LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial presents HOMO LUDENS LUDENS, an international exhibition and conference examining play as a principal element of today’ s world, and highlighting its necessity for our contemporary societies. Following the exhibitions GAMEWORLD and PLAYWARE, that reflected respectively on the different playful and social sides of gaming creativity and interactive art, HOMO LUDENS LUDENS now sets the setting that embraces these data and looks into the notion of play in a wider spectrum, presenting how it has evolved in our digital times.

Projects of a different character and orientation reflect play’s various expressions and roles: Play is being reformed and reversed; it embodies social and political acts and issues; it becomes a tool for activism; it mingles the virtual and the real; it revitalizes other disciplines; play can be misused and exploited; while stereotypes are challenged, questions are raised and different understandings are offered.

Following the same direction, the international conference HOMO LUDENS LUDENS which is co-organized with the Planetary Collegium aims through its two-day programme to situate the frame context of contemporary play, to highlight its interdisciplinary character and to present the multifaceted reality of the playful society we are living in. To achieve this, the Conference forms a special setting for dialogue and experimentation where it brings together international experts from the field of game theory as well as artists and practitioners who embrace elements and signs of play and playfulness in their work and research activities.

So, what is play today and what about the player? The exhibition and conference can be understood as an examination of play as a vital element in our everyday life and as a speculation on the emergence of a Homo Ludens Ludens – the contemporary player of games.

Artists:
John Paul Bichard [art of game], France Cadet, Derivart, Devart, Ge Jin, Vladan Joler, Radwan Kasmiya, John Klima, La Fiambrera Obrera & Mar de Niebla, Danny Ledonne, Valeriano López, Ludic Society, Brian Mackern, Larry Miller, MIT Lab - Drew Harry, Dietmar Offenhuber, Orkan Telhan, Molleindustria, Volker Morawe & Tilman Reiff, Julian Oliver, Hannah Perner-Wilson & Mika Satomi, Personal Cinema & the Erasers, Martin Pichlmair & Fares Kayali, Orna Portugaly, Daphna Talithman, Sharon Younger, Marcin Ramocki & Justin Strawhand, Rolando Sánchez, Alex Sanjurjo, Gordan Savicic, Silver & True, Axel Stockburger, Román Torre, David Valentine/MediaShed, William Wegman