always objective -    Sometimes go against ethics of info that will help people to become free -    Why was 911 not an event for Algeria? o    Eth that was put in place after 911, had already been put in place by gov in Algeria o    This possibility is everywhere in world o    In Europe (except spain), do not perceive embryonic war, which is great factor elsewhere in world -    People imagine that soc in Algeria is such a different society, but this is often misleading -    Current sitn in which we are, need to comm. Quickly, by defending it. -    We must go quick and don’t give people chance to understand message -    Before Patriot Act in Algeria, we had own law concerning info, never adopted by gov -    But media did give voice to it and was v good propaganda weapon -    Gave greater powers to security services -    Media silent about what was happening in Algerian prisons -    There is a way in which can form public opinion and the media is there depending on political interest -    Too often, journalists in good faith participate in dissemination of forming of opinion on single piece of info -    Is extrememely difficult to stand back to what we get when things are so oppressive -    Have we really advanced? What do we need to do to become culturally vaccinated -    Refusal of universal.

DEBATE From Chair for Catells – how can fight against misinformation?

Response: -    articles in New Yorker this month have done more to change preventive war than anything -    first time in history, we now have electronic real-time media that are v hard to control indeed

floor: Daniel gooling -    for Castells, has sketched out a triangle in which media operate and that always will be vested interests. -    Universal objective truth is impossible, everyone has own truth -    Germany reunited now for 15 years, this happened through freedom of info, but quality depends on whose looking -    In Europe, free circ of persons, goods, and capital, but no free circ of info o    E.g. pay tv subject to borders -    Ask forum to draw up an action plan to ensure no more walls in Europe that might be higher than Berlin wall was. -    Who is responsible within Forum 2004 to draw up action plan to guarantee freedom of info?

Response: Castells -

Chair: Rossana Fuentes-Berain, Deputy Director of the Spanish edition of Foreign Affairs.

13.00-15.00 Lunch

15.00-16.30 Parallel Sessions

New Information Networks in Crisis Situations: From 9/11 to 3/11 Magda Bandera, journalist and writer. Cory Doctorow, European Coordinator of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Belarmino García, Director General of Amena Daniel Gavela, Director General of Cadena SER Chair: Vicent Partal, Editor of VilaWeb

Barcelona, 25 Years after the McBride Report Mustapha Masmoudi, Writer of the McBride Report Josep Gifreu, Communications Professor of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) Chair: Marcial Murciano, Dean of the Communication Sciences School at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Who Guarantees the Quality of Information? Rosa María Calaf, journalist. Vicent Sanchis, Editor of Avui. Paolo Serventi-Longhi, Secretary General of the National Federation of Italian Journalists. Philippe Thureau-Dangin, Editor of Courrier International. José Vidal Beneyto, sociologist, essayist, Director of the Collège des Hautes Études Européenes Miguel Servet. Chair: Salvador Alsius, Professor of the UPF.

16.30-17.00 Coffee Break

17.00-18.30 Parallel Sessions

Political Power, Ethics and Information Marc Carrillo, Professor of Constitutional Law at UPF. Adela Cortina, Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the University of Valencia. María Elena Gronemeyer, Dean of the School of Journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Mª Dolores Massana, President of Reporters without Borders Spain. Julián Santamaría, Professor of Political Sciences and former Spanish Ambassador to the USA. Chair: Antonio Franco, Editor of El Periódico de Catalunya.

Reporting from the Basque Country Carmen Gurruchaga, journalist at Antena 3. Petxo Idoiaga, Lecturer in Journalism at the Basque Country University. Gorka Landaburu, Editor of the weekly publication Aldaketa Hamasei. Martxelo Otamendi, Editor of Berria. Chair: Antoni Batista, journalist.

19.00–20.30 Media Concentration in Spain (plenary session) José María Bergareche, Vice-President and CEO of Vocento Group. Juan Luis Cebrián, Director General of the Prisa Group. Javier Godó, President of the Godó Group. Asís Martín de Cabiedes, Executive President of the news agency Europa Press. Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero, Dean of the School of Communication Sciences at the University of Navarra. Chair: Manuel Campo Vidal, Dialogue Director.

20.30-21.00 The TV as an “educational weapon” (By El Club de la Comedia)

Thursday, May 20

10.00–11.30 Parallel Sessions

The Risk of ‘Infotainment’ Daniel Elíes, Director of publications at Edipresse. Jordi García Candau, Director of Radio Televisión Castilla-La Mancha. Miguel Ángel Liso, Publishing and Communications Director at Zeta Group. Josep Mòdol, Lecturer in Sociology at the Universitat de Lleida. Danny Schechter, executive Editor of Media Channel. Chair: Margarita Rivière, journalist and writer

Journalism in Conflict Areas Annabel McGoldrick, journalist and co-founder of the Conflict and Peace Forums. Robert Menard, Secretary General of Reporters without Frontiers. Gloria Helena Rey, Colombian journalist. Bru Rovira, reporter at La Vanguardia. Mogens Schmidt, Deputy Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO Chair: Xavier Giró, Lecturer in Political Journalism at the UAB

11.30-12.00 Coffee Break

12.00-13.30 Parallel Sessions Media Concentration in the United States Rossana Fuentes-Berain, Deputy Director of the Spanish edition of Foreign Affairs. Tai Moses, Senior Editor of AlterNet. Jerry Starr, Executive Director of Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting. Danny Schechter, Executive Editor of Media Channel. Chair: Llúcia Oliva, journalist.

Those Excluded from Information Oumama Aouad, Lecturer in the Spanish Department at the University of Mohammed V in Rabat. Ambar de Barros, UNESCO Coordinator in São Paolo and founder of MIDIATIVA. Joan Cal, Executive Editor of the daily Segre. Joaquim Ibarz, correspondent in Latin America for La Vanguardia. Rafael Xambó, head of the Sociology Department of the Universoty of Valencia. Xinran Xue, Chinese journalist and writer. Chair: Juan Carlos Salazar del Barrio, Head of the International Service in Spanish of the German news agency DPA.

13.30-15.00 Lunch

15.00-16.30 Parallel Sessions

Threats to the Profession José Antich, Editor of La Vanguardia. Lluís Bassets, Assistant-Editor of El País. David Randall, Assistant Editor of The Independent on Sunday (GB). Bieito Rubido, Editor of La Voz de Galicia. Aidan White, Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Chair: Rosa Massagué, journalist.

Global versus Local Information Dima Jatib, roving reporter of Al Jazeera. Rafael Marques, journalist, representative of the Open Society Initiative for the south of Africa in Angola. Jordi Busquets, Editor of El Punt. Albert Alcouloubre Jr., Director of Social Planning and Projects for O Globo. Chair: Joan Tapia, Director General of Barcelona Televisió (BTV).

16.30–17.00 Coffee Break

17.00-18.30 Parallel Sessions

Towards a Redefinition of Public Media Carmen Cafarell, Director General of RTVE. Rafael Camacho, Director General of Radio Televisión de Andalucía. Joan Majó, Director General of the Catalan Radio and Television Corporation (CCRTV). Enric Marín, Lecturer in Communication at the UAB and member of the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia (CAC). Jerry Starr, Executive Director of Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting Representative of the BBC. Chair: Enric Sopena, journalist

19.00-20.30 Face-to-face session: The Divide between Journalists and Society Iñaki Gabilondo, Director of the radio show Hoy por Hoy, Cadena Ser. Pilar Bardem, actress. Chair: Elisenda Roca

Friday, May 21

10.00-11.30 Parallel Sessions

A Critical Look at the Academy and the Profession Fernando González Urbaneja, President of the Press Association of Madrid. Josep Maria Martí, Director of the MBA programme of Radio Companies. Amparo Moreno, Professor in the History of Communication at the UAB. Pernille Morkhagen, journalist and representative of Norwegian Journalists’ Union. Chair: Mònica Terribas, Journalist and Vice Dean of the School of Journalism at UPF.

Training and Educating about Information from Childhood Fabricio Caivano, journalist and expert on the subject of education. Francesc Escribano, Director of TV de Catalunya (TVC). Daoud Kuttab, Director of the Institute of Modern Media, Al Quds University. Peter Mackler, Senior Correspondent at France Presse. Chair: Lolo Rico, journalist.

11.30-12.00 Coffee Break

12.00-13.30 Parallel Sessions

Another Type of Information is Possible Francesco Diasio, European representative of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC). Alex Masllorens, journalist. Tai Moses, Senior Editor of AlterNet Chair: Arcadi Oliveres, Economics Professor at the UAB

Women in the Media Dima Jatib, roving reporter at Al Jazeera. Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist. Montserrat Puig, President of the Association of Women Journalists of Catalonia. Xinran Xue, Chinese journalist and writer. Chair: Montserrat Minobis, Director of Catalunya Radio

13.30-15.00 Lunch

15.00-16.30 Parallel Sessions

Italia: dalle mani pulite alla mano unica Giuliano Ferrara, Director of the newspaper Il Foglio and advisor to Silvio Berlusconi. Enric Juliana, former correspondent in Italy. Rosa Massagué, former correspondent in Italy.

Documentaries

17.00-18.30 Face-to-face session: Journalism: Fiction or Subversion Intro to Nair Anita Nair, Indian writer. -    introduction of fiction into journalism is unacceptable (ME: not sure she really gets the point) -    literature more than journalism has capacity to bring about change -    with journalism, memory is short-term -    ME: underestimates the historical value of news -    Literature subtley chooses details and put them together in such a way that you still require the imaginative process -    News is met with cynicism – ME: ok. It is not art. What an insight! -    ME: writing comes from her own thinking. She is wasting our time.

Juan José Millás, writer and journalist. -    imagination transform reality -    while there are structures in news production, people construct their own ‘papers’ by reading in a particular order. -    What tells us more lit or newspaper? o    Marx: read novelist rather than historians -    Why can novels do this? o    Because lit is more representative than newspaper or historian -    Symbolic and iconic in literature -    These are texts that come fruited with reality -    ‘I sell empty gas bottle’ o    tells more about state of country than an editorial -    we think we are informed because we have a lot of data, but this needs articulation -    Knowledge and Info Society not making us more informed, does not give us knowledge o    Need to know how to fashion this data o    In a novel, there is processed information and better representativeness

Chair -    umberto eco: flood of info does not take us anywhere o    ME: this argument about info soc seems, in part, misrepresentative. More information is really a different kind of info

Juan Jose -    often newspaper is incorrect, more info happens during inight that changes context -    so why buy paper?

