Game engines as prehension of incomputable data: the processual effectivities of game engines.

Abstract

Our research addresses the impact of technological mediations on the contemporary creative practices of production in interactive games and new media arts. More specifically, our research focuses on game engines. Caught between different actors, cultures, organizations and functions, video game engines are cultural and socio-technical objects whose complex nature mirrors the multiple and competing definitions of video games and has similarly broad ranging cultural, social and economic impacts. The paper highlights the necessity to go beyond the current research on game engines, and outlines a new way to conceptualize them through a discussion of the studies of Ian Bogost and Luciana Parisi.