Playing Systems: People, Play, and Computers
Date and time
Location
RMIT Design Hub
Building 100. Level 10, Pavilion 4 Carlton, VIC 3000 AustraliaDescription
RMIT Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC) and the RMIT Centre for Game Design Research present international guest Miguel Sicart.
Why do we play with computers? Looking at the history of games and toys, we can match the evolution of computer technology with its application in playthings. There is something about computers that makes us want to play with them. In this master class we will inquire on the nature of play and computers, exploring the materiality of machines, the seductions of play, and how theory, design, and culture have been changed by playing systems.
Miguel Sicart is an Associate Professor at the IT University in Copenhagen. His research on games and playthings combines philosophy with design research. He is the author of The Ethics of Computer Games (The MIT Press, 2009), Beyond Choices: The Design of Ethical Gameplay (The MIT Press, 2013), and Play Matters (The MIT Press, 2014).
*Please note tickets are limited to 12 places and are for RMIT HDR students only.
Organised by
The Digital Ethnography Research Centre DERC focuses on understanding a contemporary world where digital and mobile technologies are increasingly inextricable from the environments and relationships in which everyday life plays out. DERC excels in both academic scholarship and in our applied work with external partners from industry and other sectors.
DERC approaches this world and how we experience it, through innovative, reflexive and ethical ethnographic approaches, developed through anthropology, media and cultural studies, design, arts and documentary practice and games research.
Our research is incisive, interventional and internationally leading. Going beyond the call of pure academia we combine academic scholarship with applied practice to produce research, analysis and dissemination projects that are innovative, and based on ethnographic insights.
DERC partners and collaborates with a range of institutions in Australia and globally, including other universities, companies and other organisations. This includes collaborative research projects, conferences symposia and workshops, and international visits, fellowships and publications.