Cultural links

So, with GCAP 2010 just around the corner, I wanted to share, in no particular order, some of the links that inspired my thoughts on the recent splurge of content here – along with some others that expand some of the points.

Richard Mill’s piece on artistic vibrancy commissioned by the Australia Council, and also published in The Age.

A 7:30 report piece from 2007 titled ‘Film Industry Unimpressed by Govt Video Game Support Plans’ suggests that perhaps the shape of the argument hasn’t moved on that far.

A piece in the Syndey Morning Herald on the import of creative industries to the economy & their place in developing local culture.

Screen Australia’s recommendations to Federal government on the Screen Production Sector.

Develop Online’s interview with Ken Levine on how games are in thrall to Hollywood.

Lynden Barber’s piece on The Drum – Video games are not art.

Another one from the Australia Council.  This is their audience engagement & participation research – More than bums on seats.

The iGEA’s Interactive Australia 2009 report.

Screen Australia’s stats on cinema attendance.

The Age had an article asking where the Australian rockstars were?

Douglas Adams’ prescient comments on how we relate to technology.

And the games: Pong, Space War, Braid, Passage, Hazard, Ban This Game, Flower, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Heavy Rain, The Path, Crayon Physics, The Hidden Park, Transumer, Bluebird, sammeeeees, Foursquare, myTown

Film Victoria’s Arresting Audiences summit and their keynote Jane Espenson

The wikipedia definition of Original IP, a constant hot-topic in discussions about local game development.

Kieron Gillen from Freeplay 2005 on marketing & the need for rockstars.

Nicholas Carr was interviewed at the Wheeler Centre about his book The Shallows which prompted a curious comment from the interviewer Gideon Haigh about gamers being ‘proverbially dull, inarticulate, social misfits.’

John Lancaster in the London Review of Books on games, with a particular focus on Bioshock.

Nicholson Baker in the New Yorker on deciding to play games with his teenage son.

Phillip French, the Guardian’s veteran film reviewer, takes a look at Red Dead Redemption.

Mike Newell, director of the Prince of Persia movie on his dislike of video games.

Guillermo Del Toro on games.

An exploration of games as a Prosthetic Imagination.

We’re not the clever country if we’re not a creative country on The Punch looks at the shape of the industry and a proposed model for improvement.

Work for hire reliant on overseas investment impacts the film industry.

The Wheeler Centre‘s ‘Critical Failure‘ panels on film, books, theatre, and the visual arts; the resultant debate on Crikey, the ABC, in the Guardian, and on blogs; the unconference that capped it off; summaries from Mel Campbell, Lisa Dempster, and Nikita Vanderbyl.

An example of what I meant when I spoke about the word industry defining our local conversation.  The comments tend towards specific cultural or game issues, not industry led ones – and the quoted question in the original piece doesn’t reference industry at all.

An opinion piece on Angry Birds from The Age that, whether you agree with the reading or not, treats the game as a cultural object.

Salman Rushdie’s new novel is inspired by the world of video games, which harks back to this interview with David Cronenberg.

Leigh Alexander reflects on how games connect to significant moments in her life – The Gamer I Really Am

Richard Gill on the false division between the old and the new.

Marcus Westbury’s piece on The Drum on an arts funding reality check ; The Australia Council’s figures responding to same.

Fee Plumley, Digital Program Officer at the Australia Council, writes on why digital didn’t kill the opera star.

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