?THE THIRD PLACE? – COMPUTER GAMES AND OUR CONCEPTION OF THE REAL. Copenhagen, May 20-21st 2005

Workshop at IT-University of Copenhagen
Friday 20th and Saturday 21st of May 2005

?THE THIRD PLACE? – COMPUTER GAMES AND OUR CONCEPTION OF THE REAL

Computer games have become a dominant influence in modern culture, and are set to gain an ever increasing importance in the years to come. This development gives rise to a number of questions. Among these is the question how computer games challenge and affect traditional conceptions of what it is for something to be real.

The aim of the workshop is to initiate a discussion between computer games researchers and philosophers on this question: What is the ontological status of the objects and events in a computer game, and how do they relate to objects and events outside of the game? On the one hand, an answer to this question must recognize that objects and events in computer games are real in some sense. On the other hand, it must also recognize that they are not real in quite the same sense as objects and events outside of the game are. To accommodate the reality of these objects and events, we need to consider our conception of the real as such.

The workshop is open to everyone, and interested parties that are unable to attend are encouraged to notify the organizers if they are interested in possible collaboration or information about future initiatives.

Program:

Friday

09.30 Games in Virtual Environments: Towards a Virtual Ontology of Games
Prof. Espen Aarseth

10.30 What is Real?
Prof. Olav Asheim

11.30 Framing the Ludic Commons – Cooperation and Conflict in Multiplayer
Games
Ph.d. Candidate Jonas Heide Smith

12.00 Lunch

13.00 Reality and Mimesis: Aristotle on Computer Games
Ass. Prof. Hallvard Fossheim

14.00 Discipline Reloaded: Players, Game Design, and Technologies of Power
Ph.D. Candidate Miguel Sicart

15.00 The Half-Reality of Games
Ass. Prof Jesper Juul

16.00 Possible Worlds and Real Worlds in Interaction? Semiotic ?Transworld? Perspectives
Prof. Patrick J. Coppock

Saturday

10.00 The Myth of the Real in Gran Turismo
Ph.d. Candidate Charlie Breindahl

11.00 Real or Virtual? Does it Matter for My Spatial Orientation?
Ph.D. Candidate Anita Leirfall

12.00 Lunch

13.00 Challenge-perspectives on Games
Ph.d. candidate Sara Mosberg Iversen

14.00 Interpretation, Interaction and the Anchoring of the Real
Ph.D. Candidate John Richard Sageng

15.00 Notes for a Phenomenological Ontology of Virtual Worlds
Ph.D. Candidate Tarjei Mandt Larsen

16.00 Plenary discussion

The workshop will be held at seminar room 3A14 on the IT University of Copenhagen, Rued Langgaards Vej 7, 2300 K?benhavn. It is a collaboration between Filosofisk Prosjektsenter in Oslo, Center for Computer Games Research, ITU and Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo.