Nadja Buttendorf / Jaroslav Švelch

With Nadja Buttendorf and Jaroslav Švelch (CZ), author and professor for Media Stuides

For Alternative (Origin) Stories: Socialist Perspectives for DIY Computer Games, Nadja Buttendorf will present her process of developing an open source library of full-body motion capture animations for Body Presence, Or Do You Mean Body Presents as it relates to her ongoing web series and soon to be computer game Robotron – a tech opera which is set in the computer industry of the GDR and retraces the development of computers in a planned economy and the everyday life in East Germany. Jaroslav Švelch will discuss some of the key movements, aesthetics and historical developments in the history of computer games from his recent book Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games.

Jaroslav Švelch is an assistant professor at Charles University, Prague. He is the author of the recent monograph Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games (MIT Press, 2018). He has published work on history and theory of computer games, on humor in games and social media, and on the Grammar Nazi phenomenon. He is currently researching history, theory, and reception of monsters in games.The event will be held in English.