Anita -    lots of people read sport first, even though they know result -    most people know that news is … the peripheries of news more grounded in reality than national news

Chair -    more about potential of lit to change things -    eg. ‘Lady’s coupe’? Changed things?

Anita -    was invited by British Council to attend concert -    Yes: and for this reason, must be cautious and responsible

Chair -    jose, do you agree

Joan Jose -    annoyed at people who say it changes nothing

ME: this is really boring. These people need to read some critical studies on literature

Chair: Concha García Campoy, journalist.

18.30-19.00 Homage to victims who have fought and fight to protect freedom of expression Chair: will remember 16 lost journalists, 1 from Al Jazzera happened just today -    Joan Baron: o    People don’t want a show in their press, they want truth o    Picture, uniformed arm covering camera lens, so policeman’s hand on lens, so a particular image that world should see that is prohibited o    Why is it that this picture always includes a hand with a uniformed sleeve? o    Because freedom of info still haven’t been achieved o    Rel between music and military music is rel between justice and militerary justice and info is same. Military info is different

Now have reprentative from Al Jazzera -    thanks Forum for everything

Chair now parents of Ricardo Ortega – a nother lost journalists

the mother -    son wanted to know the truth -    journalist was in Haiti -    being a journalist made him a target -    Eduardo galleano

Not SURE

Carlos Sentis, Dean of Catalonian Press Assoc. -    remind of journalist’s school -    when franco was alive, press was said as parliament on paper -    press assoc created a real parliament -    professional code came out during his years -    not us and now struggling for freedom of press, this is the will  and what journlalists of this country want to do

Josep Parnou -    this will give rise to Barcelona declaration to give testimony to the world -    at a time when more obstacles on info, Pentagon has tried not to have images broadcast of coffins that arrived home, to prevent people seeing real harshness of war -    Rumsfeldt claimed that publication could contravene Geneva convention -    NYT and Washington Post stood on side of freedom of press -    In future, in Barcelona, also need to make voice heard as a city

Salvador Alsius -    when listening to Joan Jose, his way of putting things is such that he thought he was about to convince me that there were no limits to jouirnalism -    I believe that throughout live, people working in this recog limits between advertising/journalism and fiction and information and ‘infortainment’ -    ‘don’t learn eth from fathers of profession, but -    ‘as long as there is someone in the world meeting and talking and saying ‘warning’ lets talk softer so journalists do not hear, this profession has a meaning -    need to encourage and maintain this meaning and space

Monserrat Misnovis, another Dean of Press Assoc. -    difficult to respond to video -    how satisfied I am at intensity of dialogue over last 3 days -    moved by testimonies of those who have died -    must take up torch and defend something that has greatest meaning in world

Joan Brunet, Current interim dean of Barcelona Pres Assoc. -    we recognise that worthwhile making effort to organise dialogue -    when opened debate, were doubtful that anything positive would come out of it -    Catalonian Press Assoc now taken on task of creating Observatory -    World Information Rights Watch -    Commit to disseminating conclusions and Manifesto of Barcelona -    Everything we have heard here will not be forgotten

Chair (Custo woman!) -    reps of international press assoc. -    Salim Asigali Raphael Marquez

Manuel Campo now with two other people who have been behind scenes, Pilar Estevez -    Definitive version of draft 30 june. Modifications possible before then. -    other dialogues can add on their own comments

1. in framework of dialogue, journalists writers

communication is fundamental right… (frm McBride report) in name of war on terrorism, new forms of censorship have emerged. This only aggravates and creates misunderstands

2. time come for basic rights to be fulfilled

3. denounce all forms of protection for all journalists urgent need for legal and labour protection of people in media denounce situations of precarious employment violates all forms of ethics

5. claim rights to difference and social minorities

6. endorse 2nd of mcbride report conclusions devel countries whose dependency needs reduction

Rights watch will be based in Barcelona

19.00-19.30 Reading of Conclusions and Barcelona’s Manifesto A proposal for the creation of the World Information Rights Watch José Saramago, Nobel Prize

Other events - Film cycle on journalism at the Filmoteca de Catalunya (May 17-June 6) Avinguda de Sarrià, 33. Barcelona - Media concentration maps from around the world - Exhibition “The four days that changed Spain: March 11th – March 14th” - Exhibition on “Barcelona on War (1936-1939)” - Photographs from the Prestige catastrophe

Computer and Video Games for Learning Forum (2003, Glasgow)

Computer and Video Games for Learning ForumSCROLLA, Dec 15, 2003-12-15

Knowledge bases for e-learning National and global cross-sector collaboration Grounded blue-sky research for development of educational practice

Games and learning

:good video games have a powerful way of making players consciously aware of some of their previously assumed models about learning itself” “Good video games incorporate good learning principle, otherwise noone would buy them”

–James McGee

do games change communities’ cultural fixers?

Jon Sykes

Intro to emotion laboratory -    post-grad in Game Development (2002); intake twice a year -    Undergraduate in Game Development (2003) (first year) -    Development: Zen Warrier (pre-production; fight game) Pocket Tactics: Mutant Heroes (production; mobile game for Nokia); -    Research: eMotion (2004); £250,000 for lab o    Multidisciplinary (computing, psych, physiotherapy – cf. Micrsoft labs, Seattle) o    Also have motion capture suite (emotions through movement) o    ‘To investigate emotional engagement with technology’ Why we should consider game-based learning -    It is a fun and motivating way to learn o    Learning does not have to be dull -    Why game based o    Play is NOT a trivial activity •    Most successful people play a lot •    Brian Sutton Smith (without play, no reason to live) •    Art, theatre

-    Learning through play is not ‘dumbing down’ -    Ubiquitous play = ubiquitous learning o    Mobile gaming: phones, PDAs o    Game Boy advance; Sony o    Satellite TV o    DVD o    Aircraft o    Internet

The use of games in the classroom -    As a reward o    60-70% use games as reward -    subverting the play experience o    content mixed with game -    nurturing the play experience o    Sim City (transferable skills about project organisation, resourcing) o    Battlefield (team based playing skills) •    Kids coming out of school, not good at playing as team or communicating (GOV REPORT) -    Learning as a game designer o    Get student to develop a game about Vikings •    Need to study Vikings, etc o    By doing research, can learn about the subject (Julia Robertson, Edinburgh University) -    Facilitate interaction and collaboration

What are the immediate challenges and research goals? -    THEORY o    Devise theoretical frameworks •    Educational, psychological, sociological, bringing together play and learning experience •    Maintain play while learning -    JUSTIFICATION o    No experimental studies, field, studies and case studies demonstrating suitability of digital games in classroom -    TECHNIQUES o    Don’t know how to design digital games for learning o    How to evaluate digital game-based learning?

DISCUSSION

Defn of good games -    44 of all games each year make money: 37 of them are sports – re-license o    only 7 games are new and different! o    Only 4% of all games are ‘good’ commercially

Good game principles

ME: licensing and development of games that are related to mainstream culture -    e.g. Harry Potter game for education only

Tim Smith -    commercial aspects imp in terms of technical capacity -    build educational games on commercial model o    Used UnReal Tournament to teach social and ethical skills

Kirk Ramsay Learn Direct Scotland -    used UnReal engine for adult learners -    context of players -    first job of games is engagement -    history of digital games and elearning, started with same people at same time -    games provide a feedback mechanism of being good at something -    games as mechanism to introduce people to other aspects of learning

Alan Durndell (adu@gcal.ac.uk) -    gendered nature of game-playing

Fiona Liddleton (edinburgh Uni) -    McGraw Hill game to draw up business plan

SUMMARY

Who is the person in the game: indiv or avatar?

MeCCSA (2003)

MeCCSA 2003 Notes Hypertexts, virtual spaces and dance: producing cultural heterogeneity or world standards on the internet Pietrobruno, Sheenagh

ME: CONTACT GREG DOWNEY

Dances have been discovered, globalised or ‘established’ through Internet Salsa and Transnationalism – broader context

Case: Salsa

Dance is a lived corporeal expression – cannot be regulated by rules

Internet facilitates process of standardisation Previously, only as performances – not written down

Elizabeth Eizenstein

Internet displaces cultural links

Cultural globalisation

Airports, shopping malls, internet, etc – world spaces

Internet not really a space but a metaphor

Cyberspace as a global city

Internet as a city – Jennifer light

Global city as means of commodity exchange

Cyberspace absorbs urban and national expression

Way in which this takes place can be shown by development of salsa

Internet is city in miniature – real life cities becoming more dangerous – internet seen as safer, more comfortable city -    ME: not sure….chatting to death, Pro-Ana, cyber-hacking, pornographic spam

In cyberspace, less sense of connectedness to others – less responsibility

How can internet be viewed as minature space, if so vast

REF: (see abstract) –

Virtual space of internet relates to thjis

David holmes – virtual spaces as phenomenological spaces

Fantasy and imagination – create the Internet as space -    imagine we are connected to something vast and real

virtuality: Miller and Slater – Not an assumed feature of internet, but rather a social accomplishment

salsaweb.com -    what is salsa? Mambo in disguise?

Torontosalsa.com -    discussion about standardisation of salsa

imagining of cyberspace as global city contributes…

Pierre Levy – cyberspace returns us to preliterate, but at different level

As users in same space, no messages out of context

Encourage corporatisation

LeFevbre – space is result and cause – product and producer Cf. Internet produced by web naviagators Seeks revitalisation of cities

Since jan 2002, net users responded to debates of origin of salsa -    whether north American styles can compare to ‘more authentic’ Cuban and Columbian salsa internet concretising debates that have previously been an oral discourse

but also records these debates

dissemination of discourse

ME: BUT THE INTERNET DEBATE IS A TEMPORAL DEBATE – IS THE WEB ARCHIVE SAFE? IS THE IMPORTANT FACET, THE CYBERSPACE OR THE COMMUNITY ENGAGED IN THE DEBATE?

