Women In Games Cfp 2007

Aesthetics in play: new platforms, new perspectives, new players

If you work in the games industry and would like to do a presentation at next year’s Women in Games or contribute in some other way but do not want to write an academic paper then contact Emma Westecott at enquiries@womeningames.com or in Ireland, Aphra Kerr.

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Over the past 3 years, The Women in Games conference has become the European forum for women working in and around the computer games industry. The event is characterised by its mix of women from industry, the academy and other sectors of society united in their passion for games. WIG 2007 is interested in continuing this tradition and broadening the dialogue on games to a wider context by seeking contributions from more traditional media disciplines, gender studies and the ICT sector.

Games combine visually led, screen-based arts with performance media to create a gaming experience. The art of gaming is one of action; it is about the player and their performance within the game context. Further than this it is of interest to deepen our exploration of what the unique characteristics of the game experience are in order to celebrate and expose new form, WIG is in a unique position to express a feminine perspective on these possibilities.

Working from the perspective that digital games are a modern expressive art form, increasingly culturally recognised as such, WIG 2007 invites a focus on game aesthetics, performance and play in the context of the following strands:

1. The Big Game
There are a handful of games that have broken out to become international bestsellers that appeal to all types of player and are commonly acknowledged to be mass market. We invite detailed analysis and readings of games in this category in order to better understand why and how these titles transcend existing markets.

2. Other Players
We all play in different ways and from different contexts, and yet the notion of mass market often caters to the lowest common denominator, chasing the tail of last year�s top sellers to justify huge development budgets. In our fractured post modern environment the possibility for cheaper product focussed at niche markets is growing. This strand seeks to explore a range of play contexts and styles in order to expose and celebrate other players.

3. Non-Games
The interrelationship between play and digital games cannot be taken as read; many game tasks are repetitive and tedious, more like work than play.
At the same time there is much digital play that takes place outside the game frame. This strand calls for submissions that explore the ways in which playfulness can open up possibilities for new form of experience.

4. The Performance of Play
It has been 20 years since Brenda Laurel�s initial research linking computers and theatre; further work has recently emerged celebrating performance aspects of game play within the context of digital game form. We invite contributions that explore what performance means in the game play context.

5. Situated Play/ers
We would be particularly interested in presentations or workshops that looked at games in the context of digital consumption more generally. Here we would welcome contributions from those interested in studying games in relation to broader issues around domestic leisure forms particularly those which are able to draw from or develop the work in feminist media studies and research from within the field of study of ICT uses and practices. We are also actively seeking to encourage wider considerations of embodiment and aesthetic practices in game play.

The problem of encouraging women into the ICT industries are manifold and any efforts to encourage a broader gender balance need to operate on a range of levels, from childhood upwards. It is vital to encourage girls and women to be confident and comfortable working with technology and to provide strong and visible role models for this and the next generation of game designers.

Key Dates:
20/11/06 Call for Abstracts released
26/01/07 Submission deadline
16/03/07 Notification

Types of submission:
Submissions can be made within the following categories: full paper, short paper, poster, panel or student forum. All submissions will be anonymously peer-reviewed by the Women in Games steering committee.

for full details on different types of submissions, formats and cover sheets see http://www.womeningames.com/

Other Important dates:
01/04/07 Speakers/Contributors Registration Deadline

15/04/07 Deadline for Open Registration

19-21/04/07 Women in Games 2007

Venue: University of Wales, Newport.

Ibm Cell Cpu Workshop

The following was sent to us by Steve C in Trinity.

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The Interaction, Simulation and Graphics Lab, School of Computer Science and Statistics, TCD, is delighted to announce, in collaboration with IBM Ireland and IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre, a workshop on the new Cell Broadband Engine (BE). The Cell BE, developed by IBM in collaboration with Sony and Toshiba, is a revolutionary new processor featuring multiple execution cores, directed towards distributed processing and multimedia applications. IBM has recently announced its first Cell BE based server product, the QS20 Bladeserver. Sony Computer Entertainment has chosen the Cell processor for its newly launched PlaystationR3 game console. The Cell BE Workshop will be comprised of two parts:

1. Public session, Nov 28th, 11:00 – 13:00: featuring keynote
presentations from Bruce D’Amora of IBM T.J. Watson, who will talk about “The Future of the Cell Broadband Engine and Visualisation” and Stephen Kennedy, Senior Engineer with Havok who will talk about “Havok Experiences with the Cell Processor”. These sessions are designed to present an overview of the Cell processor and highlight its use in particular in entertainment and media applications, and will be of interest to the general public and to organisations wishing to learn more about the power of the Cell BE processor.

