Wandering Games: Welcome
10–12 July 2019 Bangor University
What does it mean to be a wandering body in a game world? What does it say about the game? The world? The body? What can the act of wandering do? This July 10–12, join us at Bangor University for a conference on Wandering Games, featuring presentations and provocations from academics, game designers, and creative practitioners. Walking Simulators — the genre of videogame in which there are no points, goals, or win/loss conditions — have for the last several years served as a catalyst for (sometimes furious) debates about anti-game aesthetics, changing gamer demographics, and the radical potential of poetic spatial storytelling in videogames. From Myst to Gone Home, The Path to The Stanley Parable, what began as the derogatory sneer “Walking Simulator” has become a catch-all term for games that are interested in alternative modes of expression, drawing together considerations of embodiment, environment, orientation, and community. The conference will feature work that focuses on some aspect of wandering in games, as well as work that draws connections between games and traditions of walking thought in performance, philosophy, pilgrimage, and protest.
Keynote lectures
Our two keynote lectures will be delivered by:
- Kate Craig, Environmental Artist at Fullbright
- Dr Kris Darby, Lecturer in Drama and Performance Studies at Liverpool Hope University
The conference will run from noon on Wednesday the 10th through 4 pm on Friday the 12th.