Will dissemination lead to standardisation?

Computer games and female audiences. A study on the myth of the boy gamer Moschini, Elena

Background of research Myth of boy gamer Evidence of female and adult audiences How female audiences reinterpret t gaming experience End of the myth of the boy gamer?

Review of game magazines: edge, Games TM, Playstation 2 official mag, Moble games Review of official stats,by DRI, ELSPA, ESA, IDGA Revie of main online gaming resources: gamasutra.com, womengamers.com, gamegoddesses.com Academic literature Game design literature Interviewers with women game designers, producers, players

Game-based learning interest!

Why researching adult and female gamers? Lack of research on female and adult gamers Need of industry to expand t customer base Need to ustd audiences to design more inclusive games Future of women in game industry (now an opportunity for women to get into the community – ME: HOW EXACTLY? WHY NOW)

diff bw game audiences and game customers

huge presence of women players across platforms

industry bases its strategy on myth of boy gamer

audience is not primarily male, nor juvenile

Who Plays Computer and Video Games? -    ESA survey dispute by some exponents -    Chris Crawford: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics -    IGDA London many game designers have expressed doubts on existence or relevance of female audiences.

Myth of boy gamer -    constructed and perpetuated by game industry and media via: o    tone/style and content in game mags o    game ads, commercial •    e.g. difficulty of having a ‘game’ in Cosmopolitan magazine o    representation of women in games o    structure of game industry o    representation of games in media Game Mags -    survey published in 2003, Official Playstation 2 Mag – ‘unanswereable’ y number of femal readers -    same magazine recently introduced t ‘rate your mate’ comp and awards ‘handbags’ to t worst reader letter -    games mags often shelved alongside porn mags

Guild Riden ame Mom

“When I get to play, I feel guilty. I feel guilty about not spending t ‘available’ time with my children, on housework…even plucking my eyebrows…How come my husband doesn’t ffeel like that?” - http://www.womengamers.com

Represn of women in game -    more adv games now feature strong female charcs -    deisgned to attract male audience -    many games do not represent women at all or relegate them to secondary or diminishing roles

Women reinterpet gaming experiences -    women download or prod patches to change gender of characters -    women create online femal only enviros -    women play in groups (one controller, others advising; not all players) -    women gamers exchange ideas, experience, and reviews on female gamers websites

Genderinclusive game design? -    game designers and researchers divided on this issue -    game deisgn for women reflect stereotype of women preferring non-violent co-operative games -    hwr, certain games seem to attract stronger female audiences: Sims, strategy and adventure games, RPG o    ME: AGAIN, WHAT ARE OUR PARAMETRES OF GAME HERE?

Women in game industry -    few girls -    few female role models -    networking is imp, but industry is male-dominated -    imp to be a gamer, possibly a hard gamer (PERHAPS ‘THE’ ISSUE)

Alternative game audiences? -    v imp part of audiences missing -

Sat 9am

Towards an understanding of vernacular cinema Koven, Mikel

Italian giallo (yellow) films Disting Mass and popular cinema -    3 classes of cinema

unlikely to have heard of vernacular cinema – performed one night only would eventually get first class status – e.g. fist full of dollars

voodoo dolls (nb)

Armando Crispiano Macchie Solari (trans. Autopsy, 1973)

Ill Gatto…. Cat o’ nine tails – genetic and criminality

Four Flies on Grey Velvet Lewontin – claims about link to criminality and genes discredited Yet, the belief in this in Alien – penal coloney is for double Y chromosome inmates

New developments in the realm of the senses: film studies meets neuroscience Synmoie, Donovan

Cognitive Film Theory Philosophy Turn to neuroscience, concerned with m/b

Cultural and media studies tend towards popular forms

Brain being like a computer Cognitive turn interfaces with Bordwell and Carroll and need for more rigorous account for how people encounter moving image

Film theory allows productive interdisciplinarity. Meaning as negotiation rather than effect

Cinemergencies: Deleuze and machinic abstraction in cinemas Dowd, Garin

Politics take place in place : redistribution of the sensible

Abstract machine Techne

The textual engineering of ‘Zeitgeist Monstrosity’: appropriations of genetics in contemporary horror film Hills, Matt

Beginning with Jurassic Park, but earlier with The Fly, Species, Alien Resurrection, Mimic, Deep Blue Sea

Eugene Thacker – bio-horror -    he includes GATTACA, but this doesn’t really fit

notions of species identity

rel bw generic and genetic meanings

genetic discourses are appropriate which partly disrupt horror, but also add to it

Noel Cowall And Barbara Creed’s theories of horror

Appropriations of genetic discourses pose problems

Carroll: The Philosophy of Horror (1990) -    fusion and fision monsters: alter egos, or self-confrontation o    2 diff types of monstrous creature •    appropriations of genetic, challenge this •    visually and semiotically overlapping •    transgenic monstrosity is about an unstable monstrosity

Creed: concept of abjection -    abjection: protection of clean and proper body, boundaries of self -    argues that horror genre presents many images of this abjection -    approp of genetic discourses confuse this distinction

e.g. Alien – cloned riply doesn’t fit creed? No purification of abject

Species: Genetic becomes demonstrably Other

Contrast bw The Fly 1950 and 1980 -    contrast monstrosity of 1958 to diff geneticised monstrosity in 1986 -    in 1950, sense of atoms being mixed, denotative genetic discourse o    miniaturised man’s hed on top of fly and magnified fly’s head on man •    fits fusion idea •    almost mythological notion of XXX •    immediately coded, physically stable -    fly of 1986, do not have that immediately visible fusion o    move from mythological monstrosity (fitting with Carrol) to temporal and teleological – micro and macro levels of monster o    molecular genetic level of seth brundel, this gap is gradually closed down as film progresses o    implication of teleological, about macro level catching up with micro •    perceptible monstrosity catching up with invisible genetic change

-    fly 2 also does this o    he has to turn into the fly, so is about temporal and teleological, notions of genetic determinism

abjection -    some of these films contest gendering of abjection -    monstrous feminine (species), but in the Fly, also monstrous masculine -    fly 2 and species 2, also deal with paternal abject – what does it mean if you are the son of the Fly? Or character Patrick in Species 2 (national hero, rise to power, father wants his son to do well)

films drawing on genetic discourses in detail

they might get science wrong, but are trying to bid for forms of cultural value

Juarssic Park, not just about special effects, but plausibility of its use of genetic discourses -    often correlated with other markers of quality o    upmarket horror hybrid

genetics is drawn on partly in relation to quality horror

David Russell – cultural context of scientific represn of (genetic) scientific discourses -    power natural monsters o    but this imputes a passivity to popular culture o    instead, these films are trying to construct themselves in specific ways these films also present themselves as current/cutting edge -    using scientificity to construct alibi of cultural value

Judith Haberstam – overcoding of monster -    start to draw 1:1 – cultural context – vastly reduces complexity of monstrosity, which tries to condense o    e.g. species: fear of female biological clock, fear of accelerated growth (Selfish Gene idea – out-reproduce)

Zizek ref: high theory, low content of film knowl

The lesbian and gay magazines of 1980s Carolin, Louise

Subscribe

“To the journal for contemporary perverts”

borrowed from ‘The Face’ imagery, high fashion

Shocking Pink

14-23 target, 1987 mag: radical alternative to ‘my guy’ socialist worker press central books distributer 2 distinct groups of women as membership ‘subversive sister’ (Manchester), bad attitude (London)

shocking pink -    anti-abortion

Sue Johnson as support (Barbera from Royle Family)

‘there’s more to love than boy meets girl’ -    from Jimmy Summerville song

Quim magazine -    product of lesbian sex wars, ideological turf war -    debate: whether certain sex practices were authentic lesbian behaviours -    first british mag to put lesbian sex on printed page -    (really 2 people working on this)

The Manconian Gay’ Manchester based mag -    later renamed ‘Gay Life’

why has nth similar emerged since?

Charles Landry – What a way to run a railroad -    been able to promote these marginalised voices

square peg suffered from glamour role

Transgender and the internet: global movement or casualty of globalization O’Riordan, Kate

Re-contextualise trans activism in terms of global politcs

Internet as actualising agent, alternative media, plurality and conflicting voices -    site of subjectivity -    role in challenging hegemonic notions of gender/sexuality

Female to male transgender (identity)

Draft Gender Recognition Bill 2003-12-20 Maintaining a sense of difference and allowing concrete political change

Diff accounts from different countries

Naomi klein – no logo -    identity politics contribute to feeding XXX?

Cybercultural theory and transgender are incoherent

Random (or Brandon?) exhibition at Guggenheim, NYC

Tension bw virtual and -    e.g. AR. Stone:  symbolically correlated to the Brandom exhibition

Internet can facilitate ustdg of -    Bornstein

Virtual ontology and XX

David Silver: 2nd generation cyber identity

Cybecrultural theory in: identity could be detached from body -    but has v little to nothing to offer in terms of political agenc o    .e.g transgender – body centred

beyond representation -    from subjectivity to identity

use of internet described by trans individuals is used to negotiate identity -    Sally hines, Kathy Johnson -    Access to info about drugs, prosthetics, etc

Not about subjective moment of being online, but how online materials contribute to identity

Alternative media produced in circulation is essentially webbased

Individual homepages -    activist/artist, everyday people (setting up info for others) Local support groups -    maling lists

National orgs -    gender pack (US)

international orgs

what happens when brought together, have completely contesting discourses -    can say that some fall to individual rights based issues and thus, connected to revolutionary discourses -    alternatively, more human rights based discourses based around ordinariness and invisibility. (many transgender indivs do not wish to be visible)

Pharmakon – the future as supplement

Plenary on Future of fIlm (second speaker) Malady and Treatment – Pharmacia and Oreithyia -    rape or impregnation

past as origin/ the future as supplement

final speaker – Film Institute? role of cultural policy in film

Frankenstein returns: visual politics and the GM debate Murdock, Graham

GM food not about science alone -    belief systems and world trade

It is about -    science: complexity/uncertainty (Postscience) -    risk: contradictions of ‘progress’ (entered modernity from ‘fate’ to ‘risk’) -    marketisation: corporate capture (political system, food chain, funl knowl,incorporation of indigenous knowl) -    Globalisation: autonomy/annexation -    Government: erosion of public trust o    Habermas ‘public sphere’” 2: political public sphere (broadsheet and coffee houses, rational deliberation), literary public sphere (where people go to grapple with fundamental issues of life, death, morality) •    Doesn’t mention the ‘visual’ -    Political Argument: from rhetoric to imagery o    In governmental imagery (PR), and social movement, primary weapon is a symbolic weapon (staging theatrical event) o    ‘Tony don’t swallow Bill’s Seed’

Basic Classificatory Schema: human/vegetable -    (boundary crossing is what people find disturbing Christian Iconography: grim reaper The Frankenstein Story -    beginning of 19th century, surge in technology -    coming to terms with blowback of science -    progress has a dark side (can never control) modern myrh

Science fiction: Alien invasion/abduction

Nuclear Power: destruction/contamination -    clean machine going awol

Food Scares: BSE -    framed t way in which people ustd food modification

Image of the vegetable

Blair as the vegetable

Grim Reaper (includes letters GM)

Private eye no. 971, 5/3/99, p.22 – image of grim reaper in GM crops

‘It came from the grocery store’ – image of woman, Monsanto ref.

