Manchester Game Centre member, Gabriele Aroni will be giving a paper at the First Italian Conference on In-Game Photography. The paper explores in-game photography and the issue of copyright.
The conference
Fotoludica is the first Italian conference dedicated to examining the burgeoning practice of in-game photography. Across two days of talks, presentations and discussions, creators, researchers and theorists explore the complex intersection of video games, photography, copyright law, activism and visual culture.
A keystone of the event is discussing in-game photography as an emergent art form, looking at how players leverage tools ranging from photo modes to hacking screenshots to produce and share images. Presentations analyze works by artists like Boris Camaca, Leonardo Magrelli, Simone Santilli, Pascal Greco, and Adonis Archontides, uncovering conceptual depth within gaming spaces. Legal questions also take center stage regarding whether player-created screenshots can be considered proprietary artwork or remain protected as game developer assets.
Additional topics trace photography’s usage as architectural visualization rendered through speculative Minecraft builds. Presentations also cover documenting in-game performance art and interventions as contemporary extensions of war photography traditions. Throughout the event, speakers highlight how rendering gaming environments through a photographic lens reveals underlying themes related to violence, labor exploitation and colonial ideologies.
Featured speakers apply lenses — no pun intended — spanning art history, visual culture, game development, software studies and internet law. Keynotes include Marco De Mutiis discussing “Playable Imaging” and the uneasy combination of image-creation and play. Artist Joseph DeLappe joins scholar Laura Leuzzi in conversation around artifacts created through his daring in-game interventions. Additional highlights involve a series of panel discussions moderated by Matteo Bittanti and Marco De Mutiis focused on questioning boundaries of creativity, authorship and ethics tied to photographic practices using proprietary game engines and assets.
By gathering voices from game studies, art, law and beyond, Fotoludica seeks to cement in-game photography as a serious art form while unpacking vital questions through multidisciplinary dialogue. The event also solidifies IULM University’s pivotal role in advancing photography focused game studies research.
Ultimately, the conference provides vital scholarly infrastructure legitimizing artistic interrogation of games using techniques from photography to machinima.