Erotica in games. ForePlay conference programme
From nude patches, through Sim sexuality, to gaming erotica in the eye of the law – the ForePlay scientific conference consists of 8 presentations devoted to sensuality in video games.
The conference will take place on Friday, September 27 from 12pm to 7pm in room 211 in the Katowice Miasto Ogrodów building (pl. Sejmu Śląskiego 2). The event participation is free of charge.
The meeting will be accompanied by the ForePlay interactive exhibition, which will be hosted from September 25 to 28 and present the most interesting erotic games to play. It’s worth mentioning that on September 27 at 7pm (right after the conference) there will be a curatorial tour through the exhibition.
“Video games are still learning what to exactly do with their most exciting trait – interactivity. Digital love and sex posit a particular challenge. How to avoid reducing complicated relations and motions to binary choices and dependence? How to evoke feelings while keeping intimacy and not lose the medium’s character and player agency? How to balance fun and sensuality without falling into vulgarity? Games will have to answer these and similar questions sooner or later; in the meantime, we’ll try and talk about them at the festival,” adds Jacek Wandzel, video game curator at Ars Independent.
Conference programme:
12.00 – 13.00
→ registration
13.00 – 13.30
→ interlude
13.30 – 13.40
→ opening of the conference
13.40 – 14.10
→ Aleksandra Żyłkowska (keyspeaker)
“Sexualization – what do the media say about sexuality?”
14.10 – 14.25
→ discussion
14.25 – 14.40
→ Grzegorz Zyzik (Opole Univeristy)
“The naked truth about games. The phenomenon of nude patch”
14.40 – 14.55
→ Anna Bednarek, Anna Nowak (Łódź University)
“I would’ve given a stud like you a free sample – stigmatization and devaluation of sex work in video games”
14.55 – 15.10
→ discussion
15.10 – 15.40
→ interlude
15.40 – 16.10
→ Iwona Anna Wiśniewska (keyspeaker)
“Sexual disorders caused by idealized media coverage. An unreal picture of sex and ‘being a real man’. Masculinity crisis”
16.10 – 16.25
→ discussion
16.25 – 16.40
→ Eliza Kanty, Izabela Rozmund (Rzeszów University)
“Interactive intimacy – the paradox of sexuality in The Sims series and its impact on the young generation”
16.40 – 16.55
→ Szymon Arczyński (Jagiellonian University)
“Dialectic of love in Catherine as a reflection of contemporary problems in romantic relationships”
16.55 – 17.10
→ discussion
17.10 – 17.40
→ interlude
17.40 – 18.10
→ Agnieszka Kliś-Brodowska (Silesian University)
“Video games, fairy tales and non-erotic erotica: Child of Light, Ubisoft Montreal (2014)”
18.10 – 18.25
→ discussion
18.25 – 18.40
→ Piotr Szczepaniak (M. Kopernik University in Toruń)
“Erotica in video games and the law”
18.40 – 18.55
→ discussion
18.55 – 19.00
→ closing of the conference
The event is organized by the cultural institution Katowice City of Gardens and the City of Katowice.