Connection bw notion of contamination and GM

‘The Prime Monster: Fury as Blair…’, The Mirror

what does this tell us?

If we want to understand political discourse

What’s the problem with GM food, the prob is that it is like these other, deeply embedded cultural anxieties

Led to arguing that we are moving into an age of visual politics Meaning of image is fundamental part of persuading process

Politicians need to know how these chain reactions of image work

If so, then need to think about public sphere as space of deliberation but also a cultural space, which are not always argumentative or rationale, but which provide resources we draw on to imagine something you haven’t yet experienced

How do we imagine something, when we do not have the evidence?

Discourse is only half the story, the visual must also be noticed

People are not anti-science, they are anti-corporate science -    Science used for the wrong purposes is what is alarming -    Capture of scientific agenda

The crisis of information age journalism: isolated, international or imaginary? Campbell, Vincent Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, De Montfort University

KEYNOTE: ‘The Nature of Culture’ Elizabeth Grosz

Forthcoming books: ‘The nick of time’, politics evolution and the untimely time travels: feminist essays on temporality

organisation of matter shapes human life

biological evolution and becoming, influ how we understand and conceptualise culture and its products, technology and media

not a new socio-biology: i.e. model of social that reduces it to biological

biological bases of rape or war

instead of reduction of culture to nature

interested in ways in which nature incite and produce culture -    ways in which biological conditions enables, rather than limits and directs cultural ilfe

not reduce to binary nature vs. nurture rather natural invigures cultural variation perpetual transformation time, movement, change, and irresistible push to future, affect culture and technological

uncontrolled becomings

nature encourages culture to transform

not t natural that limits t Cultural natural produces rather than inhibits

attempt to redress foreclosure of ontological or metaphysical and thus, ironically, of materiality in its most complex forms

focus on cultural construction rather than the natural

era of constructionisms of various tytpes

culture as artifice product of communities and their interests institutions as means by which these constructions are produced -    while ustod as cultural constructs

constructionism as reaction to prevailing forms of naturalism (division of labour as natural order) -    enable us to consider change/upheaval, revolution in new ways -    understanding of radical politics -    culture as equivalent of changing

nature is fixed and unchanging -    background against which culture elaborates itself

culture tames nature

culture writes on nature

culture scripts the natural and manufactures it

hunt for incriminating traces of naturalism …relentless anti-essentialism

essence/fixity/nature/biological – ahistorical and biological -    raw material for culture

what is regarded as living/human is on other side of this distinction

Hegel and dialectical models

Givenness of nature is to be overcome by human labour

Model of inertia of nature enthuses Marxist writings

Labour for marx is t historical rather than inherent transformation of a collective

Politics consists not in ways in which nature is transformed but in social structures

Notion that nature is a passivity, evident in structuralism and phenomenology

Kinship system – strauss

Satre’s account of nausea

Lacan’s understanding of the real (given as outside symbolisation and outside of culture)

From psych – feminst – to class and racist theory, view that nature must be overcome appears to be ubiquitous

Exception of ecologist movement

All forms of contemporary politics continued contempt with body

Nature/culture opposition seems foundational to cultural analysis

Can we consider rel between natural and cultural in different terms?

If nature not the other of culture, but its condition, then rel is much more complex

Natural is not the inert, passive, unchanging element against which culture elaborates itself, but is the nature of culture

How we understand natural/cultural opposition relies on our notion of nature

Culture as remaking of culture

People in biological sciences, trying to elaborate on Darwin

Remains indebted to its particularieis, culture as gift of nature

If understand rel between nature and culture as rel of emergence or complexity, rather than opposition, then nature providing means and nature providing forces, then cultural studies cannot ignore inputs of natural sciences

Saussure: culture is self generating system, but cannot explain how it began

May be time to consider culture in terms of nature

Need to understand what is outside of culture

Understand, contra Derrida and following Deleuze, that culture and natujre have an outside -    conditioned rather than conditions

models derived from natural sciences (non reductive evol biology) provide fruitful resource for understanding culture itself

culture is not what we add to natre, but what we subtract

culture diminishes nature, rather than makes nature over

nature should be ustod as perpetual evolution

Darwin: first great theorist of difference -    eth living as a mode of differentiation

Bergson following Darwin is right to claim that human activities diminish rather than augment natural world

Culture not magnification of nature, but selection of only elements of natural -    diminuition of natural order

Nietzsche – natural world of forces that provide energy to overcoming politics of life

Events generate problems

We have to address ‘events’ – they impinge on our daily lives

For Deleuze, this ‘outside’ is t force that induces thinking – shakes life from automatism

Outside, composed of competing forces, can call it outside by different name: nature, time, memory

Force of outside that insights culture and induces subjectivity

V feature that culture seeks o privilege – change , different – is charac of natural

Nature, since Darwin, cannot be seen as passive, inert, and unchanging

Why designate human sphere as cultural, but reluctant to understand animal sphere as culture

What we share in common with animals is capacity for self-overcoming

Cultural studies founded on rift between human and rest of natural life

Human stands outside natural order

But what if all those characs as uniquely human are all simply difc of degree, rather than difc in kind?

Instead of rift, there is a continuity?

How read culture’s immersion in nature as part of cultural analysis?

Virtuality of natural world

Culture not as completion of nature, but as natures open product?

Poss or productive to understand culture as way in which nature reflects on and articulates itself?

Is culture, nature’s way of thinking itself, of gaining consciousness of itself?

3 charcs that nature bestows on culture -    ways in which the outside irresistibly impinges on life

1.    forward pull of temporality a.    compels acknowledgement fo human finiteness and mortality 2.    gift tht nature bestows of force of variation/proliferation of natural difference a.    how to live in world with its resources to provide resolution b.    culture as varying innovative resources that nature poses to living c.    biology construed as realm of generation of producing merely difc 3.    biological .. of sexual difc and racial difc a.    sexual difc is irreducible and if time always b.    different between sexes grows over time c.    every culture must address this in its own way d.    rel between sexes and creation of family group networks is coidtion of racial and class difc (Irigaray)

no culture can solve these problems – there is no solution life is an elaboration of how we direct ourselves to these problems

must deal with each of these

these are non-normative imperatives must address them even if cannot control them trace of our debt to the natural natural incites the cultural by generating problems and events to be negotiated cultures disting selves from each other by questions most pressing, but also resources that each culture has to help with these problems

cultural identity linked to natural world

culture can be regarded, not as active agency it constructs, but that which slow down…

(institutions: fn is to slow down events)

nature is endless generation of problems

insistence of these intractable problems that generate living and the conditions for self-overcoming

cultural life does not assimilate natural, but expands it

culture as part of ongoing evolution of the natural

If nature is dynamic and active, not alien to culture, but ground that makes culture possible, then what would a new conception of culture refusing to sever it from natural, look like? What would study of culture look like?

Q&A

Racial difc produced by sexual difference -    Darwin: racial difc, dominate theories of racial difc is that is result of natural selection (e.g. nature selects body types suitable for flourishing). May be a question of sexual selection that develops racial difc. Aesthetic taste dictates who one’s sexual partner is and this helps structure biological makeup of future generation o    Aesthetics that have been augmented over time, form natural o    Racial difc is founded on sexual difc o    Aesthetics of Taste •    Argument against quantitative analyses of difc in genetics

Status of conditionality? Pragmatism: sexual difc is a problem to stay, only q is how we live with it Scepticism of theoretical physics arriving in cultural studies Deleuzian trope works best with imagination.

A: dynamism of text is what they have extracted from world of forces

Ontological claim not a textual claim

Dewey, James, ..

Nietzsche

Interested in a Pragmatism of the future -    ie. Darwin’s explanation of life

do not know conditions of our humanness, since are all in process of evolution

Digital Games Research Association (2003, Utrecht)

Level Up: NotesNovember 4-6, 2003, Utrecht Uni.

KeyNote: Frans Mayra

Eric Zimmerman – Katie ….? (Both backgrounds in designing games) Invisible Playgrounds Games as a Cultural Environment Game as a Social and Cultural Context

Invisible playgrounds -    blur relationship between space of game an spacies of lifestyles of players -    and blur players and non-players -    say something about fundamental properties of ..

AI Game: The Beast -    part of the film AI -    game played collaboratively across internet -    players uncertain about what was ficitional part of game and what was real-world o    linked to events in reality – e.g. Time Square, NYC

ME: Basis for presuming that the ‘blur’ actually took place. -    empirical support for this claim?

