record

Thesis Info

LABS ID
00847
Thesis Title
Games of The Possibles. The creation of alternative video games between art, market and mass culture.
Author
Luca Carrubba
2nd Author
3rd Author
Degree
Phd
Year
2019
Number of Pages
508
University
Universitat de Barcelona
Thesis Supervisor
Laura Baigorri BallarĂ­n
Supervisor e-mail
laura AT baigorri.org
Other Supervisor(s)
Language(s) of Thesis
Spanish
Department / Discipline
Games Studies / Arts
Languages Familiar to Author
English, Spanish, Italian
URL where full thesis can be found
www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/667499
Keywords
Altgames, art games, game-art, not-games, DIY, Queer Games Design, radical game design, feminism, post-marxism, technopolitics, open data
Abstract: 200-500 words
This doctoral research focuses on studying the artistic and productive practices of digital games that occupy a space in the current video game market under the name of #altgames. The aim is to systematize the characteristics of this movement of creators, contextualizing the transformation of the language of video games. Based on cultural studies and the tradition of post-Marxist studies, we approach videogames culture by placing it at the centre of a socio-technical framework that is in dialogue with capitalist production regimes and with the art system. The result of the practices researched is the broadening of the spectrum of what is possible in terms of the video game as an expressive medium, as a productive industry and in terms of the subjects it appeals to. Its creators, men and women who until recently had no possibility of access to the industry, find in the video game a language of expression capable of articulating a critical position that would have no place in mainstream or independent productions. The concept of "Games of The Possibles" that gives the title to this research refers to those video games that go beyond the idea of the video game and its associated culture as commonly understood. Together with the theoretical analysis, the research is accompanied by a practice of creating two digital games from the #altgames paradigm. The first, Homozapping, is an alternative video game that is the result of a participatory laboratory where we reflect on queer theory, the politics of representation of bodies, and video games as a tool for social research and critical thinking. The second, Games of The Commons Goods, is a project of gamification of open data that explores the creative possibilities of public data for the algorithmic generation of video games, envisioning them as a vehicle of connection between the digital space and the inhabited territories of the city. These proposals highlight the possibility of establishing new spaces where the video game becomes an articulating agent of collective processes and social and techno-political change in a broad sense. It is possible, in fact, to look at these proposals as temporarily outside the capitalist machine, and thus offer a space of radical, intersectoral and open possibility to different communities that occupy the digital and territorial space of cities.