Participants in this year’s PSL were called on to create a 'serious game' -- in just 10 days -- in order to prompt guest players to think critically relation between data and power (platform capitalism, dataveillance, algorithmic regulation), as well as emergent conceptions of self and sociality in our dataified contemporary. This international and interdisciplinary cohort of 20 was comprised primarily graduate students in social science and humanities fields, but also including professionals, activists and artists who work in fields like data ethics, cultural programming and cooperative movements. Their task was to rethink humanities and social science methodologies through the creation of a 'public experiment' to communicate their critique of the data/power nexus and get feedback through interaction with an active audience of ‘players’. This year’s PSL was a testament to the power of critical game as a vehicle for a creative reformulation of entrenched academic practices.
The interlocking games - Databoo, Youmanji and Soundchain - produced by the participants, thus, are on one level a reflexive, methodological contribution to experimental humanities, offering an “open laboratory for designing play as well as playing with design” (Hayles, Jagoda & LeMieux 2014), enabling the co-production of knowledge with the general public through open-ended, interactive encounters. At the same time, conceived through the idioms, interfaces, and pedagogical genres of online and offline gaming, "Why So Serious? A Game" does not merely offer yet another example of gamified learning, but rather goes a step further in reflexively enacting, within the generative gamespaces it makes possible, a critique of this very trend. Indeed, these games critiqued gamification as a mechanism of platform capitalism by introducing performative elements that emphasize the disruptive potential of “non-serious”, non-linear play, while cultivating collaborative, rather than atomized, competitive, gameplay, creating the possibility for unpredictable social encounters and conversations.
Finally, the triptych of games included in "Why So Serious? A Game" provokes a deeper understanding of the power relations -- from peer-to-peer surveillance in social media networks to transnational corporate capitalism and platform monopolies -- as well as the emergence of new conceptions of self and social connections in processes of data capture and exchange across a wide range of spheres, from social media and art to financial services. These games through creative play with analogue/ digital forms, use of humor, subversion of traditional gameplay (winners, teleology, collaboration), visualization techniques, etc. enable players to embody and reflect on these ‘weighty’ theoretical topics, as well as ‘technical’ aspects of digital culture - algorithm, blockchain, etc. - that are often mystified as off-limits to lay person interrogation, rather than treated as technocultural phenomenon that urgently demand collective critical analysis.
The "Why So Serious? A Game" game was played and performed on August 30, 2019, in Makrinitsa. The experiment/game was open to the public and ultimately managed to attract diverse local ‘players’- including undergraduate and graduate students of the University of Thessaly in Volos, residents of Makrinitsa, including refugee minors living in a shelter in the village, tourists and passers-by.
Concept Developers:
Penelope Papailias, Director of Pelion Summer Lab for Cultural Theory and Experimental Humanities, Director of the Laboratory of Social Anthropology, Associate Professor of Social Anthropology, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly
Petros Petridis, Faculty and Organizing Committee, Pelion Summer Lab for Cultural Theory and Experimental Humanities, Adjunct Faculty, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly
George Mantzios, Faculty Fellow and Organizing Committee, Pelion Summer Lab for Cultural Theory and Experimental Humanities, Ph.D. candidate, University of Toronto
Manolis Patiniotis, Professor of History, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens
Game Designers:
Cohort of 3rd Pelion Summer Lab of Cultural Theory Experimental Humanities 2019:
Alexandros Papageorgiou, Phd Candidate, Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly, alexandros_papageo@yahoo.gr
Anni Valajärvi, MA Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki, anni.valajarvi@helsinki.fi
Antonios Koukouladakis, BA Social Anthropology, Panteion University, homer6781@gmail.com
Barbara Giovanelli, BA Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, MA Human Rights and Democratisation, EIUC, barbaragiovanelli@hotmail.com
Cécile Bayard, MA Social Anthropology, EHESS-Paris, cecile.bayard@univ-lyon2.fr
Eftychia Vardouli, Cultural Manager - Researcher, MA Panteion University, BA Economic Science AUEB, email: evardouli@gmail.com
