Event Title
Computational Craft
Location
PSY-226
Start Date
3-11-2017 1:45 PM
End Date
3-11-2017 3:15 PM
Description
Games have much to learn from craft, and vice versa. Craft is collaborative, open-ended, creative, meditative, and often focus on visual aesthetic goals. Games can be competitive, strategic or luck-based, and focus on player engagement. This workshop aims to bring these communities closer together by looking at the similarities and differences between craft-play and game-play. We will focus on the lessons that can be learned from each community with a view towards being able to create new kinds of game and/or craft experiences. This workshop aims to build a community of scholars and practitioners interested in the intersection of games and crafts, and to identify research questions, project ideas, and collaboration opportunities. It builds upon a previous, successful workshop in {Craft, Game} Play at the Foundations of Digital Games conference in 2015, in which participants created new game experiences by adopting craft practices such as scrapbooking, puppet making, and embroidery. The result of this workshop was a set of innovative games and playable experiences that incorporate craft practices into play. As an example, one group created a game using scrapbook paper and bakers' twine that replicates the interface to the interactive storytelling tool "Twine", in which players are invited to collaboratively build a story by creating fragments themed around the paper's design and then stringing it into the larger communal artifact. An unintended side effect to the workshop was peer learning between participants of different backgrounds. One memorable example of peer learning involved a group of women participants teaching a male computer scientist how to create a friendship bracelet, so that he could realize his game idea. At HASTAC 2017, we would be aiming to further push the boundaries of Craft Games by drawing participants from the diverse, interdisciplinary backgrounds of the conference attendees. Game design and crafting experience is not necessary! The workshop will be a half-day "studio", where participants are actively engaged in brainstorming project concepts and building prototypes for those concepts. We envision running a short brainstorming and group formation session, where we will discuss the overlap between crafts and games and participants' interest in these areas. We will then facilitate group formation, balancing skills and interests of the participants. Using materials we provide, participants will prototype games in their smaller groups, then present them to the workshop participants at the end of the session. As part of our effort to build a network of scholars working at the intersection of crafts and games, we envision also using the workshop as an opportunity to identify collaboration opportunities between participants. We plan to create a workshop website documenting the games participants create, and invite interested participants to collaborate on an article defining the space of "craft games."
Computational Craft
PSY-226
Games have much to learn from craft, and vice versa. Craft is collaborative, open-ended, creative, meditative, and often focus on visual aesthetic goals. Games can be competitive, strategic or luck-based, and focus on player engagement. This workshop aims to bring these communities closer together by looking at the similarities and differences between craft-play and game-play.
