EVENT: GAMEZ & RULEZ #8 (OCTOBER 20-21, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND)

Gamez & rulez

gameZ & ruleZ #8

October 20-21, 2022

ToniAreal, 5th Floor, Room 5.K12

Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK)
Departement Design
Fachrichtung Game Design
Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96
Postfach, CH-8031 Zürich, Switzerland

Get ready for the 8th edition of one of the coolest game and culture festivals in Europe, gameZ & ruleZ, which takes place annually in Zürich, Switzerland and is organized by Mela Kocher from the Master's Program in Game Design and managed by GameLab's coordinators Beat Suter and René Bauer. This year's topic is Mechanics of Play. The event will be live streamed. 

Description:

Play seems to be a free form, it is self-contained and people do it to get satisfaction. It also helps us to communicate and understand what surrounds us. It is best understood in correlation to normal life or work. Work favours pain and play favours pleasure. Work has to be done to increase productivity, play does not have to be productive, it is not constricted, may be spontaneous, aimless and creative at the same time. And you may even learn something by playing.

The conference looks at moments of play, different aspects of play and playful approaches in games, art and culture. What does free play mean in comparison to play a game with set rules? What happens, if we start changing some of the set rules? And what happens if we constrict free play with boundaries and some rules? If play is like a language, there must be some elements of play that we use in different kinds of playing.

With our guests we are discussing these elements and their connections as mechanics of play. Jörg Piringer plays with language and code. Matteo Bittanti delves into politics and ideology of playing video games. Sonia Fizek looks at playing at a distance and Nathalie Lawhead makes us familiar with humor in playing with software. And there is more, we are pleased to welcome ten guest speakers at the gameZ & ruleZ 2022.

Schedule

Program*: Thursday, 20. October, Room 5.K12

13.00 Opening
13.30 Matteo Bittanti (gamescenes.org, US): The Politics of Play / Playful Politics (Abstract & Bio)
14.30 Sjors Righters (studio rigters, NL): Concepts of the virtual sandbox and how to change them  (Abstract & Bio)
15.30 BREAK & Coffee
16.00 Jörg Piringer (AT): text=code=play (Abstract & Bio)
17.00 Daniel Hackbarth (D/CH): Gamification of Politics
18.00 Guido Berger (ZHCH): Playing Farming Simulator (CH)
   

Program*: Friday, 21. October, Room 5.K12

13.00 Opening
13.15 Sonia Fizek (Cologne Gamelab, D) : Playing at a Distance
14.15 Max Moswitzer (Artist, Experimental Gameculture AW Wien): Avatar at Play
15.15 Experiments in Action: Sebastian Burckhardt (CH): Kloppyssimo (Abstract & Bio)
15.40 Experiments in Action:  Kathleen Bohren CH): (Abstratd & Bio)
16.00 BREAK & Coffee
16.30 Nathalie Lawhead (US): When Software makes you laugh
   

LINK: Mechanics of Play

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