[iDC] game culture (?) (!) (%#@)

[matteo bittanti]

Hi everybody,

my name is Matteo Bittanti and I have been following the various debates on
the iDC list for a while now. Food for thought, hungry minds.

my main interest is digital gaming - Trebor invited me to poke you guys in
the eye with a sharp stick - that is, to create havoc and share ideas around
videogames

First, some background info on what I do.

My research focuses on the cultural, social, and theoretical aspects of
emerging technology, with an emphasis on the interrelations of popular
culture, visual culture, and the arts. Primary interest is the social and
cultural impact of videogames. I have been investigating the intersections
between cinema and videogames, the ideology of gaming, specific genres (e.g.
the god game, the FPS) etc. (more details
here<http://www.mattscape.com/publications.html>
)

Ok, enough with the 'official spiel'.

These are some of things I'm currently working on:

- Ongoing collaboration with the Stanford Humanities
Lab<http://shl.stanford.edu/>at Stanford University on various
projects, including "How
They Got Game <http://shl.stanford.edu/research/how_they_got_game.html>" and
the "Digital Game Canon <http://www.videoludica.com/news.php?news=568>"

- Ethnographic research on gamers at the University of California, Berkeley
as part of a project called Digital Youth
Research<http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/>

I recently wrote a short piece on the so-called "Angry Gamers", the
hooligans of gaming. You can read it
here<http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/node/83>
.

- Editing a website called videoludica <http://www.videoludica.com> - the
"official voice" of a series of books on gaming that I've been
writing/translating/publishing <http://www.videoludica.com/catalogue.php>for
the last five years

This might be interesting for the list - a work-in-progress article on the
recent virtual vs. real spaces
querelle<http://www.videoludica.com/news.php?news=639>

- Studying the intersection between the art world and the game world. This
book <http://www.gamescenes.org/> that I wrote with my friend Domenico
Quaranta <http://www.domenicoquaranta.net/>, is the first of a series of
studies on Game Art. Here are a few additional examples of what I mean
by Game Art intersections. Aram
Bartholl<http://www.videoludica.com/news.php?news=412>- Damiano
Colacito <http://www.videoludica.com/news.php?news=475>.


To make a long story short, I have no idea if any of this is relevant to
your research.

If so, I'd be happy to lead a conversation on everything you wanted to know
about digital gaming but never dared to ask. Is there anything in particular
that you'd like to discuss? Feel free to shoot - let's play!

cheers,

matteo
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