Rules + play + culture

Play – creative Rules – formal sense of play

Huizinga’s Magic Circle - took a step into magic circle – space of play

Play is free movement in an informal structure

Suspicion – infiltrated office environment, creating real dynamic challenges to social structures – relationship between employees

Transformative Play

Artificial Intelligence and Games

Inspiration for Game AI back to Turing Test

Digital game AI has bee less about modelling human-level intelligence and more about presenting an illusion of intelligence

Turing test fool the human into thinking that is a woman

Goals of Game AI? -    challenge player? -    Make game more enjoyable -    Help player play game -    Illusion of intelligence -    Mimic human intelligence -    Ensure games run smoothly

Provide: believable, expected, consistent actions and behaviours (Steven Poole)

AI in past games -    deterministic motion -    tracking -    random -    illusion

AI in current games -    finite state machines -    pathfinding -    scripting -    fuzzy logic -    decision trees -    data-driven design

agent sand AL -    Empire Earth, Half-Life

Expert systems

Genetic algorithms -    creatures

Environmental and Contextual AI -    Sims, Half-life 2, Fable

N-Gram statistical predicton -    player modelling

Bayesian Methods -    modelling game characters

Limitations of Current AI -    strongly rule-based -    current basic AI technologies do not scale well o    exponential growth in complexity with each new behavioural rule

In-Game AI not adaptable (contested, need to do this) -    does not deal with differences in individual players

Benefits of Digital Game AI Innovation

Enhanced Game play (half-life flocking) Novel design and gameplay Increased game immersion Broader appeal Boost reputation of games as an art form -    intelligence animation and interactive story-lines

areas of game AI -    adaptive learning -    dynamic story telling

Adaptive Learnig

Massive Online games – no sense of individuality and agency

Dynamic Story-telling -    interactivity is central issue

Affecting Emotion -    Games still don’t affect us very much emotionally nor challenge us morally

Challenges for AI in Games -    AI standardisation o    Need a standard like Direct X, etc

Primarily limitation is rule-basedness Commercial environment limits as well -    academic research critical here

Moral issues -    imply greater responsibility -    Games are interactive -    Movie viewing largely passive -    Moral issues become more significant as game characters approach some form of realistic consciousness o    ME: what about person behind character

Issues and Approaches in Middleware AI…. Karlsson, Borje bffk@cin.ufpe.br; Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (IFPE)

Game AI: Uniting Analysis, Dsign and Iplementation Michael Mateas

Expressive AI?

Games Studies: games as cultural artifact -    structuralist, semiotic, narrative, sociological

designers: langs for talking about design -    pattern languages

implementation -    no connection to analysis or design

There is a place for a white-box analysis -    conversations with design and analysis interacts with code (as architectural structures)

Game AI

Game AI encompasses broad technologies -    pathfinding, models of emotion, finite states

common link between technologies is that they produce behaviour that can be read as intelligence  (Turing sense)

Related to Newell’s knowledge level and Dennett’s intentional stance

Examples of ‘reading’ game AI -    Enemies in first-person shooters -    The Sims -    Strategic AI in strategy games

Space Invaders – deterministic and unintentional (not really creatures and definitely not AI)

Both AI and physics produce behaviour

AI: lang of intentional behaviour -    AI lies at intersection of player perception of behaviour and code producing behaviour -    Full understanding of game requires accounting for player response to intentional behaviour -    For example, consider Pac Man o    Pattern language analysis •    Enemies that chase player contact results in loss of life) •    Power-ups create vulnerabilities in enemies •    Maze structures •    Difficulty curve •    Level completion via clearing desired objects Game studies perspective -    eating as inversion of shooting (gender implications) o    one of first games popular with women -    narrative of futile consumption -    genre analysis situating game relative to other games with chasin mazes, etc

Critical missing element -    behaviour of the ghosts and how thisimpacts the player experience -    saying ghosts ‘chase’ the player is not enough -    chasing in a line makes speed only variable o    not enough, since merely a speed game -    constantly working together to corner player would be impossibly hard -    much of actuall gameplay dependent on fine details of ghost behavour

Behaviour of ghosts in original pacman very finely tuned to work -    students trying to replicate this struggle, because this part is so important

Iwatani on the Ghost AI (designer of pac man) -    what was most difficult part of designing the game? -    IWATANI: the algorithm for the four ghosts who are dire enemies of the Pac Man – getting all the movements lined up correctly… -    Variation across ghosts (each ghost performs different role) -    Other two ghosts are random -    Variation across time for ghosts (attack patterns)

No complete description of ghost AI -    unable to find it -    much disagreement about the ghosts o    even simple AI supports richness of interpretation -    much of game play of PacMan results from this AI -    Analysis that included the ghost AI would of necessity open the black box

Example: Façade -    design exploration of ‘interactive story’ -    ludology vs narratology -    we’re investigating this question within a concrete architecture

Research: Expressive AI -    focuses on audience o    what architectures support readable behaviour -    Expressive AI focuses on authorship o    Authorial control over behaviour

Power Up: Computer Games and ideology John Dovey?, Helen Kennedy, Seth Giddings, University of Western England

Call for Methodological Clarity -    determine questions we ask and answers we get

what kinds of ideological critique are poss - or useful -  in the (re) emergent studies of play and computer games?

Critique grounded in ideology

Problems -    what might constitute an ideological critique at this point in history? -    How to do this without feeling like we are contributing to moral panic discourses? -    How to do this without trying to sanitise games? o    Defensive response has been to celebrate games -    Do we have to ask the audience (or can we phone a friend) o    Cautious specificity -    Its only a game o    Play exists outside of ideology. •    Plato vs. huizinga •    Play ideological inert, simply exists

Overview of methodologyies

5 framework -    ludic culture o    practice of agon contra play o    beyond notion of postmodernism as playful o    economic effects of globalisation make everyday life more risky o    characteristics of long term benefit of modernism has become more of a gamble (Beck’s risk culture) o    Simulacra (not in Baudrillard terms) •    way of modelling world helps us understand the world? •    A cybernetic problem •    Simulation becomes a way of producing real knowledge •    Simulation has become a significant way of producing knowl •    If play’s neutrality relies on separation from every day life, then play becomes crucial to ideological investigation •    technologically mediated •    increasingly ludic culture -    representation o    most games still use representation to remain contextually aligned with XX of power -    identity o    to read, use text is to do identity work o    concepts of identity and hegemony o    become who we are o    identity as permanently dynamic •    Turkle, etc -    Hegemony o    Power and ideology accustomed to using concept of hegemony to power, without falling into effects thinking o    All texts not function as propganda o    Transgressive pleasures of identity, hegemonist have more complex questions about what is to be done •    Cheating, modding, gender -    play theory o    try to understand what became an underpinning theme of good boys and bad girls, bad play and good play •    Brian Sutton Smith (play comes to us with a rich cultural history •    Unless aware of the questions within them, then will go around in circles

No single methodology

Gladiator, Worker, Operative: The hero of the first person shooter adventure Rune.klevjer@intermedia.uib.no

Technology, Modernity links Detour to bigger questions of ideology

First person shooter – ultimate example of techno-play (leads up-grade race) -    Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Dark Forces, Half Life, Unreal, Golden Eye, Medal of Honor, NOLF, Timesplitters, Red Faction, Halo, James Bond007 -    Debate about ‘adventure’ or ‘military simulator’ (focus on former)

Arena vs the quest Playing the machine -    using world as a metphor or interface Riding the camera-gun -    your vision follows the gun – wherever it is directed o    psycho-analytical dimensions: destruction, phallic -    peculiar set-up is a technological articulation -    goes back to when film was invented, place the camera on a train -    first person shooter is an extension of the ‘look of the machine’ (being a train) -    cultural fascination with moving very fast and destroying eth in your way.

Interested in practice of playing with a machine only

Single player shooter is art, multi-player is sport -    single: quest, -    multi: arena

two types of practices -    being a gladiator (warfare, in classical shooters) o    Roger Callois (dangerous kind of play) •    Mimetic play is ok and vertigo is ok, but combination is shamonistic (trying to put this behind us) o    Combining mimetic play (imaginary) with vertigo

Callouis -    games involving glas, special effects, and ghosts o    “The disconcerting reflections that multiply and distort the shape of one’s body, the yhybrid fauna of embryonic…”

The Carnivalesque and the grotesque body (Bakhtin) -    FPS: The grotesque is the other -    The carnivalesque in a box

This kind of culture has been suppressed by modernity -    Bakhtin celebrates this

Otherside is Civilised worker/soldier

Odysseus (PhD researcher MIT) the Machine-Look

Combination of mythical hero with civilised worker/soldier hero -    techno-festishist …

Relationship to ideology? -    unclear

Technology in the imageof the gun -    Pre-modern and hyper-modern -    A grotesque mirror of civilised modernity -    Celebration? Defiance? Parody?

Absurd celebration of technological power in image of gun, which is always up in your face

Parody of modern technological power

Also vertogenius – machine gun makes you feel XXX

Therapeutic? Critique? (of society)

Feminism ‘in’ and ‘at’ play: female quake players and the politics of subversion Helen Kennedy

A position paper: where I am located in terms of my politics Relationship between play and culture How is this bound up in our other understandings of hegemony and power Transformative power of play and insubordinate pleasures -    contested and tentative authority

Derrida -    declarations are performative (constitute that which they try to describe)

www.chiq.net

Iraq: threat of women as last preserve

Yvonne Tasker’s ‘musclinity’ (cf/ masculinity)

Care for Me: Maintenance Play Mary Flanagan, Hunter College, New York Digital artist interested in themes of the domestic

Aspects of life requiring constant maintenance

When play is no longer fun – relate to sports

Game: Neighbours from Hell

Over 62million neo-pets -    over 60% of owners are women

Conceptual Lens: Doll play in the US (historical use of dolls relates to use of characters in SIMS)

Tendency of people to ‘subvert’ their SIMs

SIMS online – who are you when you are online? Care giving or are you them?

Care giving behaviours

Family Values: Ideology and the SIMS Miguel Sicart, Miguel@itu.dk Interested in Ethics and Technology

Althusser: Ideology -    subconscious structure built on t concrete values and contents of a power apparatus in a specific moment of time -    ideology for t individual, is t set of values with which reality as means of production is represented: t rules that determine t represn of t world

not possible to marry homosexual couples in the game

Antigone, Creon and the non-existence of woman: what we can learn about the failureof the Sims online from reading Jacques Lacan Charles Kriel, Kingston University (also a BBC DJ)

Issues of the uncanny

All drives are virtually death drives -    not to destruction, but backward, restoration of earlier state (inertia) -    each drive pursues its own extinction -    go beyond pleasure principles, joy experienced as suffering

lies at heart of cultural community

Freud: no universal instinct of higher ….

