March 5-7, 2026 @ University of Amsterdam
CHIRURGISCH THEATER (LIBRARY UvA)
THURSDAY MARCH 5
13:00: Registration
14:00: OPENING REMARKS
14:15: OPENING KEYNOTE
1. Ludification of Vision (Mathieu Li-Goyette, UvA)
15:30: pause
16h00: PLAYING WITH LINES (moderated by Toni Pape)
2.1 Drawing as Tummelplatz (Mathijs Peters, Leiden University)
2.2 Bodies in Motion in David Kunzle’s “Movement Before Movies: The Language of the Comic Strip” (Ian Horton, University of the Arts London)
2.3 Play by Death’s Own Time Scale: Or, How to See the Dead, Lose Sight of the Living, and Still Call it Vision—A Misreading of Comical and Morbid Proportions (Max Eyschen, independent researcher)
18:00: conference dinner (XXXXXXX)
FRIDAY MARCH 6
9:30: WORKSHOP (moderated by Mathieu Li-Goyette)
3.1 Playful Lines from Reed and Steel – On Töpffer’s Use of Drawing Tools (Gunnar Krantz, Malmö University)
10:45: pause
11:00: CHILDISH EXPECTATIONS (moderated by Rik Spanjers)
4.1 Platinum Age Comics: Ludification or Knockabout Fun? (Jakob Dittmar, Malmö University)
4.2 Understanding Tableaux: R.F. Outcault and the Documentary Image (Josh Kopin, Haverford College)
4.3 Having a Dickens of a Time: Evoking the Playfulness of Real and Fictional Producers in Children’s Comics (John Miers, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam / Kingston University)
12:30: lunch
14:00: PAPERWARE (moderated by Toni Pape)
5.1 “This is not a playhouse”: Unplayable Games in Chris Ware’s Building Stories (Elizabeth Moulin, Sorbonne Université)
5.2 Chris Ware’s Counter-Archeology of Comics (Yasco Horsman, Universiteit Leiden)
15:00: pause
15:30: WHO DOES IT? (moderated by Erin La Cour)
6.1 Look Here, Not There: De/Familiarizing Horror in American Horror Story: Murder House Through Anamorphism (Serkan Kasapoglu, UvA)
6.2 Paul Annett’s The Beast Must Die: Filmic Whodunits and the Intermedial Interactivity of Mystery-Solving (Thomas Filteau, Université de Montréal)
17:00: Cocktails & Beers @ Lambiek
SATURDAY MARCH 7
9:30: WORKSHOP (moderated by Rik Spanjers)
7.1 Pixelated Panels, Glitched Bodies: Multimodal Annotation and Black Aesthetics in Robb Armstrong’s JumpStart (Justin Wigard, University of North Dakota)
10:45: pause
11:00: DIGITAL READING (moderated by Erin La Cour)
8.1 From Zines to Netflix: Intermedial Playfulness in Zerocalcare’s Storytelling (Silvia Vari, University of Warwick)
8.2 The Playful Gaze: Digital Comics and the Reconfiguration of Reading (Giorgio Busi Rizzi, Universiteit Gent)
12:00: lunch
13:30: MAKING IT WORK (moderated by Toni Pape)
9.1 Construction Animators Through the Periodical Press: Movable Cutouts in European Children’s Magazines (Eva Van de Wiele, Universiteit Gent)
9.2 Gamebooks and Comics: Ludifying the Page (Aaron Kashtan, UNC Charlotte)
14:30: pause
14:45: CLOSING KEYNOTE
10. The Knowledge Codex (Ilan Manouach, Université de Liège)
16:00: CLOSING REMARKS
18:45: FILM SCREENING @ (Filmhuis Cavia)
Title of the program: Ludification of Vision
Tickets: 5 euros / Cineville
Synopsis: From optical experiments to sleights of mise-en-scène, this program reflects on the playfulness of cinema in regards to a history of toys playing with our gaze and putting the viewer in a unique position of understanding codes and habits, reclaiming the fun to be had. Sponsored by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA).
- Un homme de têtes (Georges Méliès, 1898; 1 minute)
- The Doll’s Revenge (Cecil Hepworth, 1907; 3 minutes)
- Le ballon rouge (Albert Lamorisse, 1956; 34 minutes)
- Tops (Ray and Charles Eames, 1969; 7 minutes)
- Strange Codes (Arthur Lipsett, 1975; 22 minutes)
- Le film à venir (Raoul Ruiz, 1997; 8 minutes)
- I Would Like to Rage (Lého Galibert-Laîné, 2023; 11 minutes)
Total: 86 minutes
Ludification of Vision 