New frontiers

Gaming often gets a bad rap in the media with much written about the negative effects of this popular pastime.

However, video games are also using the power of play to raise awareness and inspire behavioural change.

This discussion will explore case studies that represent this new frontier of contributing to raising awareness of societal issues.

Media Molecule and thatgamecompany, both collaborators in the Virtual Realms exhibition, have won awards for creating powerful social impact games.  Known as Serious Games, or Games for Change, there are extraordinary examples of games designed to address human rights issues such as the plight of the refugees, homophobia and racism.

Games and mixed reality media are also created for the health sector to directly improve patients pain outcomes, such as burns victims, train carers of dementia patients to understand the impact of the condition, and even a recent VR experience that has been designed to assist the vaccine rollout.  

Join our discussion facilitator Natalie Marinho (Founder of Voyant Augmented Reality and Chair of Immerse Australia) as she leads our incredible panel, as they explore case studies representing how gaming and game design act as a new frontier to raise awareness of societal issues.

Featuring:

Al Gibb (CEO, Mighty Serious),

Ali Fadinpour (Founder & Executive Director, Wise Realities)

Elham (Ellie) Eshraghian-Haakansson (Video Artist, Researcher & Director)

Image: We live in an ocean of air, Marshmallow Laser Feast, 2018

FACILITATOR

Natalie Marinho | Founder of Voyant Augmented Reality and Chair of Immerse Australia

Natalie is an Extended Reality (XR) professional with over 15 years’ experience in Digital Media. Born in Perth, she is of Filipino, Portuguese and Spanish descent and has lived and worked in London, Singapore and the Asia Pacific. Her diverse working background includes augmented reality, user experience design, games research, and information technology programs in the ASEAN region. Natalie is the Founder and Lead Designer at Voyant Augmented Reality, a Fremantle-based studio creating bespoke augmented reality experiences for social impact projects and creative industries.  She is also Chair of Immerse Australia, a member-driven association representing the interests of the immersive technology industry in Australia and a committee member of Screenwest’s Industry Advisory Group. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Psychology) and a Masters in International Relations.

SPEAKERS

Al Gibb | CEO, Mighty Serious (Mighty Games Group)

Al leads Mighty in their Games for Change program through a range of projects that are transforming attitudes and behaviours through games. He spent the past six years promoting and educating public and private sectors on opportunities in gamification for social impact -- and ended up founding a consultancy called Zier to help government and corporate organisations take advantage of opportunities in social innovation and business growth through games thinking.

Ali Fadinpour | Founder & Executive Director, Wise Realities

Ali is an Extended Realities (XR) research scientist and innovator. He is the Founder of Wise Realities Institute, a health promotion charity focused on improving health using XR technologies; Founder of XR Avant-Gardes, a start-up developing XR solutions in health, education and cultural awareness. Ali has been conducting research on computer simulations and immersive technologies for more than a decade in education and healthcare. Ali is interested and focused on UX and human-factors in XR and deeply passionate about developing innovative solutions to better quality of life.

Elham (Ellie) Eshraghian-Haakansson | Video Artist, Researcher and Director

Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson is an Iranian-Australian video artist, and researcher. Her process centers itself within communal and collaborative social practice. Her research navigates inherited stories and post-memory felt by her displaced community through the poetics of the moving image. She invites viewers to become the 'witness' rather than the 'passive bystander', examining empathy in film-poems, and immersive multi-media experiences inviting a critical discussion surrounding empathy, trust, custodianship, compassion, and social change.

Games Matters

Join us for a series of fascinating discussions inspired by the dynamic experience, Virtual Realms, exploring new realms in game and exhibition design.

Across the series we will look at the importance of collaborations between artforms, how games are influencing other media industries and how games can raise awareness of social issues.

Find out more.

In this series:

Saturday 30 April | Curating Virtual Realms 

Sunday 1 May | Blurring the lines 

Sunday 15 May | New frontiers