Bodies in Play: Inclusive Co-Creation for Wearable Technology and Virtual Reality is a two year research-creation partnership between OCAD University’s game:play Lab and Social Body Lab, and DMG that brings together academic, cultural and community practitioners to co-create knowledge towards more inclusive, innovative design practices. It scaffolds meaningful equity in the creative technology space, through participatory, feminist research-creation in embodied interfaces. It will do this through a series of game jams and a residency program, bridging creative, technical and conceptual work in wearable technology and virtual reality (VR).
As feminist, black and queer discourses have repeatedly emphasized, bodies matter, but have frustratingly been deprioritized in technology development and discourse. To address this, we need a more substantive focus on embodied experience, particularly within interaction design. How do approaches from wearable technology create novel contexts for embodied play? In what ways does virtual reality play require re-consideration of player bodies? How might marginalized people use these technologies to envision alternative forms of playful interactions which better reflect their embodied experience?
This research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
