Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) is an interdisciplinary centre for research/ creation in game studies and design, digital culture and interactive art

Events


May 04, 2017

5a7 – Why We Play Hard Work: Some Theses on Simulation

TAG is proud to invite you for a series of 5 a 7 showcasing its stellar members’ and friends’ ongoing research.

Why do we play hard work? At the intersection of play and labor, the simulator — from the wildly popular Trucking Simulators to the esoteric Cart Life’s painful banality — demands that we ask this question. In this presentation, PHD student David Leblanc outlines an in-progress thesis project, an intervention in the politics of labor the simulator problematizes.

Drawing on the tradition of Autonomous Marxism and placing the technocracies of post-Fordist capital in dialogue with simulation, this project does not aim to dismiss or polemicize the relationship players develop with games as either ‘productive’ or ‘unproductive.’ Rather, he suggests that we engage with the simulator as a medium that can afford to generate a critique of the institutions it simulates and moreover, as an optic that puts our relationship to work into much needed perspective.

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Please feel welcomed to join the discussion

Attendees are welcomed to bring snacks and drinks to their liking.

WHEN? Thursday, May 4th, 5-7pm
WHERE? TAG Lab (Concordia, EV 11.435, 1515 Ste. Catherine W.)
WHO? Everyone is welcomed!
WHAT? Cutting edge new media research