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danismm:

No-fines concrete : a record of permanent structures built in the new tradition / George Wimpey & Co. 1954

Last days of a mural.

Der Medienpreis Games zeichnet herausragende journalistische Arbeiten rund um Computerspiele aus. Das ist eine gute Sache, denn Computerspiele gehören zwar zum kulturellen Leben, sind aber noch nicht "in der Mitte der Redaktionen" angekommen. Seinem Selbstverständnis nach ist der Medienpreis damit ein Förderinstrument für den deutschsprachigen Games-Journalismus. Zum gestrigen Auftakt der Gamesweek Berlin 2018 wurde er erstmals und in den Kategorien Text, Review, Audio und Video vergeben. 

Die Gewinner*innen 2018 zum Nachlesen, hören, -sehen:

• Text: “Ork hinter Gittern” von Hannah Knuth bei ZEIT online
  
• Review: “Seekrank im Büro” von Jan Boyarin im WASD-Magazin 
• Audio: “Die Evolution von THUMPER” von Daniel Ziegener bei Superlevel
• Video: “Ultraviolence & häusliche Gewalt: Sonys thematisches Schleudertrauma” von Robin Schweiger bei Hooked

Mona Simpson

(Source: instagram.com)

Die Medienpädagogin Kristin Narr hat sich 2017 dafür ausgesprochen, die pädagogische Arbeit mit digitalen Medien handlungsorientiert zu denken und dabei unseren kritischen Blick zu schärfen. Dafür müssen wir technische (und gesellschaftliche) Entwicklungen sehen, sie beurteilen und auf unsere eigene Situation anwenden. Ich stimme dem zu. Wir brauchen mehr Medienkritik. Die soll nicht nur die Massenmedien im Fokus haben, sondern erkunden, welche Online-Meldungen glaubwürdig sind und wie Algorithmen funktionieren.

Mit jeder digitalen Vernetzung stellt sich die Frage, welche Daten von uns erhoben werden, was mit diesen geschieht und was diese womöglich über uns aussagen. Michael Seemann hatte auf diesen dreifachen Kontrollverlust hingewiesen. Der Verlust der Kontrolle oder der Illusion von Kontrolle bildet eine inhaltliche Klammer, mit der viele der 2017 diskutierten technischen Neuerungen gefasst werden können. Hier eine Auswahl an Themen, die mich 2017 beschäftigt haben. Zum Nachhören, - sehen und -lesen.

Sprachliches

• Elisabeth Wehling: Politisches Framing
• Megan Garber: Amusement
• Carolin Emcke: Autonomie
• Julian Dörr: Sexismus und Sprache

Spielerisches

• Christian Huberts: Obey
  
• Extra Credit: All Media is Political
  
• Heather Alexander: Games About Political Resistance
• Thorsten Quandt: Pathologisierung von Spielenden 
  
• Anita Sarkeesian: Geschlechterklischees

Maschinelles

• Miriam Meckel: Brainhacking
  
• Heribert Prantl: Staatstrojaner
• James Bridle: Disturbing video content
• Kathrin Passig: Algorithmenkritik
• Katika Kühnreich: Social Credit Systems
  
• Michael Kreil: Social Bots
  

The annual Chaos Communication Congress, hosted by the Chaos Computer Club, features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues that are well documented in this media library. Katika Kühnreich talked about China’s Social Credit Systems. Her abstract: In 2014 China’s government announced the implementation of big data based social credit systems (SCS). The SCS will rate online and offline behavior to create a score for each user. One of them is planned to become mandatory in 2020.

According to Katika it is an international tendendy so solve social problems with technological solutions. The Chinese government started very early to understand digitalization as tool of feedback, influence and social control. And other governments are capable to use the internet as a tool as well (as we know from Edward Snowdon). A social credit system uses big data, algorithms, ICTs, and gamification. And this “game”, when it becomes mandatory, will define our lives and the lives of the people surrounding us.

(Source: t.umblr.com)

Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner, Teaching as a Subversive Activity, 1969

One of the games I enjoyed most at this year’s PLAY Creative Gaming Festival’s exhibition is Close the Leaks (to prevent imminent death). The game is about closing a spaceship’s air leaks to keep breathing. Releasing air however is the only way to steer the spaceship. Four players need to work together to navigate the ship out of the level before running out of air. They coordinate themselves in sealing four pipes that blow air out of the game (and that are the game’s most striking feature).

Inside the box are four hair dryers, four air pressure sensores and a Teensy USB Dev Board, which connects to the computer as a Windows gamepad. The pipes also caught the audience’s interest at the PLAY exhibition. Finally, the visitors picked the game as winner of the Creative Gaming Award (Audience Award). The Award Jury underlined that the game encourages creativity: “It shows what PLAY stands for: trying out and experimenting; being original, easily accessible and something people […] can enjoy together.”

(Source: henning.website)

sunset ride

The Initiative Creative Gaming e.V. is staging PLAY17 from November 1st to 5th in Hamburg: Five days to look back into the past and forward into the future of gaming – and incidentally to reflect on its own 10-year anniversary. Motto: “The Time is Now!” This year PLAY17 will offer its public more than 120 program events – and of course, many, many games. Naturally numerous specially selected games occupy a prominent place; within the context of an interactive exhibition, visitors will be able to try out exclusively premiered new games.

Since its inception the PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival has had as its mission bringing together the areas of media art, discourse and education with gaming culture and producing a balanced, informative, creative and entertaining framework for the attendees. Above all PLAY17 invites participants to invent, build, tinker, modify, program, dance and discuss. The initiators anticipate over 8,000 visitors from educational and cultural institutions and the Games sector to visit the three established Games venues in the heart of Hamburg.

Wrinkles of Rúa Urzáiz, Vigo

I am proud of being part of the jury of the #disruptpopulism DemoDay that took place this June. People from Germany, Italy, Sweden, UK and the U.S. handed in great ideas. The teams designed offline and online events, software and web apps, algorithms and data visualizations as well as digital educational programs – all to strengthen democracy. We saw eleven amazing presentations and were impressed by the teams expertise, motivation and perseverance – most of the teams had been working for more than six months on their projects.

Finally five teams were awarded and many more connected to powerful enablers to help them further develop and bring their ideas to life. In essence, the DemoDay aimed to implement actions before the German elections on September 24th. For instance, 2nd prize winner “Demo bewegt” is about to launch their social media campaign “#QualderWahl” on Instagram in order to promote voting. We can’t wait to see more actions like this. See the award winners and DempDay teams, and stay tuned.

(Source: demoday.disruptpopulism.org)

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, 1967

At this year’s re:publica Miriam Meckel talked about brain enhancement technologies. She discussed an interesting point: The ability to become a productive member of society through your brain’s power is no longer given but manipulable. It depends on the money you have. So after the Social Divide and the Digital Divide we would according to Meckel have to think of the Neuro Divide. Thus, we are on the threshold of neurocapitalism, which is based on the permanent self-optimization of the individual.

The internet has the potential to improve people’s lives: through participation and inclusion; efficient organisational and administrative procedures and more possibilities for creativity and innovation. However, it needs access to go online. But lots of women worldwide still do not have the same opportunities to access and use digital technologies as men do. betterplace lab asks in this survey what could be done to bridge the digital divide and let women and girls benefit from the empowering potential of digitization.

(Source: betterplace-lab.org)