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Emma Westecott

Games invite a spectrum of play, both productive and transgressive. We play games, play with games, and play against games. Play is a way we generate new knowledge. Bodies in Play (BiP) is a Canadian research project that brings together academic, cultural, and community practitioners to playfully co-create knowledge towards more inclusive embodied design practices for the creative technology sector. As feminist, black, and queer discourses have repeatedly emphasized, bodies matter, but have frustratingly been deprioritized in technology development and discourse. To address this, we need a more substantive focus on embodied experience, particularly within interaction design. How do approaches from wearable technology create novel contexts for embodied play? In what ways does virtual reality play require re-consideration of player bodies? How might equity seeking groups use these technologies to envision alternative forms of playful interactions which better reflect their embodied experience?

This session outlines research underway in the connective tissue of academic and community spaces invested in equity work of this nature with the intent of describing emergent methods aimed at reaching multiple audiences.

Attendee Benefits

The audience will learn about the use of play in participatory research projects engaged in addressing the lack of equity in the tech sector through partnership between community groups and academic research. Preliminary results show ways that equity-led approaches to embodied play can build benefit multiple stakeholders.