July 6-7, 2017 in Brandenburg Center for Media Studies (ZeM), Potsdam (Germany)
Starting from the phenomenon of In-Game Photography this workshop investigates the status of the screenshot as a photographical genre which includes but is not limited to computer games. Both, Screen-Photography and In-Game Photography belong to a number of everyday photographical practices that are performed within the digitally produced realities as well as the digitized realities we inhabit and which are largely mediated via screens and screen-like surfaces. Amongst those practices are the so-called “screenshotting” in computer games (e.g. in order to document unusual in-game events and to share those), photorealistic captures of digital 3D models (as they often occur in architecture or design contexts) or, much simpler, the screenshot as a form of camera-less photography. In addition there exist hybrid cases such as photography in augmented realities (which most recently became popular through the smartphone game Pokémon Go (2016)), screen captures with real cameras in artistic contexts, and the creation of screenshots of digital photographs in the computer. Eventually, in the history of “real-world” photography exists a significant amount of photographs which show 1) tv or computer screens, 2) billboards showing photographs of real physical screens and 3) photographs of photographs which are held in hands.
Such practices and phenomena have hitherto rarely been subjected to scientific investigation. There is a considerable lack of aesthetical, cultural, technical and historical analyses as well as a lack of theories and theory production in relevant disciplines. The goal of the workshop is hence to describe screenshot-like practices and phenomena and to ask questions regarding the status, the ontology, the aesthetics, as well as the cultural and artistic significance of such phenomena and practices. The workshop thereby intends to investigate the potential of a new subject area for future research from the perspective of media studies, media aesthetics, and media history, as well as image studies, photography theory and game studies.
Program
Thursday, July 6, 2017
10:00 Winfried Gerling and Sebastian Möring: Welcome und Introduction of ZeM and DIGAREC
10:30 – 11:15 Stephan Günzel: From Screen to Screen – A Dislimitation of the Photographic Image
11:15 – 12:00 Birgit Schneider: Framing the frame – media mimicry from a historical perspective
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch break
13:30 – 14:15 Sebastian Möring: Artistic In-Game Photography and the Conditional Image of the Computer Game
14:15 – 15:00 Cindy Poremba: Constructing through Creating: In-Game Photography
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 – 16:15 Margarete Pratschke: The Materiality of Screenshots. Historical Screenshots as Photo-Objects and their Role within Visual Culture
16:15 – 17:00 Marco de Mutiis: Photo Modes – sketches for a post-photographic apparatus
17:00 – 17:30 Hans Kannewitz: How to Frame Screenshots of Operating Systems – On the Arrangement of a Collection
17:00 – 17:30 Hans Kannewitz: How to Frame Screenshots of Operating Systems – On the Arrangement of a Collection
Friday, July 7, 2017
10:30 – 11:15 Jan Distelmeyer: Using Depresentation. Observations on/by Desktop Movies
11:15 – 12:00 Winfried Gerling: The Schirmbild – The Long and Short History of Screenphotography
12:00-13:30 Lunch break
13:30 – 14:15 Matteo Bittanti: tba
14:15 – 15:00 Markus Rautzenberg: Ways of Vanishing. Ludic Mediality in Computer Games and Photography
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 Final Discussion/Outlook
Organizers
This workshop is a collaboration between Brandenburg Center for Media Studies (ZeM, http://zem-brandenburg.de), Digital Games Research Center (DIGAREC, http://digarec.de), European Media Studies (EMW, http://emw.eu), University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (FHP) and University of Potsdam (UP). The workshop is supported by Potsdam Graduate School (PoGS).
The workshop is organized by Winfried Gerling and Sebastian Möring.
Venue
The workshop takes place at Brandenburg Center for Media Studies (ZeM):
ZeM – Brandenburgisches Zentrum für Medienwissenschaften
Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 4
14467 Potsdam
Approach/Site plan:
in-game photography 