Ludic Flow Symposium - 20.03.24

An afternoon of EXPERIMENTAL GAME CULTURES/ University of Applied Arts Vienna and International FLOW experts in play. Studio EGC, 1st floor, Georg Coch Platz, ehem. PSK. Including a sneak preview of the  virtual PLAY SAVINGS BANK (works of all EGC players).

In a technophilosophical approach a new research question of a particular Ludic Flow is introduced. In an interdisciplinary team of arts, philosophy, and sciences we propose that Game Art is ideally suited for providing a platform for investigating the possible role and relevance of technologies and play for society and politics of Flow. The theoretical framing of the topic of LUDIC FLOW stems from the concept of Flow  as motivation design, taken up frequently and exploited heavily in game design and gamification.
In this symposium we aim to discuss a new form of Ludic Flow in artistic research, in a more direct use of a flow state of mind in performative plays. The measurement and analysis of play in Flow serves as the core game design principle of all artistic research experiments and games presented. Through critical game studies discourse we will show how these variables can be used and combined in order to develop public formats.
We will delve into the ways in which experimental games, framed as means to a more viable future of play based on a playable future in mind. This means that the relationship between play and world through technology and Ludic state machines can also be a thought-provoking area of experimental systems. (Jahrmann)

This symposium is part of the LUDIC METHOD lecture series/book project. It is an emanation of the newly launched research project The Psycho-Ludic Approach: Exploring play for a viable future (FWF/PEEK/ AR 787).

Event FLOW:

-  Core to this event will be the application of the creative Flow principle in game mechanics that aim to trigger a state of mind, which is thought to be ideal for creativity since the 1960ies, but needs a change since its exploitation in the neoliberal world of winning and the use of play as tool. In a Psycho-ludic Approach research we will measure the state of mind of lecturers in FLOW as a ludic experiment.
 
- The finale of this symposium will merge into a Flow Game Salon, in which we will open up to discuss FLOW and its mechanics in real-world instructions.


Speakers & Topics:

Start time: 13:00, Studio Experimental Game Cultures, Georg -Coch Platz 2, 1010 Wien.
 
Welcome by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Margarete Jahrmann, head of Department Experimental Game Cultures at at University of Applied Arts Vienna.

S()fia Braga: Conjuring Counter-Realities – Social Media disruption, Online Trends and New Technologies to create speculative fabulations

Rainer Sigl & Margarete Jahrmann: Let's Play: From Kinetic to Frantic Flow

Flow Games Salon

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Margarete Jahrmann: Welcome
The measurement and analysis of Flow games serve as core game design principles of all artistic research experiments in the ZKF. Through critical techno philosophical discourse and applied game FLOW elements we aim to show how these variables can be used and combined in order to develop public formats.

S()fia Braga: Conjuring Counter-Realities – Social Media disruption, Online Trends and New Technologies to create speculative fabulations
In her presentation transmedia artist S()fia Braga delves into her artistic practice and research, tracing the evolution of her work from past projects focused on social media disruption and interveillance to recent pieces that leverage new technologies and online trends to create speculative fabulations. Through a lens of Flow theory, S()fia will examine how these pieces either enhance or disrupt the experience of flow for both the artist and viewers.

Rainer Sigl & Margarete Jahrmann: Let's Play: From Kinetic to Frantic Flow
Several games will be used to reflect on the concept of FLOW and its application in the games industry. In a critical discourse between Margarete Jahrmann and Rainer Sigl, potentials and dark patterns will be explored and discussed.

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More:
S()fia Braga is an Italian transmedia artist and director based in Vienna, conducting artistic research that combines digital and post-digital practices. Her work is focused on exploring new technologies and Internet trends to create speculative fabulations that delve into themes such as transhumanism, human and non-human collaboration, and non-human agency. Moreover, S()fia’s work investigates the concept of “Interveillance,” shedding light on the hidden power dynamics enabled by centralised social media platforms’ operational structures and their sociological implications.

S()fia’s identity constantly changes and goes hand in hand with the narratives she creates: over the last years she has been an artist, a transhumanist entrepreneur, an AI auteur, a cyberstalker, a TikToker, and has mutated several times into a monstrous creature.

Over the past two years she has been awarded the Kunstförderpreise der Stadt Linz (UNESCO city of Media Art) for the New Media Art category (2022), the Startstipendium für Medienkunst by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Art and Culture (2023), the Content Vienna Award (2023) and the Bank Austria Studios award (2022). Her works have been exhibited at Ars Electronica Festival (AT), Xie Zilong Photography Museum (CN), XII Video Vortex Conference (MT), WRO Media Art Biennale (PL), Deutsche Bank (IT), Schlossmuseum Linz (AT), Pinacoteca Albertina di Torino (IT) and more.

Rainer Sigl has been covering video games culture for nearly two decades for a variety of Austrian, German and international media, among them Der Spiegel, Der Standard, WASD and Austrian public broadcaster FM4.

Prof. Dr. Margarete Jahrmann, is head of Experimental Game Cultures at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She is principal investigator of the art-based research project NEUROMATIC GAME ART (FWF/PEEK AR581, 2021–23) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the PSYCHOLUDIC APPROACH (FWF/PEEK AR787, 2023–25).  Jahrmann is an internationally renowned artist and pioneer of game art. She co-founded the Ludic Society 2006 ad part of her artistic PhD. She was professor for the artistic PhD program at the Universits of Appled arts VIENNA 2019- 2021. She also was professor for Game Design at the Zurich University of the Arts 2006 – 2021 and before this co-head of the digital arts department at the Zurich University of the Arts from 2000 on. In her collaborative and interdisciplinary artistic practice, she explores ludic art and activism. She creates hybrid performative and installative works dealing with game cultures, neuroscientific research and, emerging technologies — with the aim to introduce game changer games. Her work can be found in the Computerspielemuseum Berlin, ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica and her exemplary art- game-art work will launch the new digital collection of TMW, technical museum Vienna in 2023.