Jos de Mul. Computer games and non-linear history. "Aesthetic, history, and games", 6th annual Video Games & High Culture conference. Bari, November 10 and 11.

Games and videogames have long been reconstructing historical settings, more or less accurately, or have been drawing inspiration from those to create imaginary civilizations. The Art Game operates on multiple levels, representing, analyzing, depicting, creating, setting apart, and blending perspectives and perceptions of life, death, and material reality, spiritual and oneiric realms, rationality, and irrationality. Within an ever
shallower cultural framework of human history, the aesthetic of games, video games, and ludic narratives in serial entertainment run the risk of merging and mutually erasing each other, partly due to the limited space in users’ memory. Do games, video games, and art, besides coexisting and intertwining, naturally contribute to this inevitable process of chaotic deconstruction of our perception of time? Can historians and game designers influence the development of these trends