Angewandte presents new MA-Programme
"Experimental Game Cultures"
Press-Statement
about the new programme >>
We aim to introduce game changer games!
In founding the Experimental Game Cultures department, the University of Applied Arts Vienna takes up the challenge to shape-shift
societies through play practices and cultures as key to sustainable world approaches. The English language master’s programm
experimental game cultures started in the winter semester 2021/22 at the Institute for Art and Society.
The newly
established master program Experimental Game Cultures puts a focus on emerging forms of hybrid play. The study program aims
at a critical reflection of the social impact of games while simultaneously applying it to the prototypical development of
innovative game concepts and approaches. The central aspect of the study program is therefore the interweaving of the development
of innovative game concepts with a critical examination of games and play as cooperative and non-incremental method of insight
and change of coagulations in their various historical, societal and social contexts. Artistic research areas of the
program include the use of games and play as an instrument for a better understanding of social, economic and political contexts
and for the democratic shaping of their future.
The head of the department Margarete Jahrmann states: “For
me, artistic play is the experimental testing and subjective experience of alternative possibilities of the world and agency.
Play as a participatory process can show us ways to positive change, new forms of future society, politics, and empathic coexistence.
Through the conscious breaking of rules, the transformation of rule systems, the acceptance of ambiguity as a quality in play,
a new understanding for the global challenges of our time can emerge. Our way there is the game!"
According to the focus fields of the program, applicants are also invited
to develop/describe a project for on of the following topics:
- political games
- games and nature
- low
resource games
- experimental ludic interfaces
- role play/real world games
- dark patterns of game design
- physical
game mechanics
- non-human play
- hybrid games
Written applications can be submitted in the
period until
January 10th-26th 2024 (12:00 am, CET) via
https://application.uni-ak.ac.at.