Project overview
Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine have transcended their initial confines in video game development, evolving into versatile platforms that now influence a wide array of creative and scientific fields. These powerful tools are not just limited to gaming; they have reshaped Hollywood visual effects, virtual production, and even pre-visualisation of movie sets, as well as contemporary art and architecture. Game engines are also utilised to create training simulations for various industries, including the military. As these engines standardise aesthetic and functional practices, they simultaneously raise critical questions about artistic authorship, expressive diversity, accessibility, environmental sustainability, and the impact of increased digital consumption.
Entitled Game Engine Culture(s), this international research initiative aims to critically examine the contemporary use of game engines within the visual arts. It seeks to explore the convergence of media studies, game studies, platform studies, curatorial practice, and art history. Through in-depth analysis and prototyping under the guidance of artists and practitioners, the project investigates methods to preserve authorship and foster critique within complex digital ecosystems. Our objective is to collaborate with scholars, artists, curators, critics, and practitioners to generate new insights into the social, aesthetic, and technical dimensions of game engines.
Call for papers details
The Department of Art, Media, and Performance “Giampaolo Fabris” at IULM University, Milan, the School of Digital Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, under the guidance of Matteo Bittanti, Valentino Catricalà, and Paolo Ruffino, invite scholars, artists, developers, and practitioners to submit abstracts for a forthcoming publication and series of collaborative research activities centered around the theme of Game Engine Culture(s).
We welcome submissions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- The transformative impact of game engines on visual culture and artistic expression;
- Critical analyses of aesthetic standardization and homogeneity in production management and 'pipelines' across different fields;
- The circulation of digital assets across diverse fields of cultural production;
- Platformisation tendencies and commercial interests driving game engine development;
- The role of game engines in promoting or hindering diversity and accessibility in digital art and culture;
- Case studies on specific artists (e.g., Ed Atkins, Alice Bucknell, Ian Cheng, Jacky Connolly, Lawrence Lek, Jakob Kudsks Steensen, Theo Triantafyllidis, Lu Yang and many more);
- The use of game engines beyond gaming, including in film, architecture, and other creative industries;
- The accessibility of game engines for diverse populations and their role in democratizing digital art creation, including related narratives and discourses;
- The techno-ideologies and geopolitics of game engines;
- Sustainable practices and the challenge of e-waste in the context of game engine proliferation;
- Strategies for preserving artistic authorship and originality within game engine ecosystems.
Game Engine Culture(s) is fully funded by IULM University in Milan, Italy, ensuring comprehensive support throughout its development. The resulting publication, scheduled to be released in English, will be published by a leading academic publisher, guaranteeing wide dissemination and accessibility within the scholarly community. To accompany the release of the book, we are planning various events, including conferences, talks, screenings, and more.
Important dates
- Abstract submission deadline: September 15, 2024
- Notification of acceptance: October 15, 2024
- Full paper submission deadline: December 15, 2024
- Publication date: 2025
Submission guidelines
- Abstracts: Should be between 300-500 words, clearly outlining the research question, methodology, bibliography, and potential contributions to the field.
- Biographies: Please include a brief biography of the author(s) with the abstract submission.
- Full papers: Should be between 6,000-8,000 words, including references and footnotes, formatted according to MHRA style. Please use British English.
- Format: Submit your chapter as a .docx or .pdf file.
- Submission email: Send submissions to [email protected] with the subject line “Game Engine Cultures Submission”.
Contact information
For further information, please contact:
- Matteo Bittanti: [email protected]
- Paolo Ruffino: [email protected]
- Valentino Catricalà: [email protected]
This call seeks to foster innovative research trajectories both conceptually and methodologically, promoting an original and interdisciplinary approach to studying the impact of game engines on contemporary visual culture. By bringing together experts from various disciplines and creative sectors, this project not only aims to map the state of the art but also to delineate new future research directions.
We look forward to receiving your contributions and to fostering rich discussions and insights into the complex nexus of game engines and contemporary visual culture.
image: Game Engine, by Dall-E, 2024
ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY (ONGOING)
BOOKS
Freedman, Eric, The Persistence of Code in Game Engine Culture (London: Routledge, 2019).
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Atkinson, Paul, and Parsayi, Farnaz, ‘Institutionalized Aesthetics: Video Games and the Contemporary Art Gallery’, Games and Culture, 0.0 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241246839.
Charrieras, Damien, and Ivanova, Nadejda, ‘Emergence in Video Game Production: Video Game Engines as Technical Individuals’, Social Science Information, 55.3 (2016), pp. 337-356, https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018416642056.
Chia, Aleena, Malazita, James, Young, Chris J., Nieborg, David B., Joseph, Daniel J., and Gantt, Matthew D., ‘The Engine Is the Message: Videogame Infrastructure and the Future of Digital Platforms’, paper presented at AoIR2022: The 23rd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Dublin, Ireland, 2-5 November 2022.
Chia, Aleena, ‘The Artist and the Automaton in Digital Game Production’, Convergence, 28.2 (2022), pp. 389–412, https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565221076434.
Chia, Aleena, ‘The Metaverse, but Not the Way You Think: Game Engines and Automation Beyond Game Development’, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 39.3 (2022), pp. 191–200, https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2022.2080850.
Chia, Aleena, Keogh, Brendan, Leorke, Dale, and Nicoll, Benjamin, ‘Platformisation in Game Development’, Internet Policy Review, 9.4 (2020), https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/platformisation-game-development.
Consalvo, Mia, and Staines, David, ‘Reading Ren’Py: Game Engine Affordances and Design Possibilities’, Games and Culture, 16.6 (2021), pp. 762-778, https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412020973823.
Dooley, Kevin, and Emery, Susan, ‘Creating Screen Stories with Game Engines: Challenges and Opportunities for Students and Researchers Working Collaboratively Across Disciplines’, Media Practice and Education, 24.1 (2022), pp. 21–34, https://doi.org/10.1080/25741136.2022.2153002.
Fartan, Teodora Sinziana, ‘Rendering Post-Anthropocentric Visions: Worlding As a Practice of Resistance’, A Peer-Reviewed Journal About, 12.1 (2023), https://doi.org/10.7146/aprja.v12i1.140437.
Foxman, Maxwell, ‘United We Stand: Platforms, Tools and Innovation With the Unity Game Engine’, Social Media + Society, 5.4 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119880177.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Nideffer, Robert F., ‘Game Engines as Creative Frameworks’, in Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts, ed. by Margot Lovejoy, Victoria Vesna, and Christiane Paul (London: Intellect Books, 2011).
Nideffer, Robert F., ‘Game Engines as Embedded Systems’, in Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow, ed. by Victoria Vesna (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), pp. 211–232.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Toftedahl, Marcus, and Henrik Engström, ‘A Taxonomy of Game Engines and the Tools that Drive the Industry’, paper presented at Digra 2019: Gameplay and the Emerging Ludo-Mix, Tokyo, Japan, 6-10 August 2019.
Lowood, Henry. “Game Engines and Game History”, Proceedings of the History of Games International Conference 2014, 2014.
ARTICLES IN MAINSTREAM PUBLICATIONS
Weiner, Anne, ‘How Perfectly Can Reality Be Simulated?’, The New Yorker, April 15 2024.
