Game engines as prehension of incomputable data: the processual effectivities of game engines.

Our research addresses the impact of technological mediations on the contemporary creative practices of production in interactive games and new media arts. More specifically, our research focuses on game engines. Caught between different actors, cultures, organizations and functions, video game engines are cultural and socio-technical objects whose complex nature mirrors the multiple and competing definitions of video games and has similarly broad ranging cultural, social and economic impacts. The paper highlights the necessity to go beyond the current research on game engines, and outlines a new way to conceptualize them through a discussion of the studies of Ian Bogost and Luciana Parisi

Trajectoires, circulation, assemblages : des modes hétérogènes de la constitution de la pratique en arts numériques à Montréal

Réalisée en cotutelle avec l'université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3Cette thèse se penche sur les parcours et les pratiques d'artistes numériques naviguant au sein des secteurs multimédias de Montréal. L'étude des parcours de onze artistes numériques montréalais nous a permis de constater que leurs pratiques de production en arts numériques ne sont pas réductibles aux logiques de production propres à un seul lieu, que ce soit une entreprise privée, un centre d'art numérique ou encore l'université. La question du maintien de ces pratiques amène à prêter attention aux pluralités des éléments qui informent leurs (re)constitutions perpétuelles, ce qui appelle de nouveaux modes de théorisation des parcours d'artistes numériques et de leurs pratiques. Nous proposons une nouvelle manière de penser ces parcours - en tant que trajectoires - pour mettre en valeur la pluralité des modes d'articulation de ces pratiques. Elles sont ainsi considérées du point de vue de leurs médiations coconstitutives avec différents éléments. Nous avons isolé trois ensembles d'éléments pour rendre compte du maintien des pratiques en arts numériques et au travers desquels ces dernières déploient leurs multiples effectivités. Le premier ensemble recouvre les technologies intervenant dans la pratique en arts numériques. Le deuxième ensemble a trait au milieu des arts numériques et aux modes de l'organisé afférents. Enfin, le troisième ensemble traite du rapport entre les mondes de l'entreprise et la pratique en arts numériques. Ces trois ensembles d'éléments participent de diverses manières à la constitution, au maintien et à la singularisation de pratiques en arts numériques qui déploient leurs effectivités largement au-delà d'un espace social circonscrit ou spécialisé.This thesis examines the paths and practices of digital artists navigating within the multimedia sectors of Montreal. Through the study of the paths of eleven digital artists based in Montreal we found that production practices in digital arts cannot be reduced to the logic of production specific to a single place, whether a private company, a digital arts center or a university. The issue of maintaining these practices leads one to pay attention to the plurality of elements that inform their perpetual (re)constitutions. This requires new ways of theorizing digital artists' paths and practices. We propose a new way of conceptualizing these paths - as trajectories - to highlight the plurality of ways the digital art practices are articulated. They are thus considered in terms of their co-constitutive mediations with different elements. We have identified three sets of elements to account for the maintenance of the practices in digital arts and through which these unfold their multiple effectivities. The first set covers the technologies involved in digital art practices. The second set relates to the digital arts community and the organizational modes characteristic of those locales. Finally, the third set deals with the relationship between the worlds of business and practices in digital arts. These three sets of elements contribute in various ways to the establishment, maintenance and singularity of digital arts practices that deploy their effectivities far beyond a circumscribed or specialized social space

The shifting spaces of creativity in Hong Kong

This paper focuses on the development of Hong Kong's cultural economy and its translation into urban space. On the one hand it focuses on recent economic development and planning strategies to develop a post-colonial identity based on the international cachet of attracting creative industries. On the other hand, it considers the development of grassroots initiatives that herald the potential articulation of Hong Kong as a culturally dense global city. These grassroots initiatives are analyzed from the perspective of their problematic relationship with urban space, and how urban planning both supports and hinders cultural development. The paper argues that top-down planning is in large part catalytic, yet at the same time can run counter to the development of genuine artistic expression. It stresses the importance of ‘middleground’ actors in facilitating the development of spaces for artistic creation, particularly in their productive interlocking with different forms of artistic expression and public policy initiatives. The middleground can be conceived of as a relational space produced by various processes, actors and structures operating at different scales between institutional actors and the interests of ‘underground’ creativity. The article concludes by problematizing the role of middleground actors and underlines the value of ‘unpacking’ the middleground in order to account for the contested and negotiated processes it embodies. Renewed attention to these processes will contribute to enhancing the development of sites of artistic expression in Hong Kong and other emergent contemporary contexts

Les médiations sociales, culturelles et technologiques dans la production et l’appropriation des intergiciels de l’industrie du jeu vidéo au Canada

The industrial sector of game middleware is bound up with the development of video game industries. Canada is at the forefront of those sectors whose economical importance is growing. In his study of the role of these game middleware industries in the production process of a video game, the author focuses on the game middleware circulation to assess the multiple relationships between middleware industries, video game developers in Canada and the communities of developers participating in the evolution of these technologies

Le producteur de jeux vidéo comme interface. Un exemple d’application de la narratologie de Greimas à l’analyse de la production de jeux video

