Streaming the Past
Abstract: Streaming the Past is a Science Communciation Project by Leiden University and the VALUE Foundation. Funded by a Science Communication grant from the Dutch Science Organisation (NWO), a team of three students from Leiden University (Eva Kruijt, Sophie Paauw and Nina Beik) is streaming (historical) videogames, discussing their content and exploring the opportunities of Twitch as a platform for science communication.
Streams Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 2-5: information at https://interactivepasts.com/.
The website also includes a downloadable book of essays, The Interactive Past, which brings together a diverse group of thinkers — including archaeologists, heritage scholars, game creators, conservators and more — who explore the interface of video games and the past in a series of unique and engaging writings. They address such topics as how thinking about and creating games can inform on archaeological method and theory, how to leverage games for the communication of powerful and positive narratives, how games can be studied archaeologically and the challenges they present in terms of conservation, and why the deaths of virtual Romans and the treatment of video game chickens matters.