Lecture by Doctor Erik Champion: The Playful And Spatial Inspirations Of Game Design. Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 13:00, Room 857

The Lecture is one of the sessions of SysRep.

Abstract

I suggest that technology is not the fundamental problem in designing virtual places. We are still trying to copy the real world rather than explore the strengths and virtues of interactive media, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the design of virtual place, space, and world.  Here the terms Place, Cultural Presence, Game and World are critically significant. Place, Cultural Presence, Game, World, and interaction are all inter-related in the real world, it is up to us as architects and designers to interpret and transfer their power and potential to virtual environments. In doing so, we should be more critical of superficial use and application of these key terms as they are critically important, but we should also open our imagination to the playful and spatial inspirations of game design.

ERIK CHAMPION BIO

B.Arch, M.Arch, M.Phil (Hons), PhD (Engineering).
Project Leader of the new Digital Humanities Lab Denmark, hosted at Aarhus University. He is affiliated with the Department of Aesthetics and Communication, Faculty of Humanities.

His previous role was Associate Professor and Director of Postgraduate Studies and research at the Auckland School of Design, Massey University where I taught critical studies/design history, design research methods, and digital media.
His recent books are Playing with the Past (Springer, 2011), and Game Mods: Design, Theory and Criticism (ETC Press, 2012).

More information about my publications can be found at:

http://www.amazon.com/Erik-Champion/e/B004TLV1PE
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LmwiRJcAAAAJ&hl=en
http://au.academia.edu/ErikChampion

He is a member of ICIP ICOMOS, and on the editorial boards of:
• Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting
• Digital Creativity
• Games & Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media
• International Journal of Architectural Computing (IJAC) as CAADRIA representative
• Gaming and Virtual Worlds
• International Journal of People-Oriented Programming (IJPOP)
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• The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy (review board)