Dis­com­fort De­sign: Crit­i­cal Re­flec­tion Through Un­com­fort­able Play

Symposium:

• ISEA2011: 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art

• Playing the non-playful: On the critical potential of play at the overlap of videogames and electronic art

• Dis­com­fort De­sign: Crit­i­cal Re­flec­tion Through Un­com­fort­able Play

• Lindsay Grace

Venue(s):

• Sabanci Center, Istanbul, Turkey

• Panel: Playing the non-playful: On the critical potential of play at the overlap of videogames and electronic art

  Do we re­veal pre­vi­ously hid­den or ig­nored val­ues by dis­cov­er­ing the un­playable from play­ful ex­pe­ri­ences? Con­sider that un­com­fort­able mo­ment in life when peo­ple dis­cover a play­ful ex­pe­ri­ence ceases to be worth play­ing.  Just as an arm is bro­ken on the play­ground, or a re­la­tion­ship can no longer be mended, there are ex­plicit mo­ments when art trans­gresses some un­fore­seen ter­ri­tory leav­ing us with a fear of its po­ten­tial.  There are games that cross into the taboo and art ges­tures that are too eager in their play­ful­ness. They leave us un­will­ing or even un­able to play and in doing so, offer us an un­fore­seen op­por­tu­nity for crit­i­cal re­flec­tion.  Such work is some­times po­lit­i­cal other times naïve in its pur­suit, un­com­fort­ably stum­bling on that which may have been for­got­ten.

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Category:

• Panel