The DIGRA workshop on Avatar Aesthetics invites submissions on the characteristic properties of avatar-based videogames as an art form, and on the aesthetic aspects of self-embodiment in videogames. Avatarial aesthetics relate to a broader tradition of bodily spectacles and amusements while also sharing similarities with experiences created by VR, installation art and performance art. Furthermore, avatar aesthetics intersects with the aesthetics of architecture, of space and travel, and with ethical and political philosophy for game worlds. The workshop aims to bring together scholars from philosophy, game studies, media studies, and related fields to discuss a broad range of aesthetic modes and attractions relevant to avatar-based videogaming. Phenomenological and ontological perspectives on avatarial self-embodiment are also welcome. 

The workshop will address aesthetic concerns related to avatars across various dimensions, including but not limited to:

• Art and the Avatar: How traditional artistic elements — music, poetry, literature, and visual arts — affect avatar-mediated experience and self-experience (Tavinor 2009; Ensslin 2014). 
• Viscerality: Aesthetic attractions related to perceptual spectacle, violence, aggression, and horror in avatar-based games (Huhtamo 1995).
• Ecology and Space: The aesthetic experience of space and place, including adventure, conquest, habitation, and environmental concerns (Jenkins 2004, Chang 2019) 
• Transgression: The philosophical implications of moral and ethical transgressions in avatar-based videogames, including violence and dehumanization (Mortensen & Jørgensen 2020; Sageng 2020) 
• Politics of Representation: The roles of colonialism, militarism, capitalism, and the representation of gender, sexuality, and race in avatar-based videogames (Dyer-Witheford 2009; Wildt et al. 2020; Murray 2019) 
• Body and Interface: Analyzing the technological and generic properties of avatarial self-embodiment, including perspectives from interaction and interface design (Sudnow 1983; Wilhelmsson 2001)
• Subjectivity and Identity: Examining mechanisms of self-positioning, agency, and identity in avatar-mediated interaction, particularly in relation to narrative and fictional characters. (Vella 2015;  Kania 2017)
• Representation and Fictionality: Understanding the representational status and function of avatarial self-embodiment in relation to gaming, fictionality, and virtuality (Tavinor 2012; Carlson & Taylor 2019)

Please submit an abstract of maximum 300 words and a short bio (max 100 words) to avataraesthetics25@gmail.com by May 1, 2025. The organizing committee will select participants based on the relevance and quality of their proposals.  

Each speaker will be given 15 minutes for their presentation, followed by 10-minutes for discussion.

The workshop is organized by the Department of Information Science and Media Studies and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bergen, in collaboration with the Game Philosophy Network. The organizing committee consists of:

• Associate Professor Rune Klevjer (University of Bergen)
• Associate Professor Anita Leirfall (University of Bergen)
• John R. Sageng, Coordinator of the Game Philosophy Network

Bibliography

Carlson, M., & Taylor, L. (2019). Me and My Avatar: Player-Character as Fictional Proxy. Journal of the Philosophy of Games, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.5617/jpg.6230

Chang, A. Y. (2019). Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games (Vol. 58). University of Minnesota Press.

Dyer-Witheford, N. (2009). Games of empire: Global capitalism and video games (Vol. 29). University of Minnesota Press.

Ensslin, A. (2014). Literary gaming. MIT Press.

Huhtamo, E. (1995). Encapsulated Bodies in Motion: Simulators and the Quest for Total Immersion. In S. Penny (Ed.), Critical Issues in Electronic Media. State University of New York Press.

Jenkins, H. (2004). Game Design as Narrative Architecture. In N. Wardrup-Fruin & P. Harrigan (Eds.), First Person. New Media as Story, Performance and Game (pp. 118–130). MIT Press.

Kania, M. M. (2017). Perspectives of the Avatar: Sketching the Existential Aesthetics of Digital Games. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Dolnośląskiej Szkoły Wyższej. https://depot.ceon.pl/handle/123456789/13187

Mortensen, T. E., & Jorgensen, K. (2020). The paradox of transgression in games (1st ed.). Routledge.

Murray, S. (2019). On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space (First edition., Vol. 27). I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd.

Sageng, J.R. (2018). “The bracketing of moral norms in videogames”. In Jørgensen, Kristine & Karlsen, Faltin (Eds.), Transgression in Games and Play. The MIT Press.

Sudnow, D. (1983). Pilgrim in the Microworld. Eye, Mind and the Essence of Video Skill. Warner Books.

