The fifth lecture in the Virtual Realisms public series, curated by CSNI PhD researcher Teodora Sinziana Alata in collaboration with Tadej Vindis, will take place on the 10th of April 2025, 18:00-20:00 in the Fabrication Lab, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road London NW1 5LS.
The Anthropocene, the geological epoch marked by human impact on the environment, is putting life itself at risk. This lecture examines some minimal and almost invisible moments in which players and game makers have responded to videogames that challenge the centrality of the human. It explores what videogame consumers can teach us about the time we have left on this planet, when both the real world and its simulations no longer function as expected. Gaming the Post-Anthropocene explores the value and meaning of leisure time when there is no time left.
Paolo Ruffino is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Curation and Computational Creativity at the department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London, UK. Ruffino has been investigating the independent production of videogames, labour unions in the videogame industry, and nonhuman and posthuman play in the digital age. He is the author of Future Gaming: Creative Interventions in Video Game Culture (Goldsmiths/MIT Press 2018), editor of Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Techniques and Politics (Routledge, 2021) and author of articles for Games and Cultures; Convergence; Television and New Media; Critical Studies in Media Communication; and GAME The Italian Journal of Game Studies. He is also one of the four founding members of the artist group IOCOSE. Website: www.paoloruffino.com
The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. Please register to attend here.
The Virtual Realisms public lecture series critically investigates the evolving forms of reality created through algorithmic worldbuilding, where advanced digital technologies give rise to new and diverse interpretations of what is considered ‘real.’ Spanning both technical and speculative practices, the lectures will explore how real-time virtual environments, and the technologies that underpin them, are redefining the logics of cultural production, creativity, and power in our increasingly rendered world.
The series is curated by Tadej Vindis, Lecturer in Creative Technologies, and Teodora Sinziana Alata, Lecturer in Creative Computing and Algorithmic Cultures, at the University of Westminster.
For further information about the lecture series and upcoming events, please visit www.virtualrealisms.com