Tonight (April 1), award-winning author and video game theorist/designer Ian Bogost speaks at CalArts as part of the School of Critical Studies Interventions Lecture Series. The lecture begins at 7 pm in Butler Building #4.
A “speculative realist” philosopher, Bogost’s research and writing focuses on video games as an expressive medium; much of his creative practice concentrates on political and art games. In addition to teaching at Georgia Institute of Technology, Bogost is co-founder of Persuasive Games, an independent game studio that designs, builds and distributes video games intended for persuasion, instruction and activism. More about the company via Bogost’s website:
Our games influence players to take action through gameplay. Games communicate differently than other media; they not only deliver messages, but also simulate experiences. While often thought to be just a leisure activity, games can also become rhetorical tools.
Among Bogost’s most recent publications is a book-length collaborative study of a single BASIC program that ran on the Commodore 64, titled 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10.
The Interventions Lecture Series is a year-long graduate-level course offered to the MA Aesthetics and Politics Program and first-year MFA Creative Writing students, which has hosted Lisa Duggan, Renee Gladman, Lydia Davis, Bruce Robbins, Giovanni Singleton and Fred Moten this year. All lectures are free and open to the public.
Above, Bogost discusses the power of video games in a segment with Stephen Colbert in 2007 on The Colbert Report.