Mindplay Conference
www.mindplay.org.uk
London Metropolitan University, Friday 20th January 2005

We had a very early start and made our way down to London for the day yesterday. The event was a one day conference on digital media theory, culture, practice and play. Jon Dovey's opening keynote speech set a very academic tone for the event, focusing on the theory of play. After a much needed coffee break we chose to see Andersson & Brecevic's presentation of their interactive video installations. Men Falling Down was first exhibited in a shopping mall in Stockholm on a portrait-hung plasma screen. When someone walked up to the screen a sensor would trigger their movement and cause the man to fall down. They had also created a similar installation titled Women Who Turn Around, I think you can guess how that worked.

In the afternoon we listened to Professor Pat Power's paper on the neurological nature of playfulness. He attempted to explain how play nodules in the brain are stimulated, although his paper failed to stimulate mine as it was rather heavy on theory.