Workshop: Play in Unconventional Spaces – OzCHI’12

We’re proud to announce that Chad and Floyd from the lab will be holding a workshop on Play in Unconventional Spaces in November as part of the ACM conference OzCHI 2012 in Melbourne, Australia. We are now doing a call for participation! Please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues!

ABSTRACT
Playful activities generally occur in defined play spaces. In particular, digital play has traditionally been confined to arcades and living rooms. The advent of recent technologies such as mobile devices allows us to play anywhere. However, the spaces in which we play inform the play experience, yet the relationship between play, technology and unconventional play spaces have received little attention so far. Spaces that afford playfulness are seemingly expanding along with our understanding of play in our culture. As a result, designers are required to rethink where, when and with whom we play when designing playful interactions and experiences. We are proposing a workshop to bring researchers and industry participants together to discuss how to design playful interactions for these expanding unconventional play spaces. The workshop will aim to support the development and understanding of future research, work and collaboration in designing playful interactions for unconventional play spaces.

WORKSHOP GOALS AND TOPICS
Recommended goals and topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• To provide a space for an exchange of ideas about play, games, and designing interactions that revolve around unconventional play spaces
• To gain a broad understanding of the issues and potential challenges faced when considering unconventional play spaces as a design space
• To raise awareness and appreciation of digital games and playful interactions in unconventional play spaces
• The role and significance of space in regards to play in our culture and society
• How to design playful interactions that do not intrude non-players’ spaces, and if they do, how to use it as a design opportunity
• How to design playful interactions that incorporate, invite or engage non-players

SUBMISSION
Interested researchers and practitioners are invited to submit a position paper or case study paper (2-4 pages) formatted according to the OzCHI format (which can be found here: http://www.ozchi.org/submit/submit.html) and email the organisers (listed below) by October 1, 2012. The papers should focus on current research activities, opportunities and/or interesting aspects of future work. Authors of accepted workshop papers will be notified on October 26, 2012.

Submission Deadline: October 1, 2012
Notification of Acceptance: October 12, 2012
Camera-Ready Papers Due: October 26, 2012
Workshop: November 26, 2012

ORGANIZERS
Cagdas ‘Chad’ Toprak, Exertion Games Lab, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia – chad@exertiongameslab.org
Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller, Exertion Games Lab, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia – floyd@exertiongameslab.org

More information regarding the conference, dates and venue can be found on the website below:
http://www.ozchi.org/
http://www.ozchi.org/tutes/workshopsandtutes.html#w3

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