Games and Politics
The game Perfect Woman by Peter Lu & Lea Schönfelder produced in 2014, is the second of three games, which will be played live. Experts from Cyprus will comment the playthrough and answer audience questions.
The game Perfect Woman deals playfully with the diverse and often conflicting expectations of society towards the role of women.
The player runs through the life of a woman from birth to death, divided into different parts. At the beginning of each part the player can choose between four options with different difficulty levels. The role model proposals differ from the cliché as a princess (medium difficulty) to a more atypical role like a Pro Gamer (easy) or as a Minister of Foreign Affairs (difficult).
Next, tracked by Kinect the player must use their movements to bend into the positions required by the simulator – no easy task depending on the chosen role. Players learn the hard way: each of women's roles requires twisting and bending in order to fulfil it. Simultaneously the game allows the player to create their own version of a “Perfect Woman” – consisting of many different facets.
Moderator: Chrystalleni Loizidou
Gamer: Katrin Henn
Speakers CY: Maria Petrides, Yianna Americanou
Chrystalleni Loizidou (PhD) is a mom, a cultural theorist, and an eco-art+tech curator with a focused interest in the international zeitgeist of women's movements and free/livre technology. She has arrived at these priorities through academic research on public space, heritage, and art practices towards conflict-resolution/transformation, and a background in Philosophy, Art History, Design, Cultural Studies, and the workings of big institutions. During the day she has been teaching media studies and writing international programmes with effect on policy, and at night she has been organising and writing about hackathons and unconferences, working in support of the DIY and hackerspace community.
Maria Petrides (b. UK) is an independent writer, editor and translator. She has contributed to magazines/anthologies & art publications, and participated as writer-in-residency in NYC, Nicosia, Istanbul, Helsinki, Rio de Janeiro, Geneva. She’s translator of Wow, a political comic book by Ariadni Kousela, Patakis Publishers & co-translator of Bill Ayers’, To Teach the Journey, in Comics, contributing author for book collection, A Book of Small Things & assistant editor of Evripides Zantides’ volume, Semiotics: Visual communication II, (Cambridge Scholars). She is co-editor of Literary Agency Cyprus anthology, Nicosia beyond barriers - voices from a divided city, (Saqi Books, 2019), and co-founder of artist/research group, pick nick.
Yianna Americanou received her MA in Film and Television Production from the University of Bristol, UK and her BA (with High Honors) in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Experimental Filmmaking from the University of Iowa. She acted as Head of MEDIA (Creative Europe Programme) for over ten years, but her true passion for filmmaking and directing forced her to follow her directing path. Her short films have been screened at many important International Film Festivals such as Rotterdam IFF, Oberhausen ISFF and has received prestigious awards from Hamburg IFF, Drama IFF, etc. Her short film Lullaby was used by STOP International in Geneva (Anti Human Trafficking) to promote anti-trafficking legislations and was screened in all major military camps in Cyprus. She is a member of the Cyprus Directors Union, member of the European Women’s Audiovisual Network and President of the Committee of the International Motion Film Festival, Cyprus.
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