<nettime-ann> lecture: McKenzie Wark lecture, McKenzie Wark

[Matthew Fuller <cus01mf@gold.ac.uk>]

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Gamer Theory
McKenzie Wark

Date:  Tuesday 20th March
Time:	18.00hrs
Room: RHB 137
Place: Goldsmiths College
Free and all welcome.


In a world which seems increasingly game-like, what is the cultural
function of actual computer games? McKenzie Wark argues that our
game-like everyday life, in which work is a rat race, politics a horse
race, and the economy a casino, does not actually follow the rules of
the game it so vigorously espouses. The playing field is not level,
competition is rarely 'perfect'. Computer games appear in relation to
this experience of everyday life as the only place where the rule
actually work, where play comes close to perfection. Thus games are the
utopian version of everyday game-play, and can be the basis of a
critical theory of everyday life in an imperfect 'gamespace'.

Beside talking about the content of his new book, Gamer Theory, Wark
will also talk about its form. It began life as a collaborative web
based text in a specially designed web interface. The writing of the
book was in itself a kind of play between its originator and the readers
who became collaborative co-authors.

McKenzie Wark is the author of Gamer Theory (Harvard University Press),
A Hacker Manifesto (Harvard) and several other things. He is associate
professor of sociology at the New School for Social Research and culture
and media at Eugene Lang College, in New York City.

This lecture is organised by the Centre for Cultural Studies.
With thanks to the Institute of Digital Art and Technology
http://www.i-dat.org/ and http://www.kurator.org/


_________________________________
Dr. Matthew Fuller
David Gee Reader in Digital Media

Centre for Cultural Studies
Goldsmiths College
University of London
New Cross
London SE14 6NW

e: m.fuller@gold.ac.uk
t: +44 (0)20 7919 7206
w: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cultural-studies/staff/m-fuller.php

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