Research Seminar - Play as research and pedagogical strategy

Play as research and pedagogical strategy

Presented by: Jasper van Vught (Utrecht University)

Date: Friday 2 December 2022
Time: 1-2pm
Location: Online via Zoom and in-person at the SCA Writer's Studio (Level 6, Michie Building)

Abstract

In this research seminar, Jasper will share some ideas on play as a research method and teaching strategy to consequently pick your brains about the implementation (and possible impact) of different playful approaches in your own research and teaching practices. Departing from the basic premise that games (and research objects more generally) can be actualised in many different free and instrumental ways (Iser 1993), Jasper will delve into the analytical and pedagogical value of 1) novice play as a form of surface reading and a way to make your teaching more diverse and inclusive, 2) cheating as a reflective exercise to identify our own presuppositions we bring to our research objects as well as ideologies embedded in those objects, and 3) game design as a communicative act to explore the workings of our research object and combine and compare multiple perspectives.

While much of these methodological strategies may appear exclusive to the study of games, this seminar explores the extended usefulness of playing a research object in line with previous playful approaches to, for instance, urban spaces (Debord 1956) or the social system of a local community (Long 1958).

Roughly speaking, this seminar encourages you to ask the following questions about your own research: What does it mean to follow your object’s suggested path, and what does this tell you about the object or you as a researcher? What does it mean to go against/transgress/oppose a suggested path, and what does that tell you about norms embedded in the object, the broader culture, or you as a researcher? How do skills and repertoire knowledge inform your potential research questions, and how do you work with (the value) of your situatedness? And finally, can you conceptualise your research object into a game and how do different game mechanics inform you about the relationships in your research object?. 

Presenter

Jasper van Vught is assistant professor of new media and games in the department of Media and Culture Studies at the Utrecht University (Netherlands). His research focuses on game theory and methodology, game ethics and game history. He is part of the Centre for the Study of Digital Games and Play, has worked within a large international research project into the classification of games and the dominant experience of violence in entertainment games and has been involved with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision to preserve and canonize Dutch game history. His co-authored book Videogame Formalism: On form, aesthetic experience, and methodology is due to be published at the beginning of 2023 by Amsterdam University Press.