play and violence
↑Static, the ↑London Consortium‘s online journal, ↑aims at initiating “interdisciplinary intellectual debate about paradoxes of contemporary culture, Static presents contributions from an international team of academics, artists and cultural practitioners.” The ↑first issue‘s core topic was play and violence—the ↑editorial sounds very promising:
Although play might appear innocent, childlike and spontaneous, it is also often rigidly organised and ritualised as well as incorporates some measure of violence, be it physical or psychological. From war games to actual warfare, from happy slapping to the humiliating performance art of Leigh Bowery, from installation art that defies the habitual uses of public places to video art that redefines our relation to nature, the first issue of Static explores the paradoxical nature of play and violence of the contemporary culture in its various forms and manifestations.
Though, surprisingly there is no entry dealing with computergames in particular, but at least three entries [I’ve just read them diagonally so far] have aroused my interest in respect to my project: ↑“Circumtapes”: Playing with the appropriation of public space by Cornelia Schlothauer [compare ↵appropriation by mastership], ↑Happy slapping: transatlantic contagion or home-grown, mass-mediated nihilism? by Robert Saunders [compare ↵parkour], and ↑Playstations. Or, playing in earnest by Steven Connor.
The next issue of static will be dedicated to trafficking—the ↑call for papers and the ↑submission guidelines are out. Deadline will be the 10th January 2006.
