CFP: Aesthetics of Play (Bergen)

We invite proposals for papers to be presented at the conference Aesthetics of Play, to be held at the University of Bergen 14-15 October 2005. The conference is hosted by the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, and is arranged in collaboration with Norway’s first game-art exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall.

We invite papers that address the diversity of cultural meanings as they are expressed in computer game technology and software. The notion of ‘aesthetics’ in this context is a broad one, encompassing the formal structures and audiovisual characteristics of games and game technologies as well as the wider epistemological, cultural and political dimensions of the gaming experience. Our aim is to contribute to the continued development of a cultural aesthetics of computer games, allowing us to better understand their role as mediators of cultural change. We especially want to encourage contributions that offer analytical ‘close-playings’ of particular games or genres. We invite a broad range of game-centred approaches, hoping to attract a rich mixture of highly focussed and particular investigations as well as broader more speculative work.

Areas of interest include but are not limited to:

- Game architectures. The analysis of formal, technological and narrative conventions of computer games
- The representations of society in contemporary game-worlds
- The epistemology of computer games
- The audiovisual aesthetics of computer games
- Theories and methods of game analysis
- Aesthetics and industrial imperatives

Abstracts of maximum 300 words should be submitted by 18 April, 2005 via the conference website http://www.aestheticsofplay.org.

Notice of acceptance will be sent out by 29 April, 2005.
Presenters will be asked to submit the full papers by 16 September, 2005.

All papers will be published in the online conference proceedings.
For more information visit the conference website at http:/www.aestheticsofplay.org or contact:

Eli Lea (eli.lea@uib.no) for practical or administrative inquiries
Rune Klevjer (rune.klevjer@infomedia.uib.no) for academic inquiries

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