Post-Soviet Heritage in Video Games

Organisation: Austrian Cultural Forum
Partner: Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology
PJAIT Game Lab: LINK
Curator: Benjamin Hanussek

Video games have a unique way of showcasing different cultures and histories. However, when it comes to post-Soviet heritage in games, we often see eerie, abandoned, and dystopian settings that reinforce Eastern European stereotypes. In this session, we'll explore the ideas that Polish architects and city planners had when they created socialist modernist living spaces in the 20th century. Then, we will compare their representation in games like Half-Life 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, and DayZ to analyze how this form of architecture is used in these games. Our goal is to discuss the seemingly one-sided view of these spaces as solely dystopian and inhumane and analyze the potential to offer a more balanced and critical take on Eastern European architectural landscape.

Monika Stobiecka is an art historian and archaeologist at the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Liberal Arts. She's a fellow of the Lanckoroński Foundation, the Kościuszko Foundation, and the Foundation for Polish Science. She has co-founded the Central-Eastern European Chapter of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies and is a member of the Young Scholars Academy of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Recently, she authored “Theorizing Archaeological Museum Studies” published by Routledge. Her interests entail critical heritage, museum studies, and the intersection of archaeological theory with contemporary art.

Benjamin Hanussek is an educator and researcher in the field of game studies & development. He received his formal education at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria. In early 2022, he became an Austrian Marshall Plan Fellow, which enabled him to conduct a research project on game-based learning at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York. After completing his project, he founded PJAIT Game Lab together with Prof. Ewa Satalecka, Dean of the Faculty of New Media Arts at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw. The project focuses on exploring teaching methods in game design and supporting students in their careers as future game developers and designers. Moreover, Benjamin Hanussek works at Lionbridge Games in Warsaw, where he is responsible for testing and localizing video games prior to their release.


27.10.2023 (Fr.), 19:00
Austrian Cultural Forum
ul. Próżna 7/9
Warsaw
In English
Free admission