2024 keynote
Play is not only a mode of engagement, but the act of worldmaking. There are many metric-driven reasons to incorporate play, from experiential learning benefits and increasing participation, yet those aren’t the reasons play is gaining more attention and deeper research from scholars and educators. Rather, play is a creative act that reworks reality into possibility, generating alternatives to the current moment. If hegemonic forces like capitalism, neocolonialism, and patriarchy are attempting to collapse all realities into a unifying narrative that serves their purposes, play is one form of critical engagement through the lens of personal experience. But first, we must untangle the dominant canon of games and play to shift both educators and students towards emancipatory pedagogy.
About our speaker
mattie is an artist and designer working with contemporary social issues through play. She has been a culture worker within the games industry for over a decade as a critic, designer, activist, organizer, curator, and educator. Her creative work manifests as medium-agonistic games and play experiments, from the memoir game Mainichi, conceptual art like EAT, performance with empathy machine, and speculative experiences including The DAFRA Pairing Ceremony. mattie’s organizing work spans various scales, having co-organized the Queerness & Games Conference, IndieCade, and #LOSTLEVELS. She now teaches at the University of California: Santa Cruz’ Performance, Play, & Design department and her current work focuses on play as activism, speculative methodologies, design bleed, and social relationships of power.
