In the first week of August, CogNovo fellow Michael Straeubig delivered a talk and a workshop at two remarkable events in the UK.
His talk, titled "Playing With Distinctions - Towards a Theory and Practice of Playful Systems", was invited to the doctoral consortium at the first joint conference of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and the Foundations of Digital Games conferences (FDG). In the DiGRA/FDG doctoral consortium, Michael gave an overview of the theoretical and practical aspects of his PhD project. This provided an excellent opportunity to discuss his systems-theoretic approach and to receive feedback from game study scholars from around the globe.
The joint DiGRA/FDG Conference took place in Dundee, Scotland from August 1 to 5, 2016 and attracted over 350 games researchers who presented and discussed a wide range of topics in game design, game criticism and analysis, play studies, interaction and player experience, artificial intelligence, game technology and game production. DiGRA was founded in 2003; it constitutes the main international body for academic games studies. The FDG conference series is advancing the scientific foundations of digital games, game technology, and the study of digital games and their design since 2006.
After the conference, Michael headed to Electromagnetic Field in Guildford to give a workshop on designing Virtual Reality experiences, which is part of his PhD practice. Electromagnetic Field is a biennial non-profit UK festival that attracts a wide range of participants "with an inquisitive mind or an interest in making things: hackers, artists, geeks, crafters, scientists, and engineers".
CogNovo is an innovative doctoral program, funded by the EU Marie Curie initiative and Plymouth University, to foster research training in the emerging field of Cognitive Innovation. CogNovo offers transdisciplinary training that combines scientific studies of the neural correlates and mechanisms of creativity, with investigations into the role of creativity in human cognition, and their application in sustainable technological and social innovation.