oikospiel indiecade whole speech

David's speech:

What an incredible honor, thank you so much! I wish I could be there with you all. It’s weird to write this in text. It’s been very hot recently, and something I learned about “heat” while working on Oikospiel is that it’s the wiggly counterpart of “work”, in the way a physicist uses those words, heat and work, two different sorts of energy transfer. Work is a unionized urge which is narrowly aimed, while Heat is a plurality which buzzes, and vibrates wildly, wiggling away into steam, and this illustrates both its formal interest, and also the fatigue it can and does and will cause. Burn. Out. And now, more and more, with buzzing heat trapped in the greenhouse of the atmosphere there’s the ‘global weirding’ of the planet, the exacerbation of weather oddities, and I think recently of rising seas, with submerged ocean highways, alligators in living rooms and islands of fire ants, and this is all alluring on the page, but completely horrifying and depressing in actuality. Even a less wild heat, just the sweltering temperatures, makes it almost impossible to think, to fall asleep before the room cools at sunrise. And there are still those who are denying that any of this is happening. I think that “fake games”, which is what Valve has called the dog opera genre, are related to this discourse. Because what’s “fake” in these is precisely the environmental atmosphere of ready-mades, the creatures of the asset store forest, which is what economists call externalities— plants, water, air, and animals as ready-made.

[note: the parts after this weren't read live] They think these creatures are all toys outside of their games, like basketballs in a baseball stadium. I think also that the unconscious is perceived as fake due to consciousness’ proud self-image, and maybe should be grappled with as the greenhouse atmosphere of the mind’s environment. Music is also the outside of language, the heat to its work. Hippocrates says “give me the power to create a fever, and I can cure any disease.” A major goal of change should be that economics firmly ground itself in ecology, and ecology is grounded in heat. Oikos is the root of Eco. That’s my spiel for this evening, thanks for reading it Liz, and again, thank you all so very much for the prize!!


Liz's speech - [note: i wrote this before knowing if David was going to send me an acceptance speech to give or not, so when i did get the speech in an email an hour before it won the award, i decided read some of it to give an outside perspective on Oikospiel and the other games at Indiecade]:

[note: this first paragraph wasn't read live] so obviously i'm not David and can't speak for him, but i wanted to share a few thoughts. so i think my test for a person is how much they're willing to go along with something that's unpopular. being challenging is often unrewarding in a lot of ways. and at least for me, this is not about catching or establishing new trends for the market, or catching the attention of a publisher. yes, those are things everyone has to deal with. but that grift to survive is also idealized in our society and our culture, to the point where people who are taking chances are actively cast to the side as irrelevant.

i think we need to create a conversation. we need to think about changing the way we conceptualize reality, and also have a way to confront issues that have been taboo before - like fair treatment of workers, and our environment, and confronting our complicity with feeding reactionary views all around this culture, especially around videogames. we need to make things of real and lasting value, not just to feed the market. and oftentimes that means putting forward experiences that might seem super weird and upsetting and uncomfortable, like Oikospiel. but that kind of genuine risk taking is what changes the culture, and makes space for genuinely new and transformative experiences. and i think that's something that Oikospiel and many of the other games here do, and it's really exciting and really important to see it really happening.

if nothing else comforts you in these difficult times, just please remember one thing: another world is possible. and we, the dreamers and artists, are helping creating that world, right here, right now. and it's never too late to join us. thank you!