Title: Videogames to Return the Sensation of Life. An Aesthetic Theory

Abstract: Videogames are complex multifaceted artifacts which present an enormous variety of forms. This makes them difficult to tackle within broad theories without limiting their potentialities. But, as artistic objects, they all converge on the goal of achieving an aesthetic perception. This lecture will present a general theory of defamiliarization to understand the dynamic process by which videogames succeed in sharpening our perception of the world, defying the habitualized modes of recognition to convey a singular vision.

About the Speaker: Miguel Rodrigo de Haro is a PhD candidate from the Complutense University of Madrid working in the fields of game studies, literary theory, and aesthetics. His doctoral project is focused on developing a videogame defamiliarization theory. This is a theory of dynamics and movement in a general sense, centered on the perceptive singularities of videogame aesthetics and their complex artistic connections.