Scrolling and gaming: Prejudices against screen culture

January 19 2024

Tvibit and Fritt Ord invite the public to a debate and talk at Tvibit in Tromsø (address: Parkgata 27) at 4.30 p.m. on Friday, 19 January, prior to the documentary film ‘Ibelin’ about the gamer Mats Steen, which will be screened that evening at 7.15 p.m. at the Tromsø Film Festival. The event is open to all.

Welcome to a panel discussion on attitudes to screen culture, scrolling and gaming, featuring:

Ismet Bachtiar, project manager for Kreativ Teknologi, Tvibit
Ane Dybdahl, gamer, streamer and teacher of Media Technology at Breivang Upper Secondary School
Bjørn Giswold, game manager at Tvibit

The event will be moderated by Kevin Berro, a young filmmaker and actor from Tromsø.

There will be a drawing for movie tickets to ‘Ibelin’ – come and sign up for the drawing! Refreshments.

Technology, scrolling, computer games. All our lives are impacted by technology. At the same time, our relationships with technology differ significantly. Some are early adapters and happily enter new landscapes, while others are anxious about what technologies do to us. Different experiences across gender, generation, group affiliation and interests mean that screens, technology and games are understood differently.

The discussion will address positive and problematic aspects of scrolling and gaming in an attempt to reach an understanding that spans across contradictions and prejudices.

The event will be held prior to TIFF’s screening of the documentary film Ibelin.

The film is about the gamer Mats ‘Ibelin’ Steen, who passed away at age 25. Despite living with a demanding, very restrictive illness, he developed into an impressive gamer, playing World of Warcraft. The story of his relationship with gaming was revealed to his loved ones only after his death, and it has made an impression on many people.

NRK Dagsrevyen News referred to the documentary on 9 January. NRK’s story on Steen is the most read NRK digital story ever.

News

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Norwegians are increasingly more positive to accepting computer games as culture

About 17 per cent have developed a more favourable view of computer games over the past year. Six of ten play computer games, and one of three plays computer games weekly. At the same time, computer games are ranked as having lower status than books and music, for example.
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“The problem with far too many media reports about computer games is that they start begin with sentences like: ‘computer games have come a long way since Pac-Man’,” sighs American computer game critic Jacob Geller.

“Let us first simply agree that computer games are indeed an art form and an expression of culture, and then let us examine the works as part of the history of art and culture.