Tavinor, G. (2009). The Art of Videogames. Wiley.

Tavinor, G. (2012). Videogames and Fictionalism. In H. Fossheim, T. Mandt Larsen, & J. R. Sageng (Eds.), The Philosophy of Computer Games (pp. 185–200). Springer.

Vella, D. (2015). The Ludic Subject and the Ludic Self: Analyzing the “I-in-the-gameworld. IT University of Copenhagen, Center for Computer Games Research. 

Wildt, L. de, Apperley, T. H., Clemens, J., Fordyce, R., & Mukherjee, S. (2020). (Re-)Orienting the Video

WORKSHOP IN BERLIN: 10-11 May, 2024.
Regenbogenfabrik, Lausitzer Str. 21a, Berlin.

Both traditional games and games that take place in virtual environments rely on play states designed around their perceptual features. This is apparent by the fact that they prominently rely on phenomenal spatial structures, but also by a variety of perceptual roles that enter into elements like storytelling, sound, kinesthetic feedback and immersive design.

How should we understand the character of perception in games and virtual environments? While normal perception registers ordinary perceptual properties, players perceive objects and properties imposed by images, rules, symbols and ludic context. In the perception of virtual worlds, users are not perceiving ordinary objects, but rather images and symbols designed to instil imagination and to convey semantic contents. In traditional games the players perceive objects and properties determined by rules and play.

This workshop follows up a seminar held in Athens 2022 with a view to develop the discussions on these issues. Among the questions we wish to explore are:

• Is perception in virtual worlds veridical? Is it appropriate to talk of perception in virtual worlds?
• Do we perceive game properties?
• How should we understand subjectivity and perception mediated by avatars?
• How do cultural and ideological frames shape perceptual experience?
• How does the reality status of objects and properties affect the characterization of perceptual content?
• What are the phenomenal characteristics of gaming experiences?
• How is narrative, fictional worlds and gaming structured around perceptual states?
• How is imagination, make-believe and fantasy related to perception in games?
• How are perceptual schema like space, time, objecthood and modality utilized in gaming?
• What is the relationship between inference and perceptual content in games?
• How do we perceive affordances in games?
• Can the perceptual content of games be analyzed as “seeing as”?
• What are the phenomenal characteristics of perceptual experiences that are distinctive to ludic environments?
• How should we characterize the consciousness that accompanies perception of games and virtual environments?

Contributions from different scholarly approaches are welcome, such as game studies, cognitive science, enactivist perception theory, phenomenology, fiction theory, media philosophy, and classic philosophies of perception.

Please submit an abstract (max 1000 characters) in this form: https://forms.gle/3fc8uDEQw8GJwfxy5 and send a copy to perceptioningames@gmail.com by April 11. We welcome both full papers and more conjectural presentations. We highly appreciate presentations that can be submitted as papers to the Journal of the Philosophy of Games, but the participants are free to publish their work where they want. There will be a small fee (ca 40 euro) to cover rent for the seminar room.

Program committee:
Anita Leirfall, Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway
John R. Sageng, Game Philosophy Network, Norway
Stephan Günzel, University of Europe for Applied Sciences, Germany
Jussi Holopainen, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Olli Tapio Leino, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Zuzanna Rucinska, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Here is a call for papers for a conference that is not primarily directed at game philosophy, but it has game studies is a target group and the topic of playing games is mentioned.  We just visited Jyväskylä for one of our Nordic workshops in game philosophy and know that there is an interest for our type of work. We highly encourage game philosophers to submit abstracts.

Call for papers

From Kant onwards, the default position when thinking about aesthetic matters has been to start with one individual who appreciates or engages with one object, whether a work of art, an environment, or an everyday item. However, when aiming to grasp the role of aesthetic phenomena in human life, this perspective is insufficient. It overshadows how the significance of art and everyday aesthetic matters, for individuals and communities, evolve through shared histories of practice, where perceptual and creative skills arise from previous experiences and know-how.

Shifting the focus of aesthetics from objects and singular experiences to practices opens novel and fruitful perspectives on how humans form and transform their identity and lifeworld through active and long-term aesthetic engagement in various media. An aesthetic practice, we suggest, is a continuous, repeatedly performed activity of engaging with an art form, a form of popular culture, crafts, sports, or some aspect of one’s everyday environment, where a fundamental motivating factor is pleasure gained through the activity. Instead of contemplation and perception of an object, practice highlights the intrinsic aesthetic relevance of action, doing and making. The approach offers new perspectives on the scope of “aesthetics”.

