Fictional worlds, what-ifs and surroundings
IN SHORT
What if…
Games inherently deal with exploring alternative worlds. Worlds where we suspend our disbelief for experiencing other roles, being open towards possibilities.
But what about play for stimulating designers towards more responsible, aware, inclusive and diversity oriented processes of envisioning, speculation, creation? And what about embedding reflections on the complex challenges we face today, tomorrow or in the long run?
Being situated in the trend of future-oriented design practices, where fictional worlds, what-ifs and their surroundings nurture design, we invite DiGRA participants to join us for an experience of playful speculation!
In the workshop we will introduce a meta-design game — or better a playful meta-design tool — aimed at supporting practices of envisioning, speculation and framing possible futures.
CONTEXT OF REFERENCE
Today we are witnessing an increasing utilisation of game design as an approach for addressing issues that cannot be easily reduced or solved, but are rather complex matters of investigation (Schouten et al. 2017) or even “wicked problems” (Buchanan 1985; 1992; Sicart 2010; Bosman 2019). As a matter of fact, it is getting more and more frequent to run into games designed to be spaces that empower people to explore scenarios representing possible, plausible, or simply alternative presents, but also to speculate about preferable, probable or even undesirable futures (Coulton et al. 2016). From digital games and interactive narratives (Koenitz et al. 2015), to LARP and board games (Bertolo et al. 2018), the field is becoming populated of compelling practices, showing a consistent interest. In parallel, also the literature stream on the topic is increasing, reinforcing how games can be a powerful and engaging medium for speculation.
So far, from Critical Play (Flanagan 2009) to Persuasive gaming (Bogost 2007), these games mainly emphasized on enhancing game mechanics and rhetorics (often procedural) (Bogost 2007; Sicart 2010; Frasca 2013) to engage players in exploring possibilities, most of the time relying on logics of identification or projection (Shaw 2010) that invite the adoption of more personal perspective (Mariani 2016; Spallazzo & Mariani 2018).
Still, what is missing is the extension and application of those processes in a way that it can include the design activity itself. How can we make use of game design to stimulate designers towards more responsible, aware, inclusive and diversity oriented processes of envisioning, speculation, creation, embedding reflections on the complex challenges we are facing today and we will face tomorrow or in the long run?
This workshop is situated in the trend of future-oriented design practices, such as Design Fiction, Speculative Design and Critical Design, where fictional worlds, what-ifs and their surroundings nurture design.
The debate about being humanity-centered but also design-driven, elevating the design process to an ethical and more responsible dimension, is more open than ever. In this context we introduce a meta-design game created for imagining experiences in complex, challenging context, e.g. with high levels of innovation, or a world where data are visible and privacy doesn’t exist.
The workshop will incorporate techniques from the fields of Game Studies and Game Design, Design Fiction, Interaction Design, Media Studies and Design Research. In particular, the meta-design game includes methods, approaches, tools and ideas for embedding speculation into design, being open to various fields of application.
WORKSHOP ORGANIZATION
Our aim is to involve the DiGRA community into a joint and participatory reflection that links playfulness and creativity in a process of speculating through play.
The workshop is a challenging, hands-on experience that will produce scenarios of plausible futuristic worlds impacted by situations to be created in the combination of player and (meta-design) game.
The workshop is structured into two main activities.
Participants will be invited to play with a meta-design game that aims at envisioning and speculating about the future(s).
The objective is to play for building fictional worlds as scenarios that explore possibilities, options, what-ifs. Fictional worlds where to discuss and untangle relevant and challenging topics.
Capitalizing on the various possible backgrounds and expertise of the participants, the play activity will be followed by a research phase.
Participants will be asked to exchange opinions and join us in a co-design activity, aiming at further improving practices of game-based speculations.
HOW TO SUBMIT
The "Fictional worlds, what-ifs and surroundings" workshop focuses on the extension and application of game practices for speculate about our future, in a way that it can include the design activity itself.
We are calling for extended abstract (max 1000 words + references) dealing with fictional worlds, speculation and games, to various extents.
Extended abstracts can be submitted using EasyChair at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=whatifs2020
Submissions will undergo a blind peer review process. The selection will consider quality and relevance to the workshop, taking into account a future publication presenting mature, complete research, as an edited volume or a special issue.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
At least one author of each accepted contribution should attend the workshop and register to the DiGRA 2020 conference.
