“Not Yet Real”: Videogames, Theory, Criticism

We are pleased to announce the full program for “Not Yet Real”: Videogames, Theory, Criticism! In close coordination with the Goethe-Insitut New York, this will be a three part program, including our currently running course “Better Than Real Life”: Towards a Critical Theory of Videogames, an interactive gaming installation, and two talks.  For more information and the full program please see the Goethe-Institut’s program page here. All of these events are free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

INSTALLATION
January 18-February 2
Opening: January 18, 6:00pm
Not Yet Real features an interactive installation open from January 18 through February 2 at the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building in the East Village. The four games in the installation will be accompanied by a series of long-form essays by invited participants. These participants, from a variety of disciplines, were given a simple prompt: to reflect upon a single game and how they understand and interpret it. Adrienne Shaw (Media Studies, Temple University),Sarah Wanenchak (Sociology, University of Maryland), McKenzie Wark (Cultural Studies, The New School), and Dave Riley(journalist and video game critic) contributed four very different inquiries into four very different games. These texts will be available in a special booklet edition for the duration of the installation.

TALKS
January 23 & 30
7:00pm
The first talk, entitled A Ludic Century?, is a talk by and conversation with McKenzie Wark on January 23, addressing both the recently published Manifesto for a Ludic Centuryby Eric Zimmerman as well as broader questions about the medium of videogames itself. The second event, entitled Games, Representation, and Experience, is a roundtable discussion on January 30 featuring Adrienne Shaw, Sarah Wanenchak, andDave Riley, who will hold a wide-ranging conversation about games, game criticism, and their specific contributions to Not Yet Real.

Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd Street
New York, NY 10003