[Commlist] DiGRA Italia 2023 - Torino, Italy

Analog Games in the Digital Age: Playing in the Twenty-first Century
CFP - Digra Italia 2023 - Università di Torino, December 2023

When game studies first established itself as an academic discipline, it 
did so by advocating
for the exceptionality of digital games as both software-based artifacts 
and agents of creative
and artistic expression. Throughout the 2000s, research carried within 
DiGRA has been
focused primarily - if not exclusively - on digital games, while analog 
games and other forms
of play have been consistently overlooked.

Over the past decade, publications in game studies have focused on the 
importance of
material experiences and analog forms of play (Germaine and Wake 2022), 
and on the
intersection of real and virtual environments in play practices 
(Giddings 2014). The ‘material
turn’ in game studies has paid attention to the platforms and 
infrastructures of games
(Apperley and Jayemanne 2012), and to how tools and technologies become 
‘things we play
with’ (Sicart 2022). The so-called board game renaissance, the growing 
interaction between
digital and analogue artifacts within paradigms such as the Internet of 
Things, phygital
applications, augmented reality, and the growing interest of the DiGRA 
community in analog
play practices, may require game scholars to rediscuss and reorient 
their understanding of
what they consider to be the object of their inquiry.

For this reason, the 2023 DiGRA Italia conference will be devoted to 
discussing the
relevance of analog games in the digital age, and will invite scholars 
from different
disciplinary backgrounds to present their work on these topics.
Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:
- The materiality of play and games, both digital and analog
- Theoretical approaches to the concepts of digital and analog
- Methodologies and case studies for analyzing board games
-  Role-playing across digital and analog spaces
- Theoretical, historical, and methodological approaches to the study of 
toys
-  The material conditions of production of games, both digital and analog
-  The material consequences of play: consumption, waste, and recycling

Submit your abstract (500 words) with a short bio to 
(riccardo.fassone /at/ unito.it) <mailto:(riccardo.fassone /at/ unito.it)>

Deadline for abstract submission Oct. 10 2023
Notification of acceptance Oct 20. 2023
Conference Dec. 4-5 2023

The conference will be held in presence in Torino, but on-line 
participation is possible both
for speakers and attendees. Attendance is free.

*Early Career Researchers and Global South applicants: Please note that 
DiGRA Italia is
seeking funding to cover travel costs. Scholars applying for a travel 
reimbursement should
attach a motivation letter to their submission.
List of references
Apperley, Thomas, and Jayemanne Darshana. 2012. Game studies’ material turn.
Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 9(1): 5-25.
Booth, Paul. 2021. Board Games as Media. London: Bloomsbury.
Brown, Douglas and MacCallum-Stewart, Esther (eds.). 2020. Rerolling 
Boardgames:
Essays on Themes, Systems, Experiences and Ideologies. Jefferson: McFarland.
Germaine, Chloé and Wake, Paul (eds.). 2022. Material Game Studies: A 
Philosophy of
Analogue Play. London: Bloomsbury.
Giddings, Seth. 2014. Gameworlds: Virtual Media and Children&#39;s 
Everyday Play. London:
Bloomsbury.
Sicart, Miguel. 2022. Playthings. Games and Culture 17(1): 140-155.


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