Musical Embrace

A bodily game around social awkwardness

 

Musical Embrace is a digital research game that demonstrates how to use social awkwardness as a successful play element. In Musical Embrace two players are invited to control a pillow, which hangs from the ceiling, with their torsos in order to collaboratively navigate a virtual world filled with sound sources. By exploring uncomfortable interactions such as social awkwardness, we are illustrating the potential benefits of social awkwardness and bodily interactions; along with enriching our understanding of what computer games can and should be in the future.

Musical Embrace by Amy Huggard, Anushka ‘Chet’ De Mel and Jayden Garner with support from Chad Toprak, Alan Chatham and Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller.

Publications

Proceedings:

Huggard, A., De Mel, A., Garner, J., Toprak, C., Chatham, A., Mueller, F. 2013. Musical Embrace: Understanding a Socially Awkward Digital Play Journey. DiGRA 2013. Long Paper. 11 pages.

Huggard, A., De Mel, A., Garner, J., Toprak, C., Chatham, A., Mueller, F. 2013. Musical Embrace: Exploring Social Awkwardness in Digital Games. Ubicomp 2013. Note. 4 pages.

Extended Abstracts:

Huggard, A., De Mel, A., Garner, J., Toprak, C., Chatham, A., Mueller, F. 2013. Musical Embrace: Facilitating Engaging Play Experiences through Social Awkwardness. CHI 2013. Interactivity. 4 pages.

Huggard, A., De Mel, A., Garner, J., Toprak, C., Chatham, A., Mueller, F. 2013. Musical Embrace. CHI 2013. Videoshowcase. 1 page.

Awards:

Audience Award in Student Game Design Competition for Fun and Games 2012 in Toulouse, France.