Ecogames: Playful Perspectives on the Climate Crisis

With the climate crisis and its repercussions becoming more and more tangible, the media are increasingly participating in the production, circulation, and interrogation of environmental assumptions, using both explicit and implicit ways of framing the crisis. In this lecture, I will present an overview of my research on green media/ecogames, and will do so in three steps. First, I will present our ‘Green Media Studies initiative’ that seeks to contribute to the understanding of the interconnectedness of media representations, media use, media impact, and media technologies in addressing the climate crisis. Then I will give a short overview of the four thematic sections of our book Ecogames: Playful Perspectives on the Climate Crisis. They are: Today’s Challenges: Games for Change; Future Worlds: New Imaginaries; The Nonhuman Turn; and Critical Metagaming Practices. Finally, I will introduce our Horizon Europe project STRATEGIES: Sustainable TRAnsiTion for Europe’s Game IndustriES’ (2024-2028). It is the project’s aim to support Europe’s game industries in realising their potential as drivers of sustainable innovation, helping to achieve the goals of the European Green Deal.

Links:

• Green Media Studies initiative: https://greenmediastudies.nl
• Green Mediography: https://greenmediography.nl
• Ecogames: Playful Perspectives on the Climate Crisis: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463721196/ecogames

Prof. Joost Raessens holds the chair of Media Theory at Utrecht University. His research focuses on the understanding of how green media—in the broadest sense, including digital media, theatre, film, television, audio, art and literature—contribute to ecological thought and facilitate different forms of civic engagement (global ecological citizenship) on a micro, meso and macro level. In general, his research interests include digital media and the ‘ludification of culture’; think of Games and VR for Change dealing with issues such as the climate crisis, forced migration, and space exploration (www.raessens.nl).

You can join in person at GS711 Turing Hybrid Meeting Space, Wakefield St Hawthorn Campus, Swinburne University

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