Inaugural lecture: Espen Aarseth

Espen Aarseth will give his inaugural professorial lecture "Game Research at ITU: Achievements, Goals, and Grand Challenges" on April 4 from 14-15.30.

Espen Aarseth's talk will present a status and a vision for the future of ITU's game research. ITU and game studies share an intimate history: both started at the same time and and at the same place, and both have matured and come of age in the last 18 years. Both rely on a combination of technology, aesthetics, social sciences and design, which will be crucial to reach the next level of research, where the integration of these elements will be the key factor, not only for game research, but also for ITU. But can a unification of so diverse research areas be successful? And to what ends? 

Since Alan Turing, games have been the hidden core in much of digital technology development, and the talk will draw lines from the history of computing and play, to its futures as playful interface design, new forms of embodied digital play, new paradigms for online sociality and culture, and as avant-garde digital media.

All are welcome and signup is not required. 

Bio:

Espen Aarseth is professor of game studies and head of the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen.  He holds a Cand.Philol. in comparative literature and a Dr.Art. in humanistic informatics, both from the University of Bergen. He is co-founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Game Studies (2001-), and author of Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (Johns Hopkins UP 1997), a foundational text in the fields of electronic literature, game studies, and new media studies. He recently received an ERC Advanced Grant for the project MSG – Making Sense of Games (2016-2021).