Play as a Performance
Tuesday, 24th April 2007 Emma Westecott, Games Research Fellow, Synergy Video stream (rm) This lecture will interleave a retrospective of my work over the past 10 years in commercial games, web and research projects with my current thinking on games as a performance media. I will develop a narrative of work to communicate an ongoing interest in playfulness in the creation of digital experience. A key dynamic of the field of game studies in our post-modern climate is the active involvement of the player in the ongoing evolution of form; the player collides with the game system to create the media experience. This performance blurs the boundaries between producer and consumer in that the player simultaneously takes on both roles within the game. As a player I am both producing my experience in the ways in which I express my skill within a particular game play moment whilst simultaneously consuming the results of my actions. |