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1. Digital Arts and Literature – Is it Just a Game?

   “Games are not serious; digital art and literature are playful; therefore they are not serious”. Formulations such as these are sometimes used when discussing the playfulness of digital art and literature. The origin of this argument is based on the traditional opposition between “serious” and “playful”. Because of their interactive nature, digital art and literature have often been considered as particularly close to play - and to “mass culture”. Depending on the approaches, this proximity is interpreted as an opportunity, or as a risk, as I will show in this article.

   On the one hand, art and play are so closely related that it has become commonplace to assert: “art is play”, “play is art”. On the other hand, it seems equally impossible to deny the existence of playfulness in art and literature. Indeed, is it not one of their fundamental privileges to allow free, unselfish play with the materials, codes and conventions, while science, craft industry, and industrial design are "condemned" to produce and capitalise?

   Patricia Tomaszek - 12.01.2011 - 16:44

2. Workplace is Mediaspace is Cityscape: Nick Montfort on Book and Volume

   Workplace is Mediaspace is Cityscape: Nick Montfort on Book and Volume

   Eric Dean Rasmussen - 08.03.2011 - 14:54

3. Event-Space on the Move (On the Computer Games Philosophy)

   Event-Space on the Move (On the Computer Games Philosophy)

   Eric Dean Rasmussen - 07.04.2011 - 10:04

4. Why digital games and networks can help us to change reality and generate concrete changes in social environments

   Starting by questioning why digital games and networks can help us to change reality and generate concrete changes in social environments we will research the application of playful techniques and spaces to address the challenges of our present world. We will state that these strategies can be useful to scrutinize specific and real questions. Using social game examples such as Investigate your MP’s Expenses (2009), World Without Oil (2007), Superstruck, Invent the Future (2008), Evoke (2010) and Playing with Poetry (2010), the aim of the paper/presentation is to promote and expand the field of experimental alternate reality games (ARGs) in a broader context. We will analyze some social games such as Farmville or Mafia Wars, derivatives of Facebook networking social programs, and the aim of the work is to research questions like why can players become addicted to this kind of simulation even if these playable environments are monotonous, boring and obvious? Why every day millions of people plant vegetables and flowers in a predictable platform on the web?

   Eric Dean Rasmussen - 30.08.2011 - 11:56

5. Networked Improv Narrative (Netprov) and the Story of Grace Wit & Charm: Rob Wittig's Thesis Defense

   This is a recording of the 20 minutes or so of Rob Wittig's thesis presentation and oral exam for the MA at the University of Bergen, which was done on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 via Skype. Wittig's thesis outlines the genesis of a new network based genre at the interstices of game, improvisational theatre, literature, mass media and digital media. It was also the first MA thesis in the UiB Digital Culture program to include a fully developed creative project in electronic literature as well as an excellent theoretical thesis in print.

   Scott Rettberg - 14.12.2011 - 11:50

6. SurREAL: Dramatis Personae on the Digital Stage

   This panel will examine the textual (verbal and non-verbal) construction of characters as the key to representation and identity in cyberspace. The concept of “character” is not established a priori, but comes into being as participants in the digital world or text render words, images and movements into a perceived identity.

   The panellists will address questions of representation, fiction and reality as well as discussing techniques, patterns and codes used in creating and interpreting digital characters. Is it possible to represent oneself realistically in cyberspace? What is the relationship between realistically intended projections of ourselves and make-believe or fantastic characters? What are the relationships between the construction of characters in narrative and dramatic fiction and in computer games and online communities?

   In four complementary and interlinked perspectives on characters in digital environments, we will discuss how real and fictional people are represented and/or represent themselves in the varied contexts of online communities, computer games, hypertext fiction and artificial intelligence.

   Jill Walker Rettberg - 09.10.2012 - 22:27

7. Detective Stories in Digital Games

   Literary detective stories have some game-like elements, as they pose an implicit challenge for the reader to solve the crime before they read the solution (Suits, 1985). This paper will examine early detective games to argue that interactive detective investigations are essentially linked to textual exploration and exegesis; as text becomes de-emphasized, the detective work also takes a secondary role.

   According to Todorov’s typology of detective fiction (Todorov, 2000), detective games present two stories: the story of the crime and the story of the investigation. The first type of detective fiction, the whodunit, emphasizes the story of the crime, which the detective reconstructs, on the other hand, the thriller emphasizes the story of the investigation, by which the detective gets embroiled into the crime that he is solving.

   Jill Walker Rettberg - 20.06.2014 - 18:00

8. Interactive Digital Narrative

   The book is concerned with narrative in digital media that changes according to user input—Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN). It provides a broad overview of current issues and future directions in this multi-disciplinary field that includes humanities-based and computational perspectives. It assembles the voices of leading researchers and practitioners like Janet Murray, Marie-Laure Ryan, Scott Rettberg and Martin Rieser. In three sections, it covers history, theoretical perspectives and varieties of practice including narrative game design, with a special focus on changes in the power relationship between audience and author enabled by interactivity. After discussing the historical development of diverse forms, the book presents theoretical standpoints including a semiotic perspective, a proposal for a specific theoretical framework and an inquiry into the role of artificial intelligence. Finally, it analyses varieties of current practice from digital poetry to location-based applications, artistic experiments and expanded remakes of older narrative game titles.

   Scott Rettberg - 26.04.2015 - 12:19