Media Fields Journal: Critical Explorations in Media and Space<\/p>\n
Issue 8: Playgrounds<\/p>\n
Submission Deadline: Dec. 1, 2013<\/p>\n
This issue of Media Fields investigates the connections between media,
\nspace, power, and various approaches to \u201cplay\u201d across culture and
\nsociety. In this issue we seek conversations that embrace play in all
\nits polysemy. We invite papers that investigate how mediated play
\nspaces can become spaces to negotiate labor, power, resistance,
\nagency, or subjectivity. To that end, what is a mediated play space?
\nWhat is the history of mediated play spaces? How are non-play spaces
\nsubverted to become play spaces, and what are the political
\nconsequences of this subversion? Moreover, what is the political
\npotential of play?<\/p>\n
In video game studies, play is often discussed as a free activity that
\nnonetheless is governed by structures, rules, and protocol; and driven
\nby clear goals or win states. This understanding is largely built upon
\nthe theoretical work of Johan Huizinga and Roger Caillois. Although
\nplay can often be seen as non-political, frivolous, and anathema to
\nthe serious concerns of society and culture, play in fact constitutes
\n– and itself mediates – our everyday lives, (re)shaping our material
\nworld and producing new fields of meaning and action. In Roland
\nBarthes\u2019s discussion of the term, play designates a capacity for
\nvariation and change: to have play. Alternatively, play enables, or is
\nactivated by, expressions of individuality and agency: to play. In the
\nfirst sense play is expressed as capacity; in the second sense play is
\nagential, a co-active engagement of player, interface, and
\nenvironment. However, software studies has cautioned that spaces of
\nplay, in all of their manifestations, are also bounded spaces,
\ngeographically, algorithmically, and ideologically. Indeed, Alexander
\nGalloway has explored both the ideological power of interfaces and
\ncode as well as the agentive potential to resist or subvert these
\nforces through various forms of play. We purposefully invite a range
\nof submissions that continue to map these relationships between
\nbounded structure and playful expression, especially within, but by no
\nmeans limited to, virtual worlds and digital games.<\/p>\n
We are inspired by the work of those media scholars who have explored
\nsome of these issues already. Henry Jenkins\u2019 influential article,
\n\u201c\u2018Complete Freedom of Movement\u2019: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces,\u201d
\nprovides an early and enduring example of an approach to the problem
\nof media, space, and play through a gendered perspective. Likewise,
\nBernadette Flynn\u2019s essay, \u201cGeography of the Digital Hearth,\u201d explores
\nthe migrating play space of the video game experience from the arcade,
\nto the den, to its central place in the living room, offering not only
\na genealogy of video game play space but also a significant
\ncontribution to the continuing study of changing living room dynamics
\nexplored by Lynn Spigel, Cecila Tichi, and more recently Michael Z.
\nNewman and Elana Levine. Finally, although digital games lend
\nthemselves to the study of mediated play spaces, we are also seek
\nscholarship interested in the ways other media, including film,
\ntelevision, radio, and digital culture, construct and are constructed
\nas fields of play.<\/p>\n
Thus, our approach is multivalent. We invite a wide range of
\nsubmissions that consider this complexity, possibly addressing the
\nfollowing topics:<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Military Play Space: How is play deployed to reproduce
\nor aestheticize positions of power and Empire? How can play subvert
\nand reconstruct these spaces? These questions may extend the work of
\nNick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter into digital and cultural
\ngeography.<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Sport, Space, and Experiences: How can we understand
\nthe experience of viewing sporting events in relation to mediated play
\nspaces, either in the living room, at the sports bar, or even at the
\nlive event itself? How does play – L.A.R.P., Parkour, or
\nskateboarding, for example – reclaim space and reimagine space?<\/p>\n
\u25a0 The Domestic Space and Video Games: Following work by
\nBernadette Flynn and Ben Aslinger, how do digital games and other
\nentertainment technologies augment the spatial, social, and family
\ndynamics of the contemporary domestic space? How does play reshape the
\ndomestic space?<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Gender, Sexuality, Race, Class, Identity, and Online
\nSpaces: How do people play with identity and power in virtual spaces?
\nHow can virtual space be used tactically to oppose oppressive powers?<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Queer\/Feminist Gaming: representations of gendered and
\nsexualized spaces in mainstream video games, gendered\/queer
\ngeographies of video game production, gendered\/queer spaces of gaming
\nculture?<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Spaces of Surveillance: How can play be mobilized as a
\nform of resistance to spaces of surveillance? Work here might follow
\nin the vein of projects from the Critical Art Ensemble.<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Play and Labor; Play and Anonymity; Play and
\nResistance; Counter-Play<\/p>\n
We are looking for essays of 1500-2500 words, digital art projects,
\nand audio or video interviews exploring the relationship between
\nmedia, space, power, and play. We encourage approaches to this topic
\nfrom scholars in cinema and media studies, anthropology, architecture,
\nart and art history, communication, ecology, geography, literature,
\nmusicology, sociology, and other relevant fields.<\/p>\n
Email submissions to Alex Champlin and John Vanderhoef at
\nsubmissions@mediafieldsjournal.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Media Fields Journal: Critical Explorations in Media and Space Issue 8: Playgrounds Submission Deadline: Dec. 1, 2013 This issue of Media Fields investigates the connections between media, space, power, and various approaches to \u201cplay\u201d across culture and society. In this issue we seek conversations that embrace play in all its polysemy. We invite papers that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[1538],"class_list":["post-28186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-humane-games"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-7kC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}