Technology and Play

The 46th Symposium of ICOHTEC, the International Committee for the History of Technology, took place in Katowice, Poland, between 22 and 27 July 2019. The main theme of the symposium was “Technology and Power”. Together with Stefan Poser, we organised two sessions on play under the general title “Challenging Power through Playing with Technology”.

During the sessions, the following papers were presented and followed by lively discussion:

Artful Play with Technology
Dr. Florian Bettel

Gaming the Iron Curtain: Alternative and subversive practices in the
Czechoslovak computer hobby movement
Dr. Jaroslav Svelch

Spraying – Challenging Activity, Art and Subversive Game in the City
Dr. Stefan Poser

Alternative mobility: the history of sliding vehicles for wintry
roadlessness
Dr. Svetlana Usenyuk-Kravchuk

Toy Robots: Playing with Humanity’s Fears
Dr. Artemis Yagou