Malgré le développement des recherches sur les industries créatives en général et sur l’industrie du jeu vidéo en particulier, les modalités de production au sein des groupes de projet des studios de développement de jeux vidéo demeurent encore peu connues. De quelles manières des travailleurs parfois très spécialisés dans leur domaine peuvent communiquer de façon à atteindre à un certain consensus lors du processus de production ? À l’aide de la théorie de la narrativité élaborée par Greimas et utilisée dans des recherches en communication organisationnelle, nous montrons comment un producteur de jeu vidéo chargé de gérer un groupe de projet produit un métanarratif englobant les divers narratifs et les divers points de vue de ses collaborateurs. Ce dispositif méthodologique nous permet de rendre visibles des modes de management souple de la créativité et de relativiser la dichotomie art/argent. Malgré son ambiguïté, ce métanarratif privilégie certaines conceptions de production du jeu vidéo.The production process inside project groups of video game developer remains understudied despite the growing academic literature on creative industries and especially video game industries. How highly specialized workers communicate to reach common ground during the video game production process ? The theory of narrativity developped by A. Greimas (a theory sometimes used in organizational communication research) will enable us to describe a metanarrative crafted by a producer of video game. We’ll show how his metanarrative encompasses the diverse narratives of his colleagues in a video game production project team (mainly designers, programmers, artists). This reveals soft creativity management devices and enables to temper the art vs. money dichotomy. Despite its ambiguity, the metanarrative of the producer favours certain kinds of video game production processes over others

Le producteur de jeux vidéo comme interface. Un exemple d’application de la narratologie de Greimas à l’analyse de la production de jeux video

The production process inside project groups of video game developer remains understudied despite the growing academic literature on creative industries and especially video game industries. How highly specialized workers communicate to reach common ground during the video game production process ? The theory of narrativity developped by A. Greimas (a theory sometimes used in organizational communication research) will enable us to describe a metanarrative crafted by a producer of video game. We’ll show how his metanarrative encompasses the diverse narratives of his colleagues in a video game production project team (mainly designers, programmers, artists). This reveals soft creativity management devices and enables to temper the art vs. money dichotomy. Despite its ambiguity, the metanarrative of the producer favours certain kinds of video game production processes over others

Trajectories, circulation, assemblages. The heterogeneous modes of constitution of digital arts practice of artists in Montréal

Cette thèse se penche sur les parcours et les pratiques d’artistes numériques naviguant au sein des secteurs multimédias de Montréal. L’étude des parcours de onze artistes numériques montréalais nous a permis de constater que leurs pratiques de production en arts numériques ne sont pas réductibles aux logiques de production propres à un seul lieu, que ce soit une entreprise privée, un centre d’art numérique ou encore l’université. La question du maintien de ces pratiques amène à prêter attention aux pluralités des éléments qui informent leurs [re]constitutions perpétuelles, ce qui appelle de nouveaux modes de théorisation des parcours d’artistes numériques et de leurs pratiques. Nous proposons une nouvelle manière de penser ces parcours - en tant que trajectoires - pour mettre en valeur la pluralité des modes d’articulation de ces pratiques. Elles sont ainsi considérées du point de vue de leurs médiations coconstitutives avec différents éléments. Nous avons isolé trois ensembles d’éléments pour rendre compte du maintien des pratiques en arts numériques et au travers desquels ces dernières déploient leurs multiples effectivités. Le premier ensemble recouvre les technologies intervenant dans la pratique en arts numériques. Le deuxième ensemble a trait au milieu des arts numériques et aux modes de l’organisé afférents. Enfin, le troisième ensemble traite du rapport entre les mondes de l’entreprise et la pratique en arts numériques. Ces trois ensembles d’éléments participent de diverses manières à la constitution, au maintien et à la singularisation de pratiques en arts numériques qui déploient leurs effectivités largement au-delà d’un espace social circonscrit ou spécialisé.This thesis examines the paths and practice of digital artists navigating within the multimedia sector of Montreal. Through the study of the paths of eleven digital artists based in Montreal we found that their production practices in digital arts can not be reduced to the logic of production specific to a single place, whether a private company, a digital arts center or university. The issue of maintaining these practices leads one to pay attention to the plurality of elements that inform their perpetual [re]constitutions. This requires new ways of theorizing digital artists’ paths and practices. We propose a new way of thinking these paths - as trajectories - to highlight the plurality of ways the digital art practices are articulated. They are thus considered in terms of their co-constitutive mediations with different elements. We have identified three sets of elements to account for the maintenance of the practices in digital arts and through which these unfold their multiple effectivities. The first set covers the technologies intervening in digital art practices. The second set relates to the digital arts community and the organizational modes proper to those locales. Finally, the third set deals with the relationship between the worlds of business and practice in digital arts. These three sets of elements are involved in various ways to the establishment, maintenance and singularity of digital arts practices that deploy their effectivities far beyond a circumscribed or specialized social space

The Creative Worker as Flagship of the New Spirit of Capitalism? Diversity among Creative Workers of Four Multimedia Sectors in Montreal

This paper was presented at Paper Session 5a: The New Model Worker

Culture de la convergence chez les créatifs de jeux vidéo

The data presented here are taken from two doctoral research projects, partially conducted in the same field of enquiry — videogame design in Montréal. The authors draw on the notion of convergence culture developed by Henry Jenkins to address the way the contemporary spheres of work and leisure, production and consumption, overlap. More specifically, workers affected by convergence culture develop a specialized popular culture that must be read against the specificities and requirements of their professional activities, particularly the absolute necessity of grasping what their audiences experience. Thirty-two industrial videogame designers and eleven digital artists were interviewed