Death drive works for winning for subject as potential immortality

Drive which reflects what freud calls the discovery.

Beyond temporality

Casts us out of what we seek most

All kinds of cultural mediation

Prohibition of incest, no more than a subjective pivot

Conversation: Brian Sutton Smith and Eric Zimmerman

Brian Play as fate, frivolity

Eric -    games considered as play / framed as culture

Need new or different theories of games?

Eric defines play as:

Eric contrasts with Goffmann definition of games: “Matrix of poss events and cast of roles, through whose enactment the even occur….” -    implies fate and drama, but not in Goffmann’s definition

Eric: definition of play not just applied to digital games importance of printing technology in changing nature of games

Brian; Emotions and Brain activity Kinds of emotions asso with games Anger is the kind of emotion that fuels contest Games fuelled by the fantasy of some emotion (mainly anger) Anger is theatre of occasion Definition of contest/game needs a discussion about way in which particular game modulates that emotion (rules, referees, spirit, etc) Use of word playful -    framing of play and spontaneity of play emotion triggered by chemical transmitter -    for play, perhaps seratonin o    ME: unlikely

Many people who play are not playful, but are still playing Lee Barnet -    playful: exuberant Eric: Brian’s ambiguity of play -    play as cultural -    ideology of play rhetoric of play rhetoric of progress as way of denying that play is valuable in and of itself rhetoric of the imaginary

play as brain chemicals useful for designers? Film makers do not design films based upon way in which biology underpins enjoyment of films

Brian: What is constant across different rhetoric

Eric: Include commercial game industry, when saying games are about contestation?

Brian: Interested in what is underlying contest games We are generally collaborative cultures, cannot afford to contest Eric: Are we game developers making mistakes with play?

Brian: Game Researchers are not critical about what they do. Developers are distanced from their emotions Not as dangerous as, say, a football match Literature on children’s engagement with play is that the object is not the?/? Need to work out vocabulary of distance What things remind the child that they are in the play sphere? Normal kids don’t need this, but others might Being attacked for creating an aggressive society, which is untrue

Eric: Earlier, dungeons and dragons, etc were seen in similar way

Brian: Every generation is offended by freedom that their children have Feel that children are being destroyed ‘cultural neuroses’ -    vigilance anxiety: because children become more vigilant, this encourages more anxious vigilance as a whole critics are in the progress rhetoric when people are impoverished, people grow up to be ‘fighters’ games make people feel confident in the face of the perils in which they live none of us really know why we play other pleasures? -    ME: suggestive as instrumentality seems debilitative to his position Play is an uncomfortable thing when you get close to it -    is potentially ‘uncivilised’ Play, Arts, and Religion -    the big worlds play is fun to make us feel better about being in a lousy world consoling phenomena

Eric: Is it useful to reduce play?

Thursday Morning

Pervasive Gaming (THEATRON)

Content creation for pervasive games Staffan Bjork

Some research questions in ubiquitous gaming

Ubiquitous computing field

Pirates!

Can You see me now? Steve Benford (email him for video of the game) Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham

Game of chase Online players access virtual model of a city Can run through city Send text messages Then get chased by people in the city Equipped with hand held GPS Can see where online players are in relation to city Need to understand that if you cross a virtual road, you are actually making somebody cross a real road (online actions have physical effect on somebody on the ground) Staged in sheffield, Rotterdam….

Lessons learned

Evaluation draws on ethnography, discussions with audiences and analysis of system los Experiencing uncertainty (GPS deeply flakey! Errors of 3-300m, not available all the time (signal), -    online players have a mixed experience -    runners constantly battle t technologies runners had an invisibility power -    no. could not always connect (but this became part of game, though some players exploited it, e.g. standing in shaded part of a building lowers signal) four strategies to deal with uncertainty -    remove it (better technology) -    hide it -    reveal it (interfaces which give impression of where good and bad gps is) -    exploit it (make it part of the experience)

people are insured actors! Not for public yet – insurance problem

Uncle Roy all Around you: Blast Teory, MRL, BT Exact, UCL Amanda Oldroyd Amanda.oldroyd@bt.com (ASK FOR HER VIDEO OF UNCLE ROY)

Following on from can you see me now Role: create technology to allow people to experience these new activities

Uncle Roy All Around You Mixed reality, theatre and game experience Players on streets with handheld device, guiding around Westminster Virtual players have representation of streets Have to find uncle roy’s office Once found, asked some questions

End of game, people were asked if they would make a commitment of support to a stranger for 12 months. Over 250 couples agreed to be there for each other

Blur boundaries between game space and physical world

Blurring perceptual boundaries

Major theme is trust -    trust in players, environment, online playters

street players are ISOLATED as a street player (must surrender your belongings)

have to decide whether to trust Roy or online players

invited to places that would not normally go to -    ME: leverage city regeneration?

Engage with world in a new way

Online players have different game experience -    able to monitor and remain anonymous

Pervasive Gaming and Qualitative Social Science Steffen p. Walz, Zurich, Switzerland, steffen.walz@hgkz.dk http://www.madcountdown.com (Cultural anthropologist)

example of a qualitative study utilising pervasive game, custom built on basis of ethnographic studies of a certain environment

to research social relationships of proximity and distance

issues of trust and risk arise when augment everyday life with games

‘MadCountdown’

have to find a bomb in a certain number of hours, within a building

ME: rejects magic circle thesis, but a  weak, seemingly semantic rejection

Distinguish game from ‘physicality’ or ‘real-life’

Methodology: group discussion, log filing, participant observation

5 groups of 4 teams

Content Creation for Pervasive Games Karl-Petter Akesson kale@sics.se Swedish Institute of Computer Science

Background in electrical engineering

Interested in interaction in physical space, but border between virtual and physical

Poss solutions to provide content

Scenes -    have players configure the spaces -    find local relationships between -    elf ears (enhance sound) -    pre-made or player created

artefacts/Props

Computational building blocks

Pervasive Social Games and Learning Frans Mayra

Mobile games Potential for educational purposes as well as entertainment Counteracting towards negative image of videogames, using bodies to their full potential -    (e.g. Dance Dance Revolution) Potential for non-traditional game concepts that break the genre and gameplay boundaries and reach new, non-hardcore-gamer audiences

What research is needed? -    better understanding of various pervasive gameplay dynamics -    implantations that could be evaluated and experimented with -    systematic research frameworks that suit these research purposes o    hermenutic field, need to create something to understand research challenges

-    two such frameworks o    playability analysis o    mobile learning evaluation frameworks (developed in CC-DES and MOBIlearn projects; Tampere)

Morphone project (mobil games in homes)

Edugaming in Finland consortium -    location-aware mobile games and problem-based learning, role playing and team based learning and coordination, use of simulations in professional learning)

Design features of pervasive games Jussi Holopainen, Nokia research Center (Finland)

Competition (Goal-Oriented activity, against system or players) Cooperation (trust, mistrust) Community (we are social beings, situated in a real world) Presence (critical to pervasive games; how structure different levels of presence into game)

Game Playing Communities and Cultural Politics of Gaming (Thursday afternoon)

Andrew McTavish

Access to means of cultural production

Michel de Certeau ‘The Practice of everyday life’’ -    ideology-of-consumption-as-receptacle -    ‘the text has meaning only through its readers it changed along with them’

henry Jenkins, Textual Poachers -    poaching for fan-based production -    exceeds de Certeau’s ‘nomadic’ intertextual reader -    fan-creators contest over production

Consu,ption Bad? Production good?

Matt hills, Fan Cultures -    ‘rigid assumptions that fandom and production are…’

Game Modding -    productive practices that problematize further t dichotomy between bad consumption and good prodn -    modding: people creatinve characteristics of games, skins, etc. (modifications/modifying) -    commercial interests’ response to these productive gaming practices

case study: DOOM Valve and Half-Life -    released in 1998 -    long shelflife and modding community -    commercialised amateur mod o    counter strike o    day of defeat 3.0

Regulating Fan Production -    official modding tools -    end-user license agreements (EULA)

end user license agreements to engines -    define legitimate and illlegitimate uses of mod tools -    defines modding as legitimate -    commoditizing modding itself?

Relationship between game producers and player-producers is contradictory Access to means of prodn Regulated access to means of prodn Game modding can be form of resistance, but also can particupate in t commodification of games and forms of productcive gaming practices

Multi-player first person shooters Uni of Queensland

Interrel between media technology and culture Degree to which game texts and associated technology facilitate culture

Games can be described as co-creative media Neither players nor developers solely responsible for assemblage of game Quake 3 Arena To use must go through Server facility

Something comes out of community, becomes commercialised, then becomes too commercial for the community

Question from Audience: Notion of player problematic here? Surely a player-producer ‘hybrid’ player-creator Unions of Modders??

Answer: There is a hierarchy of player-creators Power-play

ME: this mod lot really does seem like a meaningful practice community

Patches of Peace: Tiny Signs of Agency in Digital Games Cindy Poremba, Simon Fraser University, 2003.

Examines authorship in response to 9-11 as context to examine player authorship

Response  (through games) to 9-11 events rapid and varied Shifting cultural landscape

Player-created artefacts are an integral part of digital games Players can manifest true agency through t authorship of independent

Games malleable and player-defined (de Koven)

Game artifcats reflect reinforce t shared social reality of player-prod community

Primary agency of digital game player is manifest in authorship of game artefacts (adapted from Gell, art and agency?)

“Search for t well player game is what holds t community together. But t freedom to change t game is what gives t community its power’ Bernie De Koven, the Well Played Game

player-created artefacts different from mods, mods are more specific

player guilds and cross-game collectives.

“Pimp daddy” -    everquest, character created a pimping service o    didn’t actually add anything to the game

Velvet Strike -    reframing game space -    instead of shooting, spray paint -    game intervention, critique of games, violence, terrorism -    game space has been transformed -    directed to external audience (activists, artists) o    non playing audience

Tiny Signs of Hope, (download peace) -    no longer online!

