McKenzie Wark is an Australian-born writer on media theory, critical theory and new media. Among best known work is a project with the Institute for the Future of the Book, a specially designed site that combined Wark's interest in experimental writing techniques in networked media with his exploration of Gamer Theory. Wark is the author of seven books, among them A Hacker Manifesto (Harvard University Press, 2004), Celebrities, Culture and Cyberspace (Pluto Press, Sydney, 1998), The Virtual Republic (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1997), and Virtual Geography (Indiana University Press, 1994). He is Associate Professor of Culture and Media at Eugene Lang College, New School, New York.

Thursday, April 10, 11:00-12:20, Steinhaus Hall 128

If game theory was objective, rational, abstract, then gamer theory is subjective, intuitive, particular. If game theory started with the self contained agent, like a prisoner in a cell, looking out at the world, then gamer theory wonders how the agency of the gamer comes into being as something distinct in the first place. The rise of the computer game as an emergent cultural form calls for an approach to cultural theory that might emerge organically out of the experience of game play. In an era in which many aspects of everyday life seem increasingly game-like, one might well ask what relation computer games have to this agon of the everyday. Perhaps computer games present ethos of the digital world in its pure form, as place where the 'playing field' really is level, where the rules really seem to be fair. Perhaps the computer game is the almost-utopian double to a world made over as a gamespace.

Thursday, April 10, 3pm in Admin338 (HRI Seminar Room)

The Situationist International (1957-1972) was arguably the last of the historic avantgarde movements. While their work has been recuperated variously as art history, cinema, architecture or political theory, their avowed goal of superseding all of these separate forms escapes the academic division of labor. In this presentation I want to discuss both some neglected aspects of the Situationist legacy that might be relevant to today and also to present the website I have created (together with Chris France and Kevin C. Pyle) for work on the Situationist International at http://www.totality.tv

The UCI Software Culture series brings new media scholars to UC Irvine, supported by Film & Media Studies, Visual Studies, and the Humanities Center. All talks free and open to the public.