We are used to seeing video games merely as a form of entertainment. The only time we see their political aspects is in debates about the depiction of violence. Total Refusal is an artistic collective that explores the politics that permeate today's most profitable entertainment medium. What effect does the contemporary political economy have on mass media, and thus on the formation and affirmation of social values? And how can these hegemonic worldviews be deconstructed and reused artistically and ideologically? The Austrian "pseudo-Marxist media guerrilla" Total Refusal addresses these questions from many different angles, but always acknowledging that video games can be seen as the embodiment of late capitalist media production, where cultural narratives shaping political consensus are co-produced by marketing apparatuses.
Guests: Total Refusal
Moderated by: Václav Janoščík
With the support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Czech Republic and Masaryk Democratic Academy.
Guest
Total Refusal
Robin Klengel
Visual artist, cultural anthropologist
Leonhard Müllner
Visual artist, film director and game theorist
