Humour and Games

This week, we have our final full interview for this batch of episodes, with Dr. Carly Kocurek. We had the chance to learn more about the interplay between humour, game technologies and moral panics.

Dr. Kocurek is a cultural historian specialized in the study of new media technologies and video games! She is the author of Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade and  Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls. Dr. Kocurek also co-founded and co-edits the Influential Game Designers book series, as well as being a prolific author and game designer.

Sponsored by TAG (Technology, Art and Games) @ Concordia University.

Another week, another episode. This time around, we have our full interview with Karina Popp. Tune in to learn more about how humour in games crosses over with capitalism, irony and dolphins.

Karina is a game designer and visual artist whose work focuses on banality, bodies and labor. Her work has been selected at festivals like IGF, Come Out and Play, Now Play This and Fantastic Arcade. Karina also holds an MFA in Game Design from the NYU Game Center.

Sponsored by TAG (Technology, Art and Games) @ Concordia University.

This week, we’ve got our interview with Dr. Aaron Trammell.

We had the chance to hear more about the differences between digital and analog games, the challenges of humor in tabletop and the power dynamics in those spaces.

Dr. Trammell is an assistant professor of Informatics and core faculty in visual studies at UC Irvine. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Analog Game Studies journal, multimedia editor of Sounding Out and a prolific author besides.

Also, if you have the chance, we would highly recommend picking up Dr. Trammell’s new book, Repairing Play.

Sponsored by TAG (Technology, Art and Games) @ Concordia University.

Today we chat with Jamie MacDonald about Nordic Larp, Feminist Comedy Clubs, and Type 2 Fun!

Jamie MacDonald is a Canadian artist, standup comic and PhD games scholar. His research and creative practices crosses between LARP, theatre and the performing arts more broadly. Sponsored by TAG (Technology, Art and Games) @ Concordia University.

This week, we have our full interview with Dr. Jaakko Stenros on Nordic Larp and the role of humour in dark or transgressive play.

Dr. Stenros is a lecturer at the University of Turku and a member of the Centre of Excellent in Culture, a joint project between Tampere University, the University of Turku, and the University of Jyväskylä. Stenros has also collaborated with artists and designers to create ludic experiences and has curated many exhibitions at the Finnish Museum of Games. Stenros’ research interests include norm-defying play, game jams, queer play, role-playing games, pervasive games, game rules, and playfulness.

This week, building on last week’s foundation, we take a look at how the form and impacts of humour can shift as games themselves can change. From digital to analog technologies, individual to group play, and the market considerations that can impact those changes.

Sponsored by TAG (Technology, Art and Games) @ Concordia University.

Featured Speakers: Dr. Carly Kocurek, Dr. Aaron Trammell, and Dr. Jaakko Stenros.

Humour and Games is back with a new season!

This time around, we turn to the serious and silly uses of humour in social activism and pedagogy. From games for impact, to games in the classroom, Nordic LARP, and Type 2 Fun, it’s the outcomes of humour and play that are the focus this week.

Sponsored by TAG (Technology, Art and Games) @ Concordia University.

Featured Speakers: Karina Popp, Dr. Carly Kocurek, Dr. Jaakko Stenros & Jamie MacDonald

Our full interview with Ida Toft featured in previous episodes. Ida is a media artist who works with games and game-like sculptures, especially games that cater for not-quite-human and cross-species environments. Their current work investigates technologies for felt and mechanical vibrations such as vibrotactile motors, phone notifications and rumble in video game controllers as a case for thinking about playful companionships across normalized affiliations. Ida holds a M.Sc. in Design and Communication from the IT University in Copenhagen and is currently a PhD candidate at Concordia University in Tiotia:ke (Montreal).