// The Alternative Now – Establishing Social and Sustainable Behaviour Through Digital Games // Oxfam Intermón invited me to give a talk at this years Social Good Summit in Madrid. The event takes place on occasion of the United Nations assembly in New York and will discuss the opportunities of technology and media on positive change in our societies. Check out the full program here http://www.oxfamintermon.org/es/campanas/proyectos/social-good-summit-madrid

// Games for Change – Towards A Documentary Approach For Digital Games // From an economic perspective, digital games have successfully outperformed their linear counterparts in film but still, in the public eye, games are only half-way through the process of becoming a legitimate and socially acceptable medium. Today´s gaming industry is on the verge of an evolutionary stepto truly become the leading medium of our time.

// Games for Change – Wie Games die Gesellschaft verändern // Aus ökonomischer Perspektive haben digitale Spiele ihr Geschwister-Medium Film längst überholt. Unabhängig von ihrem Genre oder der Publikationsplattform werden Games von der breiten Öffentlichkeit jedoch noch nicht als ernsthaftes und wertvolles Medium wahrgenommen. Dabei liegen das Innovationspotenzial von digitalen Spielen gerade in der jungen Form jener Games, die Interaktion und Narration im Sinne eines nicht-fiktionalen, nahezu dokumentarischen Erzählens einsetzen. Die sogenannten „Impact Games“ – eine Unterkategorie der Serious Games,…

// YouTopia – Embracing the power of a formative game design approach to shape a better tomorrow //

The NOTGAMES FEST is returning to Cologne this summer with an exquisite selection of extraordinary interactive works of art. Become part of the 7-days exhibition from Augsut 2-8, submit your game, come play and celebrate with us at the Vernissage in our brand new location near the Cologne trade fair. The NOTGAMES FEST is an alternative games program to the mainstream events in Cologne taking place mid-August. The event is highly inspired by the NOTGAMES idea of Belgian interactive artists…

I´m lucky to be one of the mentors in CGL´s infamous Experimental Game Development Workshop in cooperation with AMaze Festival and ZHDK. This year we will bring 6 happy CGL students to participate in the 5 day workshop who will have the chance to develop experimental games on the verge between digital and physical space with fellow students from ZHDK´s Design department and Ernst Busch Scenography School. Presentation of the projects will be during the AMaze Festival in Berlin.

Presenting an array of VR experiences this session will introduce a design thinking methodology for the use of VR in the context of designing for impact. (Opening presentation of the Games for Change Europe track)

The panel consisting of a game designer, a game researcher, a young activist and a member of the European Parliament will investigate the potential of games to inspire individual and societal modes of change as a prerequisite for bottom up legislative actions.

As part of the award ceremony of the YOUROPE Game Challenge, that is organized by our team at Games for Change Europe, the European Parliament and ARTE creative, my keynote will address the exciting possibilities for games as activist tools and artistic interventions.

Wird der Durchbruch von VR jetzt endlich kommen? Wird VR das letzte Medium sein, in dem alle anderen aufgehen? Kann es uns zu besseren Menschen machen oder wird es nur ein teures Gaming-Accessoire?

Die dreiteilige Session zum Thema Radical & Serious Games beleuchtet umfassend aus wirtschaftlichen, pädagogischen, kulturellen und wissenschaftlichen Perspektiven den Stand der Dinge. 14:00 Uhr − Vortrag zum Überblick über das Thema 14:15 Uhr − Battle Combat 14:35 Uhr − Panel People: Judith Ackermann, FH Potsdam Christian Huberts, Kulturwissenschaftler Manouchehr Shamsrizi, politischer Philosoph und Soziologe Katharina Tillmanns, TH Köln Thorsten Unger, GAME Bundesverband Moderation: Max. v. Malotki, WDR

Growing societies have developed highly efficient structures and abstractions to facilitate communication and get around. With man-made media on the forefront of this, both designers and audiences of all media types today seem to be stuck in a specific rhetoric that not only manifests but reinforces our system culture. Beyond our ambition of creating thematic content to foster change,as designers it thus seems necessary to understand general structural and aesthetical mechanisms of legacy media that have been drastically limiting our…

Vortragsthemen: 1. Virtual Reality als Kulturtechnik – Technologie/Gestaltung/Rezeption, heute und morgen. 2. Praxisbeispiele: Von reinem Entertainment bis zur gezielten Wissensvermittlung 3. Revolution des Wissenstransfers: Cognitives vs. Kinestetisches Lernen, Multisensorisches Lernen, Selbsterfahrung/Transzendenz inkl. experimenteller Beispiele

A majority of virtual (learning) experiences confronts users with a sudden switch from actual reality to virtuality, thus neglecting the moment of transition and the space in between as design opportunity. Mixed Reality technologies however, and the experiences created from them demand for an exploitation of this particular moment of transition that might eventually act as a facilitator to furthering and prolonging desired learning effects in both mobile and stationary experiences. By presenting findings from the creation of our Porta…