🔵 🔴 🟡 Course description

The course "Digital Games and Art" focuses on the multi-layered relationship that exists between digital games and the wider field of art. In the context of the course and starting from the theoretical traditions of digital games, we will study the convergences, discontinuities and new fields of artistic expression that are emerging. The field of art is approached from the point of view of the production of a work, converses with the field of culture and includes institutional 215 and non-institutional practices and expressions. Digital games, on the other hand, refer to the experimental and independent forms of digital games, their software and hardware, the mechanisms it incorporates and the digital culture it supports. After the completion of the course, students should

• know the basic concepts and theoretical approaches of digital games in relation to artistic production
• develop critical thinking and an experimental artistic approach in order to be able to use this experience later on, in their own productions.
• come into contact with new forms of digital art – works of artists who experimented with the limits of digital play
• understand the multidimensional nature of digital games, and through other courses, utilize it accordingly
• become familiar with contemporary art forms and with different approaches to the concept of performativity.

🔵 🔴 🟡 Theory (3 hours)

1. Defining digital games Theoretical framing of the concept of digital games through modern approaches
2. Can digital games be considered art? Studying the controversial topic of the interconnection of digital games with the art sector
3. Towards an aesthetic approach to digital games Digital games, mass culture and the Fluxus movement
4. Digital games as artifacts Digital games as products and expressions of culture and national identity
5. Digital Games and Performance The concept of performance in digital games through philosophical theories of play, gender and gender identities.
6. Digital games as a means of artistic expression and creation I Through individual examples and digital works we will study the relationship that develops between digital activism, artistic production and video games.
7. Digital games as a means of artistic expression and creation II Through individual examples and digital works we will study the relationship that develops between digital activism, artistic production and video games.
8. Machinima and art games The practice of Machinima as an early form of convergence of digital games and art, and presentation of the most important art games.
9. Convergences of digital game culture and contemporary art Game mods, performance in the digital worlds of games, use of game mechanics and references to the cyber culture of games, in artistic works
10. Digital games as cultural evidence Digital games and the issue of preserving collective cultural memory
11. Digital games, cultural organizations and museum exhibitions Exhibitions and permanent collections of digital games
12. Digital Game Exhibition Curation I Historical Review and Introduction to Digital Game Exhibition Curation
13. Digital Game Exhibition Curation II Introduction to Digital Game Exhibition Curation: Challenges and New Opportunities

Review language: Greek

🔵 🔴 🟡 Evaluation method:

• Participation in the course (20%)
• Final assignment/written exams (80%)

• Face-to-face
• Use of PowerPoint and audio-visual examples (13 lectures)
• Support of the learning process through eClass with weekly provision of audiovisual material, links, photos, extra bibliography and related information (exhibitions, cultural institutions, etc.)

https://eclass.uop.gr/courses/3373/ 

🔵 🔴 🟡 Course Textbooks [Eudoxus]

• Santorinaios. M. 2016. From complex Arts to hypermedia and new virtual – potential spaces. A handbook for the artist who deals with digital Art, Kallipos
• Vasilakos, A. 2008. Digital art forms. Tzola (Book Code in Eudoxus: 18549065)

Extra Bibliography

• Voulgari I., Roinioti E., Koutromanos G., Sintoris C., Manesis G., 2023. Digital Games and Learning, Kallipos Open University Publications 218
• Bittani M. & Quaranta D.2008. Gamescenes: Art in the Age of Videogames, Johan & Levi
• Bogost I., 2010.Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. MIT Press
• Dragona D., 2016. The Game of Data: The Asymmetrical Powers and Potential Resistance of the Gaming Internet. EMME-NKUA, https://thesis.ekt.gr/thesisBookReader/id/37722#page/1/mode/2up
• Felan, S. (2013). An Art World for Artgames. Loading... The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, 7(11), 41–60.
• Flanagan M,. 2009.Critical Play: Radical Game Design. MIT Press
• Getsy D., 2011. From Diversion to Subversion: Games, Play, and Twentieth-Century Art, Penn State University Press
• Lowood, H. (2013). Video Capture: Machinima, Documentation, and the History of Virtual Worlds. In Henry Lowood, and Michael Nitsche (eds), The Machinima Reader (Cambridge, MA, 2011; online edn, MIT Press Scholarship Online, 22 Aug. 2013), https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262015332.003.0002
• Pearce, C. (2006). Games AS Art: The Aesthetics of Play. Visible Language, 40, 66
• Roinioti, E. (2021). Saving the experience: Digital games as cultural evidence. In Alexandra Bounia and Despina Katapoti (Eds.) Emerging Technologies and Cultural Heritage (pp. 43–61). Alexandria Publications