Game subculture and effect on player authorship

Ready use of games as co-creative media

Role of player authorship in response to significant cultural events such as 9-11 (11 September)

Games as media have just scratched surface

Edinburgh International Games Festival (2003)

Notes from Edinburgh International Games Festival, August, 2003. Intro (Clive)

Emphasis creative aspect of game development

Tom Stone (LEGO MD)

“The future of entertainment is interactive” Exhibition has been sold out

CG industry fuelled by new alignment with established industries, Film, TV, book, sports rights

What is relationship with intellectual property? -    exploit or add to quality of IP?

Who should be paying whom for IPR?

Sony and Microsoft has interactive entertainment is core to their strategies

Korea, online games becoming enormous

Lara croft, film industry is borrowing ‘our’ IP

Contribution games make to society?

How do we want to be thought of and what is being done to influence that?

New award initatives? Edinbugh’s EDGE award

“Need to take our place at the cultural and artistic top table.”

Rod Cousens (Worldwide President – Acclaim)

Welcome to the Games industry: Mass Media, Toy or Social Phenomenon?

Panel:

Alexander Kritovski, Journalist, about to embark on Phd in social psychology

Michele Cassius, EA exec, now Microsoft’s X-Box development,

Chris van der Kyle, CEO Biz entertainment, Chairman of Young Enterprise Scotland, Visiting Prof. Uni of Abertay Dundee

Ray Maguire, Sega Megadrive, now Sony Playstation UK,

David Gosen, Formerly BskyB, now Nintendo, took over N64 and gameboy, now game cube

Nick Parker, Nintendo, now Sony, VP Strategic Planning

Games industry often viewed as competition to music industry

Today, gaming is a different story.

Stresses interactivity of industry from creative perspective

Online component opening up new social experiences

Story telling now demanded in games

Content? Too violent? Too many war style games? Too realistic?

Stats suggest lack of interest in gaming from women -    lack of interest or game just too narrow?

Games not responsible for moss side

Social experience with realism, more real than reality-TV

Nick Parker, Parker Consulting Ltd,

The Cultural Evlution of Video Games

1962, Ship, space Warp 1980 – pac-man, pac-man coin-op 1984 – Miner Willy, Jet Set Willy, C64

Growing market

128-bit console battle steady growth in PAL software Euro

in real terms market never declined since 1995

fcompare with cinema box office industry ($5billion), currently on trajectory to ($6billion).

Should be taken more seriously than we are Best selling franchises -    only 5 based on tv/movie licence

Tomb Raider has highest awareness than any other game

“Market is  still lacking mass appeal being highly segmented in gavour of the more hardcore gamer”

The evolution of Gaming Complexity -    pong: up/down, one AI ball Pac Man -    up/down, left right, multiple pick up

FIFA Fottball 93

The Sims 2.0 -    AI families with DNA

Don’t want to get too realistic with graphics. Maintain the magic and creativity and fictionality of games

A Changing Demographic – who plays Game

1993: 50% under 13 yrs old (perceptions of being childish) 2002: 55% 18-35 yr olds 2002: women 10% of players (is mass market we need to access) 2002: 14% are senior generation (35 yrs plus)

Awareness of top licences different between men an women

Men: lara, tombraider, pokemon, teris Female: tetris, sims, From Vision magazine Women like cutesy platform game

The evolution of marketing

Series of PS commercials. From 1991

1.    8-bit NES: age profile, 8-10. price of £99. no price inflation over 10 yrs for console 2.    supernintendo (1994): game show with rick mayall, 3.    PS1 campaign, reverse psych, society against playstation: 4.    backdrop of different people speaking about their experience, abstract, unclear, implication is gaming and what people do when playing. Doublelife: “for years I’ve lived a double life..” Do not underestimate the power of playstation (GET THIS ONE) 5.    In chefs kitchen, not released, censored by French. Abuse of food. Picking nose, etc. 6.    X box, woman giving birth, baby flies across city while growing old, lands in grave, ‘Life is Short’ ‘Play More’, X-box

Biggest evangelists are hardcore gamers, despite adverts

Commercials not main trigger

Word of mouth and mentor endorsement is (e.g. magazine) main trigger

Demo discs and IDUs work

Irreverence is cool for console brands at launch – PS reefer papers at Glastonbury, chill-out rooms at clubs, snowboard sponsorship, etc

But mass market demands simple communications and wide access to products which is only just starting (PS ads, Eye Toy (next trivial pursuit for christmas), supermarkets) -    Fun Anyone PS campaign

The Future?

Online games market revenue growing Screen Digest report into online gaming (2002) -    can play tetris on Sky for 50p per game -    enormous growth in next 4 yrs

console subscriptions and mobile gaming big boom

Games on Demand

Yahoo, download game play

PSP -    mobile game device

USB 2.0 Memory stick Sony – all singing, all dancing unit for adults -    includes everything for computing

Conclusions

Lng term market value linear growth Evidence = continued growth

Online play revenues wil more than complement boxed ales

Technology progress unlocked gameplay potential

Marketing communication has influenced demographic expansion, but industry must seek to convert non-believers to make games market greatest entertainment medium through its inherent interactive and technological advantages.

Discussion

Ray Maguire: only 10 years since Sony made games.

Is it an expensive form of entertainment compared to other forms: audience says YES!

Games are too long

Disposable time more important than disposable income in game industry. Game are too long.

Are games toys or more? -    too much naval gazing on segmenting the market -    11 yr old boys want to play same games as 16yr olds or 23yr olds -    gamers segmented by games, not age -    ME: types of game changes related to time of day or week

Alex: Need for quality pick-up-and-play games

Perception of quality for audience is what matters, not what game developers think is quality

ME: limitedness of quality inr elation to technical excellence limits the potential for gaming to be a valued cultural industry. If cinema was  merely about good cinematography, it would have little value. The development of characters and emotional connectivity is what matters, not functionality.

Ray Maguire: We’re not very good at telling stories. Need to think about plot development. But is also very difficult to do with an open ended activity. This is why some of most successful games is racing. Next stage is getting acceptance for older age group.  CONTACT HIM

Game playing isolating experience? Miohel: yes and no. single player game yes, but social phenomenon it is. Multi-player and online games need to play with somebody else. Dimension of social interaction allows it to enjoy a broader appeal. Will increase. Social phenomenon also because it influences other media. Matrix conceived through a ‘game-like’ conceptualisation. ME: this is interesting. How does a games-world view influence genre, such as sci-fi?

Games as male stronghold? Alex: not the games that put women off, it’s the advertising.

Seamus Blackley, Vice President, Capital Entertainment Group, sponsored by Tiga

Busted Games are not as big as film Games are in danger of becoming a derivative medium

Games bigger than film is myth of creative accounting 2002 us total retail games softtware sales, £5.5bn 2002 US total games market $10.3bn =$5.5.bn softare, 3.5 hardwhere, 1.3bn, peripherals

movie ind 2002 US box office: $9.1bn (1.9 billion tickets 2002 video rentals $8.4bn (3billion transactions)

Games lose on total sales by more than 2x Lose on content

Crushed on transactions/impressions -    162.7mm sofare units sold vs. 1.9 billion tickets

Games not nearly as big as TV 2001 NAB/TVB data $54.4bn US advertising

2002 US Music Sales $12.2

2002 US Leis Ent book $9.2

Games are not a cultural driver -    they used to be, pacman fever -    due to novelty then had to start earning audience. -    PIXAR lesson: Computer generated characters interesting briefly, good characters last longer

Games from 80s more pop cultural force than anything we produce today. -    Mark Ecko at Ziff 2002 -    G4 graphics -    Retro edge -    Hummer H2 US national campaign (opens with Astreroids) Why?

Todays games not exploiting pop culture

Instead being driven by it -    publishers crawl over one another to get access to IP from other media Film adaptation of game is seen as Validation

We chase our own tail -    Sequelitis: instead of investing in new IP, we mobilize crusty old games o    How many versions of Frogger can there be With are consciously, forfeiting own creative process in favour of external ideas

There are exceptions -    cultural hits that touch nerve in mainstream culture o    sims, GTA3, final fantasy

need to concentrate as industry on intentionally building games thatr have this power

need to be honest about audience – wh is it

Audience

Games portrayed negatively Disempowers us as an industry

Not true that this is our core audience -    actually have significant disposable income

people making legislation are not actually members of our culture!!!!!

For consoles and pcs, 80% of sales happen where most people don’t go

Only one way to look at it,

To continue growing need to explicitly target demographic

Need to stop looking to external creative content to do job

The IP problem -    publishers want awesome novel hit titles -    but need predictable revenue o    love sequels and licenses o    love proven teams and ideas -    unfortunately recent success of license properties is teaching dangerous lesson -    data shows that real money is in original IP (for any creative industry)

Theses

Value of original IP seems to be misunderstood -    strange given process paid for iP for other industries -    and given prices paid for game IP o    Max Payne $15m (to character and story) Industry at unsustainable position Other creative industries have gone through that -    IP generation is the core of the business

Must find a way to concentrate on original IP production

IP nd prodn process

Have not take lessons from other hits businesses -    structures to supp creative flexibility

we have structures that increasingly inhibit successful innovation -    milestone payments royalty structure, greenlight process must fix this

learn what other industries’ creative pros already understand -    conservative is not professional o    audience wants to be surprised -    best chance to be successful is work on projects of passion

Hits are engineered, not discovered!

Discussion:

Games industry more like music industry, but music industry works by having produced work on your own, in games industry that is difficult.

How can developers persuade publishers to go with an idea -    act responsibly and professionally when you pitch something

how get more creative people into game development -    it is a hard problem to tell stories in games, it is not that game developers are unaware of how to tell stories -    important to be passionate at games, not just a story teller

how will games courses at universities affect industry? -    critical and brilliant

Scotland leading way in UK

Chris Deering, President of Sony Entertainment Europe: Hollywood or Bust panel discussion

Panellists:

Peter Mullinue,  Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park, Jason Kingsley, Alien vs. Predator, Tom Clancy’s, Tiga, Judge Dredd Brian Fraser, Alias sequels James Shean, Roller Coaster Tycoon – got people to submit their designs for the game through the web Charles Clemonson, MGM Licensing, 007 Scott Baylis, Exec Prod EA

Must think about editing process in films

Need to enhance affective gaming attributes

Scotland has been well head of most significant recent games.

