Objectivity and Videogame Scholarship: Playing the Medium Specificity Game

Objects of Knowledge

• Date:
  Wednesday, February 20, 2013
  
• Time:
  5:00 PM to 6:30 PM
• Organizer:
  Visual Studies Research Institute
• Campus:
  University Park Campus
• Venue:
  Doheny Memorial Library (DML)
• Room:
  DML G28, Herklotz Room
• Cost:
  Free with RSVP
• Email:
  vsgc@dornsife.usc.edu

Summary:

This talk asserts that videogames are not objective media objects, but instead are the fundamental definitional practices through which humans understand their world.

Description:

Graduate Student: Adam Liszkiewicz
Media Arts and Practice (iMAP), School for Cinematic Arts

Respondent: Henry Jenkins
Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts

There is a pervasive assumption, within the field of Game Studies, that videogames are media objects that can be studied through objective means. This talk asserts that such objectivity is impossible. Games are not objects, nor mediums with specific properties, but the fundamental definitional practices through which humans understand their world. 


Co-sponsored by the Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study
and the Visual Studies Research Institute.

Please RSVP to vsgc@dornsife.usc.edu by February 17.