Sonia Fizek

Imagine a virtual world, in which you can do everything and at the same time do not have to do anything at all. David OReilly’s open-ended simulation Everything (2017) is precisely such a game; one which tends to take over the reigns of play. On the one hand, it invites the player to a sandbox-like exploration, giving them the possibility to get into the shoes of every creature possible. On the other, if left unattended, it starts playing in the background, automatically generating an ambient aquarium of universes. Ambient play is a peculiar phenomenon. It challenges, if not undermines, traditional video game aesthetics, which relates to an experience of focusing one’s attention closely on the aesthetic object and reconfiguring it through physical interaction. Ambience sits comfortably between action and non-action, relevance and irrelevance or immersion and emersion. The player plunges into the world, just to be out of it the next minute, letting the application run in the background. This short keynote will explore a variety of ambient ludic practices and propose theoretical approaches to study ambience in/at play.