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Conference: Thinking After Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games
2009-04-10 16:04 | Posted by jpzagal | Permanent Link | Conferences and SeminarsThursday 23 to Saturday 25 April 2009 Maison Ludger-Duvernay (82, Sherbrooke West, Montreal)
This international conference unites scholars who all study a corpus that has been left out up to now: horror video games. Considering the relatively slow progress of generic studies among the recent surge of academic interest towards video games, this event represents a major first step. In order to map out the realm of horror video games, the conference favors an intermedial study of manifestations of horror in other cultural practices (literary and cinematographic).
In what ways do video games reuse the narrative strategies of novels or the staging of horror developed in movies? Are the social implications of the phenomenon similar on both sides? It will also be the occasion to shed light on the specificity of a ludic genre known as survival horror, and to propose the necessary theoretical tools to do a comparative study of ludic genres. Is it possible to find overarching gameplay patterns across the whole spectrum of horror video games, and figures of interactivity specific to the survival horror subgenre?
The conference will be held in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) from the 23rd to the 25th of April 2009 under the supervision of the Ludicine research team from the University of Montreal, in collaboration with the GRAFICS (Research Group on the Creation and Formation of Cinematographic and Theatrical Institutions) from the University of Montreal, the NT2 Laboratory (Studies on Hypermedia Art and Literature) from the University of Quebec in Montreal, and the SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).
The program brings together participants from different backgrounds (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, Japan) and from various fields of study.
The keynote speakers are internationally renowned specialists: Tanya Krzywinska (Professor, Brunel University, London, UK), Barry K. Grant (Professor, Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada), Richard Rouse III (game designer of The Suffering video game series) and Simon Niedenthal (Associate professor, Malmö University, Sweden).
To see the program and for more information, please go to the conference Web site : http://conference2009.ludicine.ca
Organizing committee Bernard Perron, Conference Head, Associate Professor, Département d’histoire de l’art et d’études cinématographiques, Université de Montréal Martin Picard, Conference coordinator, Ludiciné research team, Université de Montréal Richard Bégin, Invited Professor in film studies, Département des littératures, Université Laval Carl Therrien, Ludiciné research team, Université de Montréal Dominic Arsenault, Ludiciné research team, Université de Montréal Guillaume Roux-Girard, Ludiciné research team, Université de Montréal