IASH Speculative Lunch: Game Worlds
Academic Lead; Tom Boylston, Social Anthropology (SSPS)
Ours is a Ludic Century, according to Eric Zimmerman and Hannah Chaplin. We live within systems of increasing complexity, and games offer new tools to understand and engage with these systems. Playfulness is crucial if we are to find space for the human within global technological infrastructures. Within academia we are seeing a growing interest in games as objects of study, as educational tools, and as forms of creative expression. At the same time, the gamification of social systems seems to indicate the emergence of novel forms of political organization.
This speculative lunch will bring together people interested in the worlds of games: as an object of scholarly inquiry, or as tools for education or research. Its starting point is to suggest that games provide a vibrant interface between art, society, science, and technology, and to explore what collaborations might emerge when we share our perspectives. Initial explorations suggest that there are diverse scholars around Edinburgh with a strong interest in games, but little collaborative infrastructure. Any topic related to research, teaching, and games is open for discussion, and an anticipated outcome is the possible formation of an Edinburgh Game Studies Network.