Special Issue 2: Play Conference

Summer 2008

Play Conference"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."
Plato

"Play is the exultation of the possible."
Martin Buber


On 23 and 24 May, 2008, Forum hosted an international and interdisciplinary conference on the topic of "Play" at the University of Edinburgh's School of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures (made possible through funding from the Art and Humanities Research Council). Engaging with a myriad of perspectives and interests – from digital media to theology, literature to film studies, psychology to performance art – the conference explored the social and cultural functions of play, and attempted to determine its significance in the arts and humanities. This special issue of Forum offers a selection of papers presented at the conference, a compilation of works that reflect the spectrum of questions considered throughout the two-day event. 

 

Articles

Playing Before God: Theology and Play in Dialogue 
Daniel Gabelman (University of St Andrews)

The Ludic Parody of Terry Pratchett 
Camilla Ulleland Hoel (University of Edinburgh)

Politics of Play: Situationism, Détournement, and Anti-Art 
Christie Ko (University of Edinburgh)

The Mad Man in the Attic: Playing with Gendered Literary Identity as Object and Muse in Iris Murdoch’s The Good Apprentice and The Message to the Planet
Emma Miller (University of Durham)

In Arcadia; Landscape Filming in a Toxic Wasteland: Game Engine Affordances and Post-Game Narratives. 
Corrado Morgana (University of Arts, London)

Playful Culture and the Glamorization of Everyday (Virtual) Life: Elements of Play in Facebook Applications 
Valentina Rao (no present affiliation)

Violence as Surrealist Play in Angela Carter’s Shadow Dance 
Anna Fruchart Watz (Uppsala University)

The Performance of Digital Play 
Emma Westecott (University of Newport, Wales)