Is notion of scripts and games an unnecessary distraction? Do people just want to play? -

EDGE Award -    for cultural impact

Game Gym for campuses? -    explore way in which can introduce gaming into universities.

Discussion on Hollywood or Bust

Film/TV maker and game developer must understand each others fundamentals

Actors role is interest in likeness

A-list talent is willing but ignorant

Game narrative more like TV than film

Music faces similar challenges to writing

Do not write a score -    write music in chunks and trust game designer

Pre-production is key

Game development writer is lonely enterprise

Game developers don’t understand how films are made

To make industry leader, need good story and good performance

World Without Rules – Meet Your Makers

Jez San OBE, CEO Argonaut Games Finbar Hawkins – fightbox, take concept through web-pc-tv www.bbc.co.uk/fightbox Community enabled by technology

Innovation through Evolution

Innovation to t rescue for a rebirth Prince of Persia – Sands of Time

No real innovation in games

But real difference is level of realisation

Pre-production critical

Animation is THE field where quantity = quality -    no Motion capture, all hand drawn

Molyneux

-    Fable -    RPG is about playing a character. Should be able to play who you like. o    E.g. if out in sun, get a tan. If carrying big weapon, arm gets more muscular. o    Also build game with other heroes. Compete with other heroes to solve quest o    Simulated world can be affected e.g. people react to what you do e.g. walk around and swear at people e..g. be able to chat up people or kids in village dress like you and want to be you o    Playing with friends should be poss, upto 4 people can play fable

Discussion

Dominic Dially, New Modern Age -    online gaming innovative future?

Online console gaming interesting

Politics of Gaming? -    characters, stories, etc

Miamoto Shigero San -    Double Das and Mariokart

Phelong – Composer, Broken Sword and others

21st century art form industry is about communication

Panel: Williams, Hanagan, Deutsch

History of use of music, Deutsch -    new art forms borrow from old, then distinguish themselves -    music reinforcing what audience needed to be told -    also continuity between shots -    and need to take particular parts of film more emotionally seriously than others

Lang of muic in fames not yet worked out. Listeners is part of game and in film aim is to bring listen to the game

2001 Odyssey ending? -    meaning of embryo, etc -    revolutionary music written 80yrs before film and the film was cut to the film o    Ricard Strauss, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in relation to Nietzsche’s book, within which is the quote ‘What is ape to man, a laughing stock or a painful embarrassment. thus is man to superman”

Kubrick had to cut picture to the existing music -    new and innovative -    not happy with film now

Gregson-Williams, Shrek, Spygame, Armageddon, Rock, Metal Gear Solid

James Hannigan – played video of how to put music onto game – ASK FOR VIDEO

Deutsch -    model is that we have a player who wants to put themselves into a film (i.e. game) -    change metaphor for music in games -

What do you get if...? (2009 March)

I organized a 2 day event as part of the EPSRC Digital Economy cluster. The first was on Web 2.0 and the Arts, the second on Web 2.0 and Health.

Social Technologies Summit (13-19 May, 2009)

Part of Futuresonic festival in Manchester

Facebook went down

At approximately 1030pm GMT, Facebook went down, at least it did for me. What's going on I wonder. I was engrossed in a conversation with a friend I've not spoken to for over 15 years too. How about that?

Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds (15 Aug, 2008)

Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual WorldsCall for chapters

Scholarly articles on emerging issues of life in virtual worlds such as Second Life are solicited.  Work that connects streams of ethics research and theory to virtual worlds as they are and to what they are developing into is particularly sought.  Among the virtual world issues explicitly invited are: privacy, monitoring and eavesdropping, the fear of being exploited, the loss of identity, ethical impacts of aesthetic decisions, values and ethics manifested in the social processes and their relevance for activities such as design there, professional ethics, standards of integrity given identity issues and practices, malevolence and altruism, legal and ethical doctrines of confidential and privileged information, ethics for students and instructors, ethical development stages and issues, vandalism, harassment and crime, how ethics and values are inscribed in the discourse and practices of social groups, and how they can change and emerge in the midst of pragmatic concerns, such as collective tasks.

Proposals of any length are welcome, though the more detailed and clear the easier it will be for us to have it properly reviewed. Also, include your full contact information, institution affiliation and position. Please include information on your related publications and other work.

Schedule. Proposals due August 15, 2008. Notification of acceptance/rejection decision after review process, September 1, 2008. First drafts of chapters due, January 15, 2009. Revised final drafts due, March 15, 2009. Publication, June 15, 2009 (Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC).

Editors: Charles Wankel, St. John's University, New York, and Shaun Malleck, University of California, Irvine. Send all correspondence to both wankelc@stjohns.edu and skmalleck@gmail.com . Include in the subject field VW ETHICS.

Journalists at the Beijing 2008 Olympics

In an attempt to start assembling journalists that will be in Beijing, I've put together a Facebook group to share impressions, understanding and knowledge about orientation. If you're going and you're covering the Games as a journalist, please join the group:  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10776325266&ref=mf

Blogging in Beijing

A couple of days ago, I interviewed for ABC Radio on the recent discussions about blogging at the Beijing Olympics. Here's the transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/sportsfactor/stories/2008/2179195.htm 

SciBarCamp (Tornoto, March 15-16, 2008)

my kind of event, why aren't i going!?

SciBarCamp

Table of contents

1. 1. Sponsorship
2. 2. Organisers and Advisors

SciBarCamp is a gathering of scientists, artists, and technologists for a weekend of talks and discussions.  It will take place at Hart House at the University of Toronto on the weekend of March 15-16, with an opening reception on the evening of March 14.  The goal is to create connections between science, entrepreneurs and local businesses, and arts and culture.  The themes are:

• The edge of science (eg, synthetic biology, quantum gravity, cognitive science)
• The edge of technology (eg, mobile web, ambient computing, nanotechnology, web 2.0)
• Science 2.0 (open access, changing models of publication and collaboration, scientific software)
• Scientific literacy and public engagement (eg, one laptop per child project, policy and science, technology as legislation, enfranchising the poor, the young, the old)
• The interactions of science, art and culture:  Scientists and artists as partners in the continuing evolution of the culture.

In the tradition of BarCamps, otherwise known as "unconferences", (see BarCamp.org for more information), the program is decided by the participants at the beginning of the meeting, in the opening reception.  Presentations and discussion topics can be proposed here or on the opening night.  SciBarCamp will require active participation; while not everybody will present or lead a discussion, everybody will be expected to contribute substantially - this will help make it a really creative event.

The talks will be informal and interactive; to encourage this, speakers who wish to give PowerPoint presentations will have ten minutes to present, while those without will have twenty minutes.  Around half of the time will be dedicated to small group discussions on topics suggested by the participants.  The social events and meals will make it easy to meet people from different fields and industries.  Our venue, Hart House, is a congenial space with plenty of informal areas to work or talk, and there will be free wireless access throughout.

Our goals are:

• Igniting new projects, collaborations, business opportunities, and further events.
• Intellectual stimulation and good conversation.
• Integrating science into Toronto's cultural, entrepreneurial, and intellectual activities.
• Prototyping a model that can be easily duplicated elsewhere.

Attendance is free, but there is only space for around 100 people, so please register by sending an email to Jen Dodd (dodd.jen@gmail.com) with your name and contact details.  Please include a link to your blog or your organization's webpage that we can display with your name on the participants list at www.SciBarCamp.org.

Sponsorship

Thanks to our sponsors so far!

• Hart House
• Microsoft
• Mindtouch
• Scimatic Software

We're looking for sponsorship for SciBarCamp.  If you're interested in sponsoring, please contact Jen Dodd (dodd.jen@gmail.com, +1 (519) 572 2275).

Organisers and Advisors

SciBarCamp has three advisors:

• Michael Nielsen (blog, homepage)
• Karl Schroeder (homepage)
• Lee Smolin (homepage)

and three organisers:

• Eva Amsen (blog, Nature Networks, homepage)
• Jen Dodd
• Jamie McQuay (blog)

Human Futures @ FACT launch

Last night was the launch of the Human Futures exhibit SK-interfaces at FACT. It was really extraordinary and nice to see some friends come over for the event. The highlight was the performance of http://www.yannmarussich.ch 'Blue Remix'. Photos are in my Flickr photoset. this image is of his assistant and I was moved by the care and attention this man gave to the whole process. Made me wish i could take better photographs.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVSPw1XrRK0]

Futuresonic Conference (1-2 May, 2008, Manchester, UK)

Futuresonic Conference 1-2 May 2008 with supporting events 30 April & 3 May

Online, Mobile and Unplugged Social Networking explored by leading figures developing the next generation of social software alongside Richard Stallman founder of the Free Software movement and Gerd Leonhard on the future of music, plus keynotes, critical debates, demos, experiences and open sessions on mobile social software, freeing space in the augmented city, the future of music, how game design can revolutionise social software, OpenID and who is keeping an eye on the kids. Register before 1 February and save £90 on a Delegate Pass.

http://www.futuresonic.com/

Human Futures

FACT's new programme for 2008 is advertised in their Oct-Dec brochure. Human Futures looks to be an excellent series of exhibitions, events and debates about such themes as medicine, the body, technology, art and more. It's so closely tied to so much of my research that I doubt I'll have much cause to leave Liverpool while it's running It also shares similar themes with 'Ethical Futures' , a project that I have become involved with at the RSA. Perhaps the two communities will meet

Hypertope

The second 2.0 platform of the day is Hypertope. I was kindly informed about this via this blog and I just subscribed. Finally, something specifically for academics. I'm a bit nervous about having to maintain another webspace, but maybe it'll be easy to combine. It certainly looks very interesting. They have a free join-up for a limited period only, then it's by invitation. PS: thanks for the correction guys ;)  hyperTOPE, not hyperTROPE! got it. at least, the link was accurate :)