Playable Imaging Playable Imaging
Photography in, as, and against Games Photography in, as, and against Games
Photography is inherently playful. Nowadays, the production of images is indiscernible from interacting with a video game: after pressing buttons and modifying various options in a menu, we are rewarded with a visual representation of the world. Or, rather, a world. But it is not free play. There are rules that the photographer must master. Skills to conquer. Expectations to fulfil. The very circulation of images is now a trackable, surveilled, quantifiable process like everything else on the internet. Photographs receive a ‘score’ in the form of likes and reposts. They are instantly monetised, becoming part of a larger economic competition for attention in which gamified elements and score systems are increasingly influential.
At the same time, photography is a fundamental part of today’s video game culture. Not only does it drive forward the photorealistic development of digital imaging; it offers ‘open worlds’, vast environments that can be explored and documented by virtual photographers. For many artists, the exploration of such spaces and practices of image-making are not about ‘winning’ or ‘losing’. Rewards such as money, popularity, and fame can be subverted or rejected altogether. What matters is bringing to the foreground the tensions and contradictions that lie beneath the surface of our visual landscape. Even as play, the photographic can be political.
Playable Imaging is an invitation to rethink photography through the act of play.