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Abstract
In recent years, tools like Unreal Engine have transformed how we imagine and build digital worlds. These “game engines” are more than creative software—they’re platforms that store massive libraries of 3D models, textures, and sounds that anyone can assemble into new environments. This talk explores how those ready-made digital materials, known as assets, shape today’s creative work and the kinds of futures we can picture.
Aleena Chia looks at how artists and developers combine, model, and generate these assets using techniques such as photogrammetry and AI-assisted design. She argues that the real innovation of these engines lies not just in what they produce, but in what they make possible: a system built around endless potential and anticipation of what might come next.
By examining the labour behind digital world-building, Chia invites us to think about speculation—not only as prediction, but as a way of managing risk and imagination in cultural production. A reflection on how creativity and technology intertwine in an era when digital tools promise infinite possibilities.
Bio
Aleena Chia is a lecturer in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She researches digital game making cultures and wellness practices to understand how media technologies automate work and optimize life—shaping inequalities in cultural production. She is coauthor of Technopharmacology (Meson/University of Minnesota Press, 2022) and co-editor of Reckoning with Social Media (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). She has co-edited journal special issues on ‘Digital Play after Humanism’ in Convergence (2022), ‘Time Machines’ in MAST (2025), and ‘Videogame Theory,’ forthcoming in Media Theory.
Registration for this event is now closed.
Thank you to everyone who signed up — we look forward to seeing you on November 6!
