Panel Statement
Panel: Interface Play: Media Environments for Ludic Cyborgs
Have we really entered the era of gamification and what does this new notion imply for the urban environment? Images of new adventurous cities have appeared, described as networked gamespaces offering excitement, fun and socializing to cizitens that seem to be full of energy and desire for challenges, rewards and status. The magic circle has expanded to a ludic urban terrain that goes beyond any prior expectation. There is no longer an outside as all is diffused interconnected and accessible at the same time. By following new rules of a hybrid gameplay, the city awaits to be tagged, appropriated and enjoyed. Roles can not only be taken but also generated and modified by inhabitants themselves. But is this a new celebration for a gaming generation or an unfortunate ludic decadence? Are players being underestimated in this new condition? Whatever happened to the digital playful multitude whose potentialities are the very core of today’s urban and digital wealth? The new supposition of gamification is bringing back once again the old battle between game and play, between constraints and freedom, between conventions and anarchy, between areas that are being commodified and areas that become common. A new call for active players therefore emerges, not only in order to hack the new marketed urban gamespace but also in order to re-conquer the city by re-appropriating its very wealth and essence: that is the disposal, interest, capability and knowledge of the players themselves. Isn’t this battle a mere metaphor for the tradegy of the post-fordist condition longing for political subversion and substantial change?
- Daphne Dragona is a media arts curator based in Athens, Greece. She has collaborated with centers, museums and festivals in Greece and abroad, such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Athens), Medi@?terra Festival (Athens) , LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre (Gijon), Alta Tegnologia Andina (Lima) and Transmediale Festival (Berlin). She has participated with lectures and presentations in different conferences and symposia and articles of hers have been published in books and magazines of different countries. She is also PhD candidate in the Faculty of Communication & Media Studies of the University of Athens.
Full text (PDF) p. 716-718