NEWS & EVENTS

21 Oct, 2:30 - 4:00

Lecture Theatre 012 (SCM012)

Jockey Club School of Chinese Medicine Buiilding, HKBU

Czech Appeal: How Czechoslovak and Czech game developers have portrayed their country

Speaker: Dr. Jaroslav Švelch

Moderator: Dr. Mateja Kovacic

Throughout the history of computer games in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, the medium has often been used as a unique means of self-expression. This lecture will show how computer hobbyists in Soviet-era Czechoslovakia joined computer clubs and used games to tell stories about themselves, their friends, and current issues. Then, it will move towards today's games that are targeted at international audiences but use local themes, settings, and cultural heritage. The lecture is based on Švelch's book Gaming the Iron Curtain (MIT Press, 2018) as well as on his research of contemporary Czech games.

Jaroslav Švelch is associate professor of media studies at Charles University, Prague. He has published work on history and theory of computer games, and on humor in games and social media. In his first monograph Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games (MIT Press, 2018), he traces the hidden histories of home computing and gaming in the former Soviet bloc. The book has earned the Computer History Museum Prize for 2019. His most recent book Player Vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity (MIT Press, 2023) offers a cultural history and a critique of monstrous antagonists in computer and video games. He is currently researching the practices and values in the contemporary Czech game industry.

Registration: https://hkbu.questionpro.com/czechtalk