Centre member Matteo Polato will present at the ‘Haunted Modernities’ conference at Falmouth University, an event that explores haunted modernities and spectral futures, looking back to the past as a haunted space and forward to the ‘spectres’ of the future. Matteo will present the latest developments in Real Engine, a collaborative project with Jacopo Bortolussi that explores the intersections of videogame development, psychogeography, and contemporary occultural practices. He will discuss the process of real-world exploration and lore-making that led to their latest game, How a Body Sounds.

‘Haunted Modernities’ is the latest annual conference of the Dark Economies Scholarly Association (DESA), which explores the story-worlds we create to express our fears and anxieties through representations and fictions about topics such as death, crime, the Gothic, horror, AI and technology, landscapes (rural, urban, mythical, supernatural), folklore, and the occult.