Abstract
The terms ‘nature’ and ‘naturalness’ are juxtaposed with many antagonisms: technology, civilisation, the city, art or artificiality, affectation – in short: different forms of culture, each constituting a specific relationship. The present text attempts to use the material, context and plots of board and parlour games to examine which constructions of nature and which relationships between nature and its antagonisms are reflected in them, in order to approach the popular cultural impetus of this material culture and this specific genre. On the basis of selected examples from the sub-collection of eco-board games in the board and parlour game collection of the German Games Archive in Nuremberg, the collected holdings of recipient publications, the juxtaposition with the respective contemporary discourses and a corresponding contextualisation, an exemplary history of the reception of the concept of ‘nature’ as a multi-perspective construction versus culture(s) in board and parlour games will be attempted. In a first step, the entire sub-collection will be located and assessed at the macro level in the field of board and parlour games, with regard to what is available, the gaps in the collection, the perception of the genre, and the perspectives of the collecting actors. In a second step, based on the formation at the macro level and the contextualisation using discourses from archival materials and research conducted at the same time, a movement is made into the formations of the individual board games at the micro level and the game actions associated with them. The way board and parlour games function as devices that metaphorically simulate life worlds and utopias and include and exclude possibilities in their sets of rules allows us to see the constructions of nature(s) and the relations to the cultures discussed. It also allows us to document various facets and positions in a chronological and thematic sequence and reflect them back onto the overall inventory. In addition, trends in the reception of nature(s) and culture(s) in the mass medium of board and parlour games can be documented and made visible.
Status
Running