Eirini Lazaridou, PhD Candidate - Researcher, Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Thessaly, eilazari@uth.gr
Giorgos Smyrnaios, Undergraduate student of European Civilization at Hellenic Open University, g.smirnaios@gmail.com
Guillermo Collado Wilkins, BA Electronics, automation and robotics, Polytechnic University of Madrid, BA Economy and management, R. Juan Carlos University Madrid, colladoguillermo@gmail.com
İlker Çayla, Assistant Professor of Sociology, İstanbul Okan University, ilker.cayla@okan.edu.tr
Ismini Gatou, PhD student, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean, i.gatou@aegean.gr
Jacob Henry Leveton, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Art History at Northwestern University, jleveton@u.northwestern.edu
Kelly Mulvaney, Researcher - Translator, Eipcp - European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, PhD student, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, kmulvaney@uchicago.edu
Mariana Manousopoulou, BA Political Studies and Public Administration (specialization Political Analysis), University of Athens, marianamanous@yahoo.gr
Marilena Drymioti, PhD candidate in Criminology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, drymioti@law.eur.nl
Nanuka Iashvili, BA Economics, Politics, and Social Thought, Bard College Berlin, n.iashvili20@gmail.com
Nicholas Smith, PhD Student, Anthropology, University of Toronto, nickjosh.smith@mail.utoronto.ca
Panagiota Pozoglou, BA History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly, pozoglou@ha.uth.gr
Tasos Karadedos, Sound Designer - Cultural Anthropologist, saveoursound@gmail.com
Tiara Roxanne, PhD Philosophy / Digital Humanities, European Graduate School, tiararoxanne@gmail.com
Penelope Papailias, Director of Pelion Summer Lab for Cultural Theory and Experimental Humanities, Director of the Laboratory of Social Anthropology, Associate Professor of Social Anthropology, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly
Petros Petridis, Faculty and Organizing Committee, Pelion Summer Lab for Cultural Theory and Experimental Humanities, Adjunct Faculty, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly
George Mantzios, Faculty Fellow and Organizing Committee, Pelion Summer Lab for Cultural Theory and Experimental Humanities, Ph.D. candidate, University of Toronto
Manolis Patiniotis, Professor of History, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens
Game Designers:
Cohort of 3rd Pelion Summer Lab of Cultural Theory Experimental Humanities 2019:
Alexandros Papageorgiou, Phd Candidate, Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly, alexandros_papageo@yahoo.gr
Anni Valajärvi, MA Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki, anni.valajarvi@helsinki.fi
Antonios Koukouladakis, BA Social Anthropology, Panteion University, homer6781@gmail.com
Barbara Giovanelli, BA Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, MA Human Rights and Democratisation, EIUC, barbaragiovanelli@hotmail.com
Cécile Bayard, MA Social Anthropology, EHESS-Paris, cecile.bayard@univ-lyon2.fr
Eftychia Vardouli, Cultural Manager - Researcher, MA Panteion University, BA Economic Science AUEB, email: evardouli@gmail.com
Eirini Lazaridou, PhD Candidate - Researcher, Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Thessaly, eilazari@uth.gr
Giorgos Smyrnaios, Undergraduate student of European Civilization at Hellenic Open University, g.smirnaios@gmail.com
Guillermo Collado Wilkins, BA Electronics, automation and robotics, Polytechnic University of Madrid, BA Economy and management, R. Juan Carlos University Madrid, colladoguillermo@gmail.com
İlker Çayla, Assistant Professor of Sociology, İstanbul Okan University, ilker.cayla@okan.edu.tr
Ismini Gatou, PhD student, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean, i.gatou@aegean.gr
Jacob Henry Leveton, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Art History at Northwestern University, jleveton@u.northwestern.edu
Kelly Mulvaney, Researcher - Translator, Eipcp - European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, PhD student, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, kmulvaney@uchicago.edu
Mariana Manousopoulou, BA Political Studies and Public Administration (specialization Political Analysis), University of Athens, marianamanous@yahoo.gr
Marilena Drymioti, PhD candidate in Criminology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, drymioti@law.eur.nl
Nanuka Iashvili, BA Economics, Politics, and Social Thought, Bard College Berlin, n.iashvili20@gmail.com
Nicholas Smith, PhD Student, Anthropology, University of Toronto, nickjosh.smith@mail.utoronto.ca
Panagiota Pozoglou, BA History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly, pozoglou@ha.uth.gr
Tasos Karadedos, Sound Designer - Cultural Anthropologist, saveoursound@gmail.com
Tiara Roxanne, PhD Philosophy / Digital Humanities, European Graduate School, tiararoxanne@gmail.com
