xindanwei chitchat edition 21: Killer Game & digital-urban lifestyles
Time: 17:30-19:30 Friday, September, 10th
Cost:free
Host: Silvia Lindtner
In urban China today, not just our physical but also our technological infrastructures are rapidly changing. How do people experience these digital and urban transformation in their daily lives? What technologies do they use, for what purposes and where? How does technology shape the experience of the city and the ways in which people connect to each other? In this chit chat session, Silvia will present some of her past research with young professionals in Beijing and Shanghai, who have adopted a game called the Killer Game for a new digital-urban entertainment experience. Killer Game gained popularity in China around 2004-2006 as a party game. Around 2006-08 a group of young entrepreneurs set up their own Killer Game gaming clubs in Beijing, which subsequently spread into Shanghai, Wuhan, Hangzhou and other cities in China. The clubs are often advertised as new forms of entertainment, distinct from places like the Internet cafe, and to develop a culture of cool.
In this chit chat session, Silvia will talk about what motivates these young people to go to the Killer Game clubs and we will also play the actual game!
Silvia Lindtner is a PhD candidate in the department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Her overall research interest lies in new media studies, human-computer interaction and urban studies. She focuses in particular on the role of digital media in creative practices, for social networking and collaboration in urban China. A crucial aspect of this work is studying the creative practices of individuals and informal collectives across digital and urban spaces. She has conducted research with two different social groups, urban youth and young IT professionals, and explored the different ways in which digital media come to shape their experiences of the city, the relationships to others and their work & leisure practices. Her work is published across an array of disciplines and she has presented her research at venues such as the Chinese Internet Research Conference, conferences in Human Computer Interaction and Collaboration, and the first international conference on Digital Media and Learning.