2. Programming Workshop, Nov 28th/29th: a one and a half day hands-on
workshop introducing the key features of the Cell BE processor in a lab environment, directed by IBM staff, and using the last Cell BE development tools, which will be supplied in the lab. This workshop will be of interest to researchers and engineers looking to develop software exploiting the unique architecture of the Cell BE. Places are limited and registration is a requirement.

Dates and Venue: 28/29 November, TCD

For registration see http://isg.cs.tcd.ie/cellworkshop/

Ken Perlin Talk

“Interactive direction of virtual actors”

Professor Ken Perlin
Media Research Laboratory
Department of Computer Science
New York University

7:00pm Monday 20th November
Joly Theatre
Hamilton Building 4, Trinity College Dublin

For further details, please see the website at:
http://isg.cs.tcd.ie/cosulliv/KenPerlin.html

Presentation Abstract

The Interaction, Simulation and Graphics (ISG) Lab in Trinity College Dublin is delighted to announce a seminar by Prof. Ken Perlin of New York University. In his lecture “Interactive direction of virtual actors”, he will describe recent work on developing ways to direct virtual actors in a scene in real-time, conveying not just movement but also mood, personality and intentionality, with the same rapidity and ease with which one might informally sketch out ideas with a colleague on a white board. He will show recent results in this area, and discuss directions for future work.

Speaker Biography

Ken Perlin is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at New York University. He was founding director of the Media Research Laboratory and also directed the NYU Center for Advanced Technology from 1994-2004. His research interests include graphics, animation, user interfaces, science education and multimedia. In January 2004 he was the featured artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2002 he received the NYC Mayor’s award for excellence in Science and Technology and the Sokol award for outstanding Science faculty at NYU. In 1997 he won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his noise and turbulence procedural texturing techniques, which are widely used in feature films and television. In 1991 he received a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. Prof. Perlin received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University in 1986, and a B.A. in theoretical mathematics from Harvard University in 1979. He was Head of Software Development at R/GREENBERG Associates in New York, NY from 1984 through 1987. Prior to that, from 1979 to 1984, he was the System Architect for computer generated animation at Mathematical Applications Group, Inc., Elmsford, NY, where the first feature film he worked on was TRON. He has served on the Board of Directors of the New York chapter of ACM/SIGGRAPH, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Software Industry Association.

Nanotechnology Game Released.

A freely downloadable game call ‘NanoQuest’ has been developed by Cando Interactive, Fable Interactive and Claire Fitch in association with CRANN, a nanotech research centre in Trinity College Dublin and the Discover Science and Engineering Project.

The pilot game is aimed at 13-15 year olds and they can compete to win an iPOD nano between now and Christmas by uploading their highest score to the project website.

For more details, to download the game and see the highest scores see http://www.nanoquest.ie/home.html

To provide feedback to some of the developers see the forums at http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/forums/viewtopic.php?p=28816#28816

Well done to all concerned.

Darklight Podcasts

Some of the following podcasts from the Darklight festival in June 2006 will be of interest to people on this site.

*In conversation with Gavin Kelly of Piranha Bar, multi-award winning animation wizards Alan Smith & Adam Foulkes gave a talk at the Darklight Festival Salon 2006 in association with Screen Training Ireland. Recent credits for Smith & Foulkes include the title sequence for Thunderbirds, and an animated “film within a film” for Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events.

*3D Studio Max Workshop at Darklight 2006 with industry Veteran Michael Langmayer from Autodesk, focused on the advanced features available in 3D Studio Max 8 including character animation and creating Photorealistic rendering with Mental Ray.

*The Role of the Commissioner: Hosted by Maeve Connolly from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, a panel of artistic commissioners and practitioners explored a variety of commissioning processes and practices within film, television, the visual arts and new media.

*Morph-a-Thon at Darklight! (ipod version)
Download and watch the excellent video created by young animators at the Darklight Morph-a-Thon
workshop in June!

**Podcast of Darklight Salon 2006 discussion with groundbreaking contemporary British artists Al & Al hosted by Mark Cullen SOON TO FOLLOW!

All are available to listen to at http://darklightfestival.blogspot.com

Cgames Ceili

Following the industry panel and a day of tiring game related presentations CGames are inviting folks to let their hair down at a ceile at the Bull and Castle, which used to be called the Castle Inn, beside Christchurch.

Open to all and free of charge.

Ernest Adams Workshops

Part of the week of games related events in Dublin and the CGames conf., Ernest Adams will give one of his well-received workshops on Games Design in Dublin.

For more details and to register contact the organisers via http://www.comp.dit.ie/cgames/program.html 

Saturday 25th November, 2006

09:00 – 10:00 Registration
10:00 – 12:30 Ernest Adams 1 day workshop on games design (Extra fee)
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 16:00 Ernest Adams 1 day workshop on games design (Extra fee)