The New Playable Art

In light of recent and contemporary debates regarding “playful interfaces” and “gamification” both inprevious ISEA events and elsewhere, and, new openings from mainstream contemporary art-worldtoward computer games like the inclusion of computer games in the MoMA collection, therelationship between computer games and interactive art warrants a closer look now more than ever.The proposed panel will bring together theoreticians, artists, practitioners, and media-archeologistswho share an interest in the overlap of computer games and interactive art.In terms of their technological underpinnings and use-contexts, these allegedly separate phenomenaare strikingly similar. Their contemporary forms emerge from the histories of computing devices andscreen technologies, they demand commitment and concentration on the audience’s part, anddimensions of their expressive capabilities are constantly under discussion.Apart from the being re-appropriated as contemporary art through (involuntary) inclusion in existinginstitutional structures, what can ‘art games’ be? What is the playable avant-garde like and where dowe find it? How does ‘gameness’ of artworks challenge the pre-existing concepts and expectations ofartists, theorists, curators, and audiences? What to do with the children who seem to think that theartworks are ‘fun’? The panel will consider the critical, practical, historical and theoreticalimplications of the blurring of the borders between new media art, interactive art, net art, computergames, art games, and interactive narratives. The panel will address topics such as the use of computergames as a source of visual material and as a target of thematic references, the use of computer gameengines for real-time graphics rendering, the use of game-like interaction mechanics (like FPS camera,or dying and respawning) in art settings, and the curatorial opportunities and challenges posed bycomputer games.