As a key concept, aesthetic practice foregrounds structural features of our aesthetic life that have previously gained less attention, such as temporality, continuity, multimodality and intersubjectivity. A practice is ongoing, and characterised by tempi and rhythms, times, and places. It is interwoven with the practitioner’s life, while at the same time constituting another space. It is typically shared with other people; inspired by others; or communicated to them.

Finally, aesthetic practices tend to become intimately interwoven, even inseparable from practitioners’ identity, and affect their outlook on life. Continuously engaging with one or several of the arts, popular culture, one’s home environment, or nature, can constitute a tacit or explicit exploration of and reflection on values, the world, and one’s own position in it, in a dynamic balance of receptivity and creativity which is intrinsically valuable.

We welcome proposals on:

– The concept of aesthetic practice; critical assessments

– Everyday aesthetic practices and arts: boundaries and overlappings

– Habits and practices

– Practice and style

– Rhythms of practice

– Everyday rituals as aesthetic practice

– Intersubjectivity in aesthetic practices

– The aesthetic dimension of everyday practices

– The aesthetic dimension of labour and work

– Childhood aesthetic practices

– Aesthetic communicative practices

– Social aesthetics

– Care aesthetics

– Arts as aesthetic practices

– Aesthetic practices in fandom and popular culture

– Playing games as aesthetic practice

– The role of technologies in aesthetic practices

– Shared practices in internet communities and social media

– And more

In addition to contributions from philosophical aesthetics, we welcome proposals from neighbouring fields, the arts, psychology, cultural studies, game studies, sociology, history, media and communication studies, etc., as long as they address phenomena from a perspective of aesthetic practice.

We invite abstracts of 200–300 words. Deadline for abstracts is 15th March 2024.

Link to the main site. 

Some time ago, an Innocent Bystander, after glancing through a copy of Mind, asked me, “Why do philosophers talk so much about Games? Do they play them a lot or something?” (Midgley, “The Game Game”, 1974, p. 231)

University of Jyväskylä in Finland and Nordic partners call for papers and student presentations for a workshop on the philosophy of games to be held in Jyväskylä, 16–18 October 2023.

Games are a source of fascinating philosophical issues addressed by current games research. They are also increasingly catching the attention of traditional philosophers. In a series of “Nordic Explorative Workshops” we aim to provide arenas where students and scholars in philosophy and game studies can discuss their projects. We reach out to scholars who would like to contribute to this emerging field, and to bachelor and master students writing about such issues.

Games are designed to create meaning structures for their players that derive from the fact that they are adopting a subject position within the game, in which they achieve goals, overcome challenges and act out interpersonal relationships imposed by the gaming system. A number of games scholars have used the tools of phenomenology, hermeneutics and existentialism to analyze such meaning structures, and the aim of this workshop is to explore these issues, though the submissions do not need to stem from these traditions.

Submitters are invited to submit proposals on questions such as:

• What do players understand when they understand how to play a game?
• What is the phenomenology of simulation?
• What characterizes the phenomenal consciousness of events and objects in game worlds?
• What characterizes the subject roles in avatar- and non-avatar based gameplay?
• What is the nature of embodied experience in gameplay?
• How does the notion of a world operate as a part of the player experience?
• What is the difference between the third-person understanding of gameplay and the first-person in-game understanding?
• What is the character of the affective experiences that are created during gameplay?
• In what sense is acting in games action?
• In what sense is projectuality in games different from ordinary life?
• And other questions related to the philosophy of games.

For full paper presentations and student presentations we ask for an abstract (300 words) along with a short bio (100 words). For requests for attendance we ask for a short bio (50 words) with institutional affiliation.

Send abstracts/bios to nordicexplorativeworkshop@jyu.onmicrosoft.com by September 15, 2023. Notification of inclusion in the workshop program will be sent out by September 20, 2023. Send a request to the same address if you want to attend as an audience (limited participation).

Funding is available to support some of the expenses for the presenters.

The workshop is funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS). We aim to have a selection of the papers published in Journal of the Philosophy of Games.

