Mass Culture is an arts support organization that strives to harness the power of research to learn and generate new insights, enabling the arts community to be strategic, focused and adaptive.
Mass Culture is an arts support organization that strives to harness the power of research to learn and generate new insights, enabling the arts community to be strategic, focused and adaptive.
Three rounds of compelling exchanges from the indie gaming industry on community development, ladders of engagement, and cultivating interactivity across creative and commercial activities.
Mass Culture, in partnership with Gros Morne Summer Music, is proud to have hosted their very first Play-Go-Round event with content creators from the indie gaming community.
During this event, which was recorded, we explored and discussed ideas surrounding community development, ladders of engagement, cultivating interactivity across creative and commercial activities, discoverability, and working with user data.
This event delved into what the arts sector can learn from the video game industry; specifically, indie game studios. In the wake of increased pressure to develop more digitally-savvy practices, arts organizations need to look to adjacent sectors to thrive creatively and commercially in the ever more digital world. The themes covered in this preliminary event will set the stage for further inquiry.
As a lead up to this event, Sarah Brin, Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan, and Bart Simon each developed a thought piece, spurred from how the not-for-profit arts and gaming sectors can create shared experiences with one another.
The event, emceed by Naomi Stokes, was an enriching exchange, delving even deeper into their commissioned thought pieces through Mass Culture’s Play-Go-Round conversation inspired by the Art Angel Longplayer project’s Long Conversation format. Audience members were invited to join us in exploring the arts sector’s relationship to digital technology and the implications of a digitized world that gaming embodies. The event concluded with an artistic windup from spoken word poet, Luke Reece.
These thought pieces, created by the event’s content experts, provide insights into their areas of expertise within the video gaming industry, as well as where they see opportunities for learning between the arts and gaming sectors.
Luke Reece, www.lukereece.com
It’s connected to power, and how it’s distributed
To create equitable and joyful spaces, the status quo must be disputed
Barriers within institutions can dehumanize us with few solutions
They can be exclusive and elusive
With little room for retributions
And in moments like this we need some institutional revolutions
To allow for a community-wide evolution
As we make fun games in ultra high resolution
Let’s just say it:
Some people dedicate their lives to being racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic trolls
And it’s human beings like us, who have to take that toll-
Let’s take care of each other in this game design and creation
While still having discourse on experimentation
Funding community resources is where we make magic
Unlike the Greek plays, this doesn’t all have to be tragic
Although I did love Age of Mythology – each update, had to have it.
Back to our audience, let’s think about who is testing?
Is it your partner? Is it a designer? What are you manifesting?
Let’s ask ourselves what we’re testing for-
so we’re bringing in the right people
putting forward the right questions
because testing isn’t just numbers, it’s so much more.
But how do you know where your audience is at?
What spaces do they occupy? Do they like dogs, or do they like cats?
And how can you balance the making of your vision
with the translation for the players, and the need for some provisions
If there’s one last thing from this conversation to your heart,
It’s to please remember that
GAMES ARE ART.
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