Over the past few decades, gaming environments have gone from simplistic, 8-bit pixelations of grass and trees, to complex, photorealistic worlds, scanned directly from real world places and landscapes. Games have also become a gigantic media and entertainment industry, and an important way for us to understand and think about the natural world, and how humans experience and shape it.
The KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory is excited to host a half-day, interactive workshop led by Lund University gaming researchers Fannie Frederikke Baden and Björn Fritz. We will consider how the experience of these games shape our understanding of the “real” world, and vice versa. Participants will have the opportunity to play and discuss two different video games, Chernobylite and Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and a selection of board games.
Attendance at the workshop is free and open to all KTH students, faculty and staff. Registration is limited to 30 people, as we have limited spots to make sure everyone has adequate gaming time. Fika and refreshments provided.
Do you have a tabletop game that has environmental themes, and specifically raises discussions of how we imagine various worlds and environments? Please email us at ehlab@abe.kth.se if you would like to bring it and play!
Fannie Frederikke is a fourth-year PhD candidate in art history and visual studies at Lund University. Her dissertation, Atomic Aesthetics and Sanitized Violences, examines the visual and cultural representations of the Chornobyl disaster through aesthetic theory, and is set to be defended in fall 2025. Her research interests include nuclear energy and culture, toxic environments, and climate change.
Björn Fritz is a lecturer in art history and visual culture with a focus on 20th and 21st century art, design and architecture. He recently completed a thesis on games and art history Experiencing Gameworlds: Understanding Zelda and Mario Through the Lenses of Art History and Phenomenology which aims to understand gameworlds seen from the players perspective as well as part of a set of much older visual traditions.