Information about the workshop and the series: https://nordicgamephilosophy.w.uib.no/
Please sign up to the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/586402056592864

Rune Klevjer (project leader)
John R. Sageng (project coordinator)
Jonne Arjoranta (program committee chair)
Maria Ruotsalainen (program committee)

The IT University of Copenhagen and its Nordic partners call for papers and student presentations for a workshop on the philosophy of games to be held at the IT University, Copenhagen, Denmark, 29-30.08.2023

The notion of representation is often used in game studies literature, but it is practically always invoked in critical contexts. Existing research focuses on problematic aspects of representations of minorities, genders, or ethnicities. These analyses presuppose some philosophical notion of representation without spelling it out. And yet, as can be seen in the light of discussions over the idea of representation in other areas, the concept can be understood in different ways. Moreover, theories of representation approach the subject from various angles – apart from prominent discussions in philosophy of mind and philosophy of science it is also often invoked by scholars interested in aesthetics or theory of fiction. It seems that common understanding of the mechanisms underlying representation in games could benefit all researchers because even small differences of fundamental ontological or epistemological aspects of representation can affect our mutual understanding.

The workshop aims to bring together philosophers and game researchers and look at the philosophical status of the notion of representation in games. Example questions that we wish to examine during the workshop are:

• What are the specific features of representation in games (if any)?
• What mechanism is responsible for representation in games – how do games (or game elements) represent?
• What are the targets of game representation – do games (or their elements) represent reality, fictional entities, digital states of the computer, or something else?
• Does the technology used to produce games influence their representational status – is there an essential difference between representation in text games, 2D games, 3D games, or VR?
• Which parts of games should be considered as representational? Can game mechanics represent reality – if so, what are their targets?
• Is there a difference between representation in games and other digital objects?
• What is the representational status of the player’s actions in games? Which actions count as representations and which ones as virtual equivalents of real actions?
• How does the concept of representation in games differ from the concept of representation in science?
• If games are hybrids of simulations and fiction – which aspect should be given priority when we analyze their representational capacities?
• What is the status of representations of fictional objects in games – should they be accounted for in a similar way researchers do it in the case of other media or do they require special treatment?
• To what extent can existing theories of representation be applied to games, and how must they be complemented to best fit this domain?

For full paper presentations and student presentations we ask for an abstract (max 300 words) along with a short bio (max 100 words). Send abstracts/bios to pawg@itu.dk. Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2023.

The seminar is open for international submitters, but the program will have an emphasis on speakers with affiliations to Nordic institutions. We may be able to offer to cover some of the expenses for some of the Nordic participants.

Stacie Friend and Grant Tavinor are participating as invited speakers.

The workshop is funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS). We aim to have a selection of the papers published in Journal of the Philosophy of Games.

Information about the workshop and the series: https://nordicgamephilosophy.w.uib.no/

Please sign up to the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/586402056592864/

Paweł Grabarczyk, IT University of Copenhagen

Ida Kathrine Hammeleff Jørgensen, University of Southern Denmark

John R. Sageng, Game Philosophy Network

Espen Aarseth, IT University of Copenhagen

The Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen and its Nordic partners call for papers and student presentations for a workshop on the philosophy of games to be held at the alternative culture site Regenbogenfabrik in Berlin, Germany, 19-20 May 2023.

Games are a source of fascinating philosophical issues addressed by current games research, and which increasingly are catching the attention of traditional philosophers. In a series of “Nordic Explorative Workshops” we aim to provide arenas where students and scholars in philosophy and game studies can discuss their projects. We reach out to scholars who would like to contribute to this emerging field, and to bachelor and master students writing essays about such issues.

The first workshop is dedicated to themes that pertain to action and subject positioning in a game. We invite submissions on issues that relate to the character of action in relation to interactivity with the system, subjectivity and avatarhood, fictionality and virtual actions, gameness, perception of objects and environments, depiction and the status of the image, and issues that pertain to ethics and aesthetics.

Examples of questions that can be addressed are:

• What is the psychological structure of gaming acts?
• How should we evaluate moral norms in the context of play?
• What are you doing when you are acting in virtual worlds?
• What is the relation between the physical actions of the player and their ludic and narrative representations?
• What forms of aesthetic appreciation are peculiar to action in games?
• What forms of intentionality and subjectivity are found in avatar-based actions?
• How do avatars occupy fictional and real roles?
• How is action in games tied to the perception of affordances?

For full paper presentations and student presentations we ask for an abstract (max 300 words) along with a short bio (max 100 words).

The seminar is open for international submitters, but the program will have an emphasis on speakers with affiliations to Nordic institutions.

The seminar is open for general attendance, to the extent we have space. For requests for attendance we ask for a short bio (50 words) with institutional affiliation.

Send abstracts/bios to PhilGamesAction@gmail.com by April 20, 2023. Notification of inclusion in the workshop program will be sent out by April 27, 2023.

