Session: #27

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
1. Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
Archaeogaming: The Liminal Space Invader
Content:
While formal scholarship on the archaeology in and of video/digital games has increased in the last decade, archaeogaming remains in a liminal space within academic discourse. While similar topics are investigated and methodological challenges are shared, archaeogaming is neither digital archaeology nor is it media archaeology. Archaeogaming is also not simply the study of digital artefacts but a developing community of scholarship that interrogates the materiality and intangibility of contemporary culture. Further, archaeogaming is not “archaeology plus computer science” but a field of research with its own developing but distinct praxis. As such we are defining archaeogaming as not interdisciplinary research but rather as the transdisciplinary field of inquiry into the digital games we play and the technologies and cultures that shape them. By situating archaeogaming as transdisciplinary, we are acknowledging the challenge of finding a place for archaeogaming in the various disciplines that engage in it but also the increasing necessity for “archaeogamers” to have diverse inter-and intra-disciplinary training and perspectives in their work.
The aims of this session are threefold. First, the session will illustrate the various approaches for the study of digital games. Second, we aim to address some of the successes and challenges in undertaking contemporary archaeologies that push the boundary of traditional archaeological practice. Finally, community-building: we want to foster a dialogue between archaeogamers who represent not just archaeology but other disciplines such as computer science, engineering, and media studies. As such, we are inviting papers that examine the methodological and theoretical practices used in archaeogaming today and which represent the multidimensionality and transdisciplinary nature of this work. Case studies that address methodological and theoretical aspects are also welcome.
Keywords:
Archaeogaming, Digital artefacts, Intangible heritage, Video games
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Katie Biittner (Canada) 1
Co-organisers:
Florence Smith Nicholls (United Kingdom) 2,3
John Aycock (Canada) 4
Affiliations:
1. MacEwan University
2. Queen Mary University of London
3. iGGi
4. University of Calgary