HASTAC 2015: The Art and Science of Digital Humanities

Our relationships with our institutions are always fraught with financial and intellectual difficulties, but they can also be a source of stability and innovation. This lightning talk session takes a look at the current state of game studies in academia, hoping to engage the audience in conversation about resources, limitations, and tactics for performing game studies work and game design within academic institutions. The four panelists are in different stages of their career and each provide a unique view of the current state of game studies today.

Amanda Phillips will open with an overview of the IMMERSe Network for Video Game Immersion, an international group of researchers largely funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is responsible for coordinating the research efforts of 10 member campuses in the United States and Canada, including a group of 13 HASTAC Scholars under the IMMERSe umbrella. With the current #gamergate crisis positioning game studies academics outside of gaming communities, the efforts of IMMERSe to engage the public through its video series on game studies, collaboration with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and First Person Scholar online publication can provide some best practices for engaging in public humanities work around video games.

Jeremy Douglass will speak about game libraries and preservation projects (including LOC and NEH funded), with a focus on three very different collections: The Sony Playstation of America donation to UC San Diego, the Demian Katz Gamebook Archive at UC Santa Barbara, and the LA Game Space console collection (and the idea of markerspace and Kickstater DH research), noting the varied perspectives of industry / institution, private collector / archive, and citizens / fans on what in gaming needs to be accessible and preserved.

Adam Sulzdorf-Liskiewicz will close the panel by reflecting on his speculative process of designing games for grants, competitions, and other funding opportunities. Using several recent examples from his own design practice, he will provide a first-person perspective on designers’ entanglement with the logics of funders, as well as the strategies and compromises available to them. He will discuss my successes and failures in these contexts, as an example of reflexive critique, and argue that—when it is made public—this iterative, self-aware habit can stand alongside other best practices in the humanistic study of games.

These four short talks will provide seeds for a wider conversation with the audience on digital humanities, video games, and negotiating institutional frameworks.