We may be able to offer to cover some of the expenses for some of the Nordic participants.

The workshop is funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS). We aim to have a selection of the papers published in Journal of the Philosophy of Games.

Information about the workshop and the series: https://nordicgamephilosophy.w.uib.no/

Please sign up to the Facebook group: www.facebook.com/g/philgames

Rune Klevjer (Project leader), University of Bergen
John R. Sageng (Coordinator), Game Philosophy Network.

The University of Bergen, University of Jyväskylä and the IT University of Copenhagen will next year conduct a series of workshops on the philosophy of games. We will reach out to scholars and students in philosophy and game studies. The themes currently planned for the workshops are issues that pertain to action, experience, representation and hermeneutics in games. 

We’re organizing a planning workshop in Bergen on November 24-25 in 2022. The workshop is open to scholars in Nordic countries who might do supervision, seminars or research on these topics. There is some funding available for travel and accommodation.

The planning workshop will have presentations about the prospective themes and a planning session to determine the programs, focus and literature for the themed workshops, as well as for making plans for how to involve students and scholars in Nordic countries.

Please send an email to nordicgamephilosophy@gmail.com if you are interested in participating in the planning workshop or in the themed workshops later on. Write a few lines about your background in philosophy or game studies and your theoretical and practical interest in one of the listed topics.  We will contact prospective participants as the project progresses.

Anyone is welcome to join the Facebook-group for the initiative: https://www.facebook.com/groups/586402056592864

Best regards

Rune Klevjer, University of Bergen

Anita Leirfall, University of Bergen

John R. Sageng, Game Philosophy Network

Jonne Arjoranta, University of Jyväskylä

Paweł Grabarczyk, IT University of Copenhagen

Seminar in Athens, Greece: 01-02 September, 2022.

The Norwegian Institute in Athens

Both traditional games and games that take place in virtual environments rely on play-states that are essentially designed around perceptual features that play crucial roles in aiding how the player is acting in the gaming environment. This is apparent by the fact that they prominently rely on phenomenal spatial structures, but also by a variety of perceptual roles that enter into elements like storytelling, sound, kinesthetic feedback and immersive design. 

How should we understand the character of perception in games and virtual environments?  While normal perception registers ordinary perceptual properties, players perceive objects and properties imposed by images, rules, symbols and ludic context. In the perception of virtual worlds, the user is not perceiving ordinary objects, but rather images and symbols designed to instil imagination and to convey semantic contents. In traditional games the players perceive objects and properties determined by rules and play. 

In this workshop we aim to discuss questions that pertain to perceptual content and its relationship with player action.

Among the questions we wish to explore are:

• Is perception in virtual worlds veridical? Is it appropriate to talk of perception in virtual worlds?
• Do we perceive game properties?
• How should we understand subjectivity and perception mediated by avatars?
• How do cultural and ideological frames shape perceptual experience?
• How does the reality status of objects and properties affect the characterization of perceptual content?
• What are the phenomenal characteristics of gaming experiences?
• How is narrative, fictional worlds and gaming structured around perceptual states?
• How is imagination, make-believe and fantasy related to perception in games?
• In what manners are perceptual schema like space, time, objecthood and modality utilized in gaming?
• What is the relationship between inference and perceptual content in games?
• How do we perceive affordances in games?
• Can the perceptual content of games be analyzed as “seeing as”?
• What are the phenomenal characteristics of perceptual experiences that are distinctive to ludic environments?
• How should we characterize the consciousness that accompanies perception of games and virtual environments?

Contributions from different scholarly approaches are welcome, such as game studies, cognitive science, enactivist perception theory, phenomenology, fiction theory, media philosophy, and classic philosophies of perception.

To establish a common frame of reference, three existing articles on the topic will be distributed for common reading. Please submit an abstract (max 3000 characters) in this form: https://bit.ly/3PHRrYD and send a copy to perceptioningames@gmail.com by August 1.  The participants will be required to submit a 1-2 page synopsis for circulation right before the seminar. We highly appreciate presentations that can be submitted as papers to the Journal of the Philosophy of Games, but the participants are free to publish their work where they want.

The seminar is organized by Game Philosophy Network, Cultural Informatics, Data and Computational Cultural Studies Lab [CID-CCS Lab] at Panteion University, and the Department of Philosophy and Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Organizing Committee: Anita Leirfall, Elina Roinioti, John R. Sageng and Rune Klevjer.