CFP: The aesthetics of games

Confirmed speakers:

Christopher Bartel (Appalachian State University)

Alexandre Declos (University of Neuchâtel)

Nele van de Mosselaer (Tilburg University)

Nathan Wildman (Tilburg University)

Workshop description: Whether games qualify as artworks remains a matter of debate. It is, however, uncontroversial that games can possess aesthetic value and exhibit aesthetic properties. But what is distinctive about the aesthetic appeal of games, and how should we theorize it?
Several influential answers have been proposed. Some argue that the distinctive aesthetics of games lies in their interactivity (Tavinor 2009; Lopes 2010) or in the sculpted agencies they afford (Nguyen 2020). Christopher Bartel has recently argued that the aesthetics of videogames depends not only on their formal features, but also on players’ attitudes, distinguishing several aesthetically relevant modes of play (goal-seeking, narrative, or “dollhouse” play). Frank Lantz (2024), by contrast, maintains that games exhibit a sui generis form of beauty grounded in their systemic features. It remains an open question how these approaches can be reconciled, and where they fundamentally diverge.
This workshop aims to engage with these debates and to explore the aesthetics of games more broadly. Bringing together philosophers of art and game scholars, the workshop will examine how games challenge inherited categories of aesthetic theory, and how aesthetic theory can, in turn, illuminate the nature of game-playing.

We welcome contributions addressing the intersection of aesthetics and game studies. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• What kind of aesthetic objects are games, and how do they differ from traditional artworks?
• How do gameplay, interactivity, and player attitudes shape aesthetic experience?
• Should we distinguish between the aesthetics of the player, the spectator, and the designer - and can these perspectives be reintegrated?
• How do the aesthetics of games relate to the aesthetics of sports or other performative practices?
• Should we differentiate between the aesthetics of play and the aesthetics of gameplay?
• In what sense can games be artworks, and what forms of aesthetic value do they realize?
• How do sound, music, narrative, level design, and visual composition interact with agency and affect in-game aesthetics?
• What can the study of games teach us about the nature and scope of aesthetic experience itself?

Submission details

Please submit proposals by email to: [email protected]> and [email protected]>

Submissions should consist of a PDF prepared for blind review, containing an abstract of 300 words (references excluded). Please make sure to put "Aesthetics of games submission" in the subject.

Deadline for submission: March 31, 2026

Please note that participants are expected to cover their own transport and accomodation costs; however, lunches and a workshop dinner will be covered.