schedule

(readings either have links to open resources or the GC library proxy, or they have a [C] label, which means they’re in the Library section of our Commons Group in .pdf.

8/28 Introduction, requirements, assignments

  • Commons onboarding
  • introductions of each other and course material: to the former, introduce yourself via Padlet if you feel moved!

9/11 What is Play? A brief intro to “play theory”

readings/in class

  • Ian Bogost, from Play Anything (2016), ch1
  • Johan Huizinga, from Homo Ludens (1938)
  • Roger Caillois, from Man, Play, and Games (1958)
  • Choose a public-domain text to render “playable” for the Group Project

work due

  • Blog Post #1: Apply one or more of the theorizations of play that we've read to a game or other instance of play in your life. You might consider how play practices inscribe a "magic circle" that seems to exist outside of ordinary time and space per Huizinga, you might explore the structuralist divisions of Caillois's work to specify the particular balance of play modes in your example, or you might consider more holistically, per Bogost's work, how play enhances, or might enhance, aspects of your life.

9/18 Play theory II

readings/in class:

  • From Upton, The Aesthetics of Play
  • Zimmerman’s “Manifesto for a Ludic Century”
  • Whatever text we chose in Week 2
  • Organize Group Project

work due:

10/2 Magical Play: play as (re)enchantment

readings/in class:

work due:

  • Presentation #1

10/10 [note change] Magical Play II

readings/in class:

  • McGonigal, from Reality is Broken (Intro + ch. 7)
  • Bogost, "The Squalid Grace of Flappy Bird"
  • examples:
    • Cayley,
      • Windsound
      • Cayley's essay on the project, inner workings
      • Cayley interview, [in Group Library]
      • note: windsound is in Mac's deprecated QuickTime format, so unless you have an old rig, you're better off watching the (passive) film version on Cayley's site to get a sense of the thing.
    • Larsen, The Pines at Walden Pond
    • Shelley Jackson, Snow
      • note: need Instagram account. I understand if that's a bridge too far!

work due:

  • Group Project #1 due
  • Presentation #2

10/16 Managerial Play: play as discipline

readings/in class:

  • Walz and Detterding, from The Gameful World
  • Bogost, "Why Gamification is Bullshit"

work due:

  • Presentation #3
  • blog post #2: reflection on Group Project. See Project page for prompt.

10/23 Managerial Play II

readings/in class:

  • Sicart, “Playing an Automated World”
  • Zuboff, from The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

work due:

  • Blog post #3: Explore a "gamified" or otherwise disciplined/administered online environment and describe as thickly as possible the initial user experience and any reflections you have on what disciplinary forces may be in play. Possible examples: Ed Tech platforms like Khan Academy or Duolingo, shopping interfaces, or the classic "surveillance capitalist" examples of Zuboff's discourse, like Google/Pokemon Go, Facebook/Meta, etc.
  • Presentation #4

10/30 Rhetorical Play: play as persuasion

readings/in class:

work due:

  • Blog post #4: open prompt. Write about any of the pieces from this or last week…
  • Presentation #5

11/6 Rhetorical Play II

readings/in class:

work due:

  • Presentation #6

11/13 Radical Play: play as resistance/subversion

readings/in class:

work due:

  • Proposal for Final Project Due
  • Presentation #7

11/20 Radical Play II

readings/in class:

work due:

  • Presentation #8

11/27 People's Choice: Digital Poetry

readings/in class:

  • Nick Montfort's recreations of "computational poetry, electronic literature, and digital literary art that was originally developed on batch processing systems"
    • Might check out what many scholars consider the earliest version of DigiPo, Strachey's "Love Letters" (1953), and Montfort's post contextualizing it
    • Wylde's HaikU, which allows users to contribute to a database of haiku lines that are algorithmically recombined by the interface.
    • Taper, Number 8: the theme is "8-Bit Nostalgia," and there's a lot of work here that intersects with stuff we worked on and talked about. "Read" as many as you have time for. Also take a random walk through the other issues: fascinating project with contributions from some familiar names.

work due:

12/4 People's Choice: Branching Narratives

readings/in class:

12/11 Wrapping up

work due:

  • Wrap-up and reflection
  • Brief presentations (3 mins) on final projects
  • Final projects due on 12/18