[visionlist] International PlayTrack Conference 2017

[Richard Dewhurst]

The Interacting Minds Centre is pleased to announce the inaugural PlayTrack
Conference 2017 at Aarhus University, Denmark: "Playful experiences:
Designs, Characteristics and Research".


The concept of the PLAYTrack conference

>From December 4-6th 2017, the Interacting Mind Centre (IMC) at Aarhus
University is organising the first international PLAYTrack Conference on
the theme “Playful experiences – designs, characteristics and research”.
PLAYTrack is a 5-year research project at the IMC, funded by the LEGO
Foundation and dedicated to exploring the questions of what play and
especially playfulness mean and do for our personal performance,
development and our interactions with each other.

Over the last decades, the concepts of play and playfulness in (product)
design, science, education and the public, have undergone a considerable
change. While previously considered as something “unserious”, “unreal” and
“for kids”, they are now increasingly considered as important states and
traits of what it means to be human. In addition, play and playfulness are
increasingly considered human potentials that should be protected, fostered
and spread to improve human well-being, development, and the surrounding
environment.

It is an idealised assumption that technology and design generally are
informed by fundamental research. When it comes to play and playfulness,
such a basis should as a minimum consist of detailed descriptions of
dimensions like experience, behaviour and physiology of the “playful state
of mind”. However, despite a wide range of approaches the topic of play,
ranging from biology, cognitive (neuro-)science, anthropology and
philosophy, we still lack a common definition and operationalised
description of what we consider as a playful state of mind or a playful
experience. In particular, it remains unclear what exactly these states
entail and how they are distinguished from related states, behaviours and
experiences. Nevertheless, practitioners and designers of various realms
have already invested heavily in the development of playful experiences and
gained significant experiences with their products.

For this reason, the first PLAYTrack conference intends to take a bottom-up
approach: We will firstly take a close look at some playful designs, as
presented by their inventors. We will then try to frame these observations
and experiential insights in more theoretical and generalizable terms on
the basis of previous work of respective scholars, terms and concepts  that
can finally be reflected and discussed on the basis of empirical studies as
presented by invited researchers. The aim of this approach is to work
towards a shared platform where we can better design, inform and improve
future research on the topic.


The conference programme is structured across three days focusing on three
sub-fields:

- Education

- Gamification/Organizational Psychology

- Social Interaction/Experience Design


Organisation

Each conference day will be organised as follows: Morning and early
afternoons are dedicated to talks and discussions. Late afternoons will
bring presenters and conference participants together in groups: Each group
will discuss the day’s presentations with the aim of creating proposals for
future research/design on the topic. In the last afternoon session, these
proposals will be presented. Call for poster abstracts

We also invite submissions of abstracts for posters. A poster session is
planned at the end of the first two afternoons (aperitivo hour). Posters
can represent executed or planned research fitting the conference topic,
and/or playful design projects. The deadline for the poster application is
the 15th of October.

We would also like to announce also 3 Student Scholarships for poster
applications, covering travel, accommodation and dinner fees of the winners
(only students (including PhD) may apply). The winners will be selected
based on the submitted abstracts - and notified within 2 weeks.

To submit your poster abstract, please follow this link
https://goo.gl/forms/Xd9DuWw36vg3wVHz2. Please indicate at the end of the
abstract if you want to apply for student scholarship. Talks are already
filled with invited speakers, but we warmly welcome additional poster
presentations, and attendance only participation for all that are
interested in this topic.


To ensure an intimate space for conversation, conference participation will
be restricted to 60 spaces. An optional conference dinner will be organised
on the 3rd day of the conference. The cost will be 50 Euro per person, and
will be charged in advance during the online registration. Please indicate
any dietary preferences in the online registration. The costs for speakers
and scholarship awarded students will be covered.


To register for the conference, please follow this link
https://auws.au.dk/PlayTrackConference (Registration is now open). NB: We
have limited the conference to 60 participants and spaces are given on a
first-come basis, so do register sooner than later. For further details,
please visit the conference website
http://interactingminds.au.dk/events/single-events/artikel/playtrack-conference-2017/

With best wishes,

/The PlayTrack Conference Organisers
Katrin Heimann, Andreas Lieberoth, Karsten Olsen, Marc Andersen, Richard
Dewhurst & Andreas Roepstorff
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