LIST OF TOPICS
The workshop invites contributions exploring topics as the following, but are not limited to:
- Games and Game Design as a way for speculating
- Storytelling and roleplaying feeding speculation and envisioning
- Practical and theoretical intersections between games, Critical and Speculative Design, and other disciplines
- Playful practices for thinking about what-ifs and possibilities
- Games and Game Design as a way for rethinking ideas about Design
- Practical and theoretical collisions between game design and design research
This workshop is part of an ongoing study that follows a research-through-game-design approach that broadly relies on the potentialities of interdisciplinarity, which shares a Game Studies and Game Design background, and reaches out to wide-ranging complementary, neighboring knowledge. Besides scholars and practitioners dealing with game studies, design and criticism, we particularly welcome cross-disciplinary experts in sociology, philosophy, education, and computer science (just to name a few).
IMPORTANT DATES
Abstract submission: 14 February 2020
Notification to authors: 18 February 2020
Workshop Date: 2 June 2020
VENUE
The conference will be held in conjunction with DiGRA 2020 at Tampere University in Tampere Finland
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
Ilaria Mariani, research fellow at the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano
Ilaria, PhD in Design, is Contract Professor at School of Design, and conducts research at the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano. She designs, investigates and lectures in complex system for communication, especially games and interactive narratives for branding and social innovation. Her research – theoretical and practical – mainly addresses how meaningful play experiences can activate reflection, cultural and/or social impact. Covering the fields of studies of Communication Design and Game Studies (and Game Design), and to a diverse extent Sociology and Anthropology, she researches on (physical, digital and hybrid) games and play(er) experiences. Her studies also focus on comprehending the impact of communication systems on players/users. As such she assesses the effectiveness of artefacts in transferring meanings, combining qualitative and quantitative research and employing interdisciplinary mixed methods.
As author of scientific essays and articles, journal contributions she presents her work and research at national and international conferences.
She is co-author of "Game Design" (Pearson, 2014), and of “Location-Based Mobile Games. Design Perspectives” (Springer, 2018).
Davide Spallazzo, Assistant Professor at the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano
Davide, PhD in Design, is Assistant Professor at the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano. He mainly researches and lectures in the field of Interaction Design, interweaving design and technology with Communication, Product and Interior Design. Over the years, he investigated in theory and practice the role of mobile technologies in everyday life, envisioning innovative ways to employ mobile devices for learning and social purposes. His study focused in particular on the employment of mobile technologies and mobile gaming as a way to foster education and social engagement in cultural contexts. He looked at hybrid games from a design perspective, investigating them as both artifacts able to involve players in learning activities and stimulating contexts of experimentation for design students.
He leads courses at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, including the elective course Augmented Reality and Mobile Experience.
He has been involved in several national and international research projects concerning the use mobile technologies, virtual and augmented reality and gaming for museums, historic monuments, archives and for tourism.
He authored scientific essays and articles and presented his research in national and international contexts and is co-author of “Location-Based Mobile Games. Design Perspectives” (Springer, 2018).
Judith Ackermann, full professor of Digital Media in Social Work, Potsdam University of Applied Sciences
Judith, PhD, PhD in Media Studies, is full professor of Digital Media in Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and regular visiting professor at Politecnico di Milano’s School of Design. She was the scientific coordinator of the DFG (German Research Foundation) Research Training Group ‘Locating Media’ and is initiator of the international Urban Games Festival ‘playin’siegen’. She is head of the research projects ‘Post-Digital Art Practices in Cultural Education: Aesthetic encounters between appropriation, production and education’ (together with Marian Dörk and Hanne Seitz) and DISA ‘Digital Inclusion in context of Social Anxiety Disorder’ (together with Frank Heidmann) - both funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research).
Gabriele Ferri, design researcher at Play and Civic Media, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
PhD in Semiotics, Gabriele is a design researcher at Play and Civic Media. He also co-coordinates the M.Sc. Digital Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, where he is tenured lecturer in Design Ethics.
Combining his interests in playful and ubiquitous interactions, design futuring, and location-based experiences, Gabriele pursues a research agenda focusing on the use of urban games as design tools to empower minorities. Current research interests include critical and speculative uses of game design, qualitative methodologies for interaction design, pervasive interactions between media, public spaces, and citizens, and participatory workshops for creative futuring. He previously worked at Indiana University (USA), University of Bologna (Italy), and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy), and he holds a PhD in Semiotics (Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane; Università di Bologna, Italy) with an interest in the qualitative analysis of Human-Computer Interaction.
He recently co-edited the volumes A Lab of Labs: Methods and Approaches for a Human-Centered Design, and Interactive Digital Narrative: History, Theory and Practice, as well as the journal issue G|A|M|E 5(1) Games on Games. Game design as critical reflexive practice.
This workshop is part of an ongoing study that follows a research-through-game-design approach — a variation of the well-known practice described by Frayling (1993) — that broadly relies on the interdisciplinarity of the workshop team, which shares a Game Studies and Game Design background, and reaches out to wide-ranging complementary, neighbouring knowledge.