If you are interested in VWs, in the north of the UK next week and are free on Friday afternoon – you’re in for a treat. Situationist Sim City is being held at FACT in Liverpool and features, amongst others, TNs own Julian Dibble. As this event seems to have gotten absolutely no publicity I’ve posted the full details here.
Situationist Sim City
2.30 PM, Friday 28 May 2004
FACT, 88 Wood St., Liverpool, UK
Booking & information: 0151 707 4450
The similarities between the 'physical' and the 'virtual' in online gaming worlds have inspired the imaginations of artists, writers, and the Hollywood hive mind. Yet these parallels are by no means accidental the creators of these gaming worlds made conscious, often scholarly efforts to design systems that effectively emulate real-world society. At the same time, the most complex games allow users the free will to shape their online societies in their own image. The complexities of our society, politics, and economy have been mapped onto virtual worlds by both creators and participants. Any questions we ask of these worlds, we ask of our own.
With this in mind, Situationist Sim City brings together international artists, writers and thinkers to investigate the aptness of video game worlds as metonyms for society at large, and the formation of ideology in such worlds.
Speakers will include:
JULIAN DIBBELL
Writer for Wired magazine, author of A Rape in Cyberspace
NATALIE BOOKCHIN
Artist, co-creator of agoraXchange
ED HALTER
Cultural critic, Village Voice
JELENA KLASNJA
KRISTIAN LUKIC
Artists, Eastwood Real-Time Strategy Group
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