[ExI] ARTS: Transhumanism + Play/Games - Spain Conference 2008

[Natasha Vita-More]

Friends,

I have been invited to give a talk and presentation on 
transhumanism/posthumanism and play at LABoral Centre for Art and 
Industrial Creation (Gijon, Spain).  I invite you to collaborate with 
me on the presentation.  I was thinking of creating a "play" off of 
the Turning Point project with humor.  But I welcome you ideas.  We 
can make this as outrageous as we like.  The only limits are $$, but 
let's not worry about that for now.

Here is the brief synopsis of the conference:

HOMO LUDENS LUDENS
Locating play in contemporary culture and society

"Under the title HOMO LUDENS LUDENS, LABoral Centre for Art and 
Industrial Creation, has planned for the upcoming April an exhibition 
and an international conference wishing to explore play as a 
principal element in today's world and to analyze its importance in 
the different sides of our lives. Following the exhibition of 
GAMEWORLD that reflected the different sides and perspectives of the 
gaming creativity developed by artists nowadays and PLAYWARE that 
highlighted the playful and social character of interactive art, 
LABoral now wishes to set the setting that will embrace these data 
and will take a step even further by looking into the notion of play 
as it has evolved in our digital times.

Play changes and evolves throughout the conditions of each era. Being 
a point of analysis and reference for scholars throughout the 
different times, we can easily trace its continuous role and 
significance for the various sectors of human civilization. Coming to 
our days, the multifaceted character of play has shaped a truly 
interdisciplinary approach leading to specialized research areas, 
applications and expressions with different aims and functions.

So, what is play today? It surely is still a source of joy and 
enjoyment; but not only. It also is a powerful tool for our society 
serving educational, scientific and social purposes. It is an 
activity but also a platform that builds relationships, forms 
networks and affects identities; play is an object of exploitation - 
in the web 2.0 era, what better way is there than to gain profit from 
people's creativity?"

Email me if you want to collaborate!  natasha at natasha.cc

Natasha