Experimental Game Cultures

✨ 𝔸 𝕄𝔸ℤ𝔼. 𝔹𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕚𝕟 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟞 | 𝟙𝟛.𝟝.-𝟙𝟞.𝟝.𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟞 ℝ𝕖𝕔𝕒𝕡 ✨
A playful excursion to A MAZE festival Berlin with the students of Experimental Game Cultures
🦩
🦩
🦩
🦩
1 - Award show with Jury member of XR-History Award by -Stiftung Margarete Jahrmann
2 - XR-History Award winner network with International Sickness
3 - Workshop at AMAZE
4 - Dronelab
5 - Dronelab
6 - Dronelab
7 -
8 - Zoom Meeting in play Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin

LUDIC TEA mit Georg Hobmeier: The Lands of Milk & Funding (Austrian Edition)

The treasure map nobody gave you.

Georg Hobmeier (Causa Creations) is coming to the Angewandte with 25 years of hard-won experience navigating national grants, crowdfunding, and the labyrinthine world of European funding.

This talk will give you a good overview, words of advice, but also discouragement. Feel free to bring your own experiences, questions and opinions so that we can turn this from a monologue into a heated exchange.

BIO
Georg Hobmeier is a game director, ex performance artist, and occasional tarot publisher based in Vienna. He has made documentary games shown at a multitude of festivals, won a Prix Ars Electronica awards with a class of rather unruly kids, and somehow ended up as one of Austria's more successful Kickstarter creators. He teaches, consults, and is constitutionally incapable of staying in one discipline.

📅 Wednesday, 20 May 2026 — 15:00
📍 Studio Experimental Game Cultures
Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna
🗣️ Talk in English

𝗟𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗰 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘂𝗺: 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬

What is the connection between the play environments of our childhood and experimental systems in artistic research?

We cordially invite you to this year’s Ludic Method Symposium, hosted by the department of Experimental Game Cultures at the University of Applied Arts Vienna . Organized and moderated by Margarete Jahrmann and Clara Hirschmanner, the event explores the "Ludic Method"—a principle that positions play as a central strategic element in research.

This symposium focuses on the intersection of "Drama" and "Playthings," examining the processual aspects and the dimension of agency in play. The discussion will investigate how artistic artifacts function as epistemic objects, enabling a sustainable flow of discourse between science, art, and society.

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀:

𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙚: 22.04.2026

𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚: 13:00 – 18:30

𝙇𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: Auditorium VZA 7, Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, 1030 Vienna

𝙇𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙜𝙚: English

𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺:

𝟭𝟯:𝟬𝟬 – 𝟭𝟯:𝟯𝟬: Opening & Introduction | Margarete Jahrmann & Clara Hirschmanner

𝟭𝟯:𝟯𝟬 – 𝟭𝟰:𝟭𝟱: machina eX : Artifacts as Interface: Props and Interaction in machina eX’ Drahtwolken

𝟭𝟰:𝟭𝟱 – 𝟭𝟱:𝟬𝟬: Only Slime .sliime : Building game worlds as artistic practice and existential play

𝟭𝟱:𝟬𝟬 – 𝟭𝟱:𝟯𝟬: Coffee Break

𝟭𝟱:𝟯𝟬 – 𝟭𝟲:𝟭𝟱: Mikko Meriläinen .merilainen : Art, fantasy, toys, junk: The meanings of gaming miniatures

𝟭𝟲:𝟭𝟱 – 𝟭𝟳:𝟬𝟬: Ugo Dehaes : How to breed and train robot dancers in your basement?

𝟭𝟳:𝟬𝟬 – 𝟭𝟳:𝟭𝟱: Break

𝟭𝟳:𝟭𝟱 – 𝟭𝟴:𝟬𝟬: Total Refusal : Noclipping through Corporate Subconsciousness

𝟭𝟴:𝟬𝟬 – 𝟭𝟴:𝟭𝟱: Closing Remarks

We look forward to an afternoon of ludic research practice and insightful academic exchange.

LUDIC METHOD SOIRÉE With Dr. Chloé Wake:
Grotesqueries of Capitalism … and other ludicrous approaches to play

Experimental Game Cultures
hosted by Thomas Brandstetter & Margarete Jahrmann

Tuesday, 14 April 2026, 18:00
Online via Zoom: https://dieangewandte-at.zoom.us/j/65353903004
Talk in English

- Online via Zoom -

Dr. Chloé Wake will present her work on critical game design and will be available for discussion afterwards.

Grotesqueries of Capitalism and other ludicrous approaches to play examines the intersections of play, consumption, and critique through the lens of Happy Shoppers, a critical card game that hacks the Victorian parlour game Happy Families to make explicit the ideology embedded in set-collection mechanics and expose the hidden costs of consumer culture. Drawing on Mary Flanagan's framework of critical play, Zygmunt Bauman's account of the consuming subject, and Linderoth and Mortensen's aesthetics of dark play, this talk argues that discomfort and absurdity can function as productive tools for critical inquiry. The talk uses the design methodology of Happy Shoppers — hacking and subverting a familiar game structure — to demonstrate how games can challenge the ideologies embedded in everyday consumption without offering easy answers or moral resolution.


BIO

Dr. Chloé Wake (née Germaine) is a Reader in Environmental Humanities in the Department of English at Manchester Metropolitan University and Co-Director of the Manchester Game Centre. Her research sits at the intersection of game studies, critical theory, and environmental humanities, with a particular focus on how games model and naturalise ideologies — and how they can be designed to challenge them.

She is co-author, with Paul Wake, of Curious Games: Game Making, Hacking and Jamming as Critical Practice (Behavioral Sciences, 2025), which develops the methodology of game hacking and jamming as a form of critical-creative research. She is also co-editor, with Paul Wake, of Material Game Studies: A Philosophy of Analogue Play (Bloomsbury, 2022). Together, they design games under the guise of Frank and Alex Games. Happy Shoppers is their most recent collaboration.

✨ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ ꜱᴘᴏᴛʟɪɢʜᴛ ✨

We congratulate Gökçe Elif Göbüt () on the successful completion of her Master’s degree! 🌀 Her diploma project »Unknot« explores the right to produce knowledge and how knowledge is created, categorized, translated, and shared.

It proposes a speculative playground built from a synthesized language combining knot theory, Anatolian hieroglyphs, and equivalence notations, forming a cognitive space that stretches information between legibility and illegibility.

Rather than aiming for faithful translation or static information transfer, the work focuses on what is lost in transmission, the gaps, residues, and uncertainties, generated as knowledge moves between bodies and systems. It imagines a custom interface where translation and transmission occurs through breath, inviting embodied engagement with incompleteness.

Multimedia art installation
Images: © die Angewandte, 2026
Photos: Erli Grünzweil (CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0)

✨ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ ꜱᴘᴏᴛʟɪɢʜᴛ ✨

Celebrating Janine Scheer-Erb (.sche.erb) and the successful completion of her Master’s degree! ✨ Her diploma project »sun bed« invites us into a speculative world of longing and light.

How to believe the sun is there when it is not warm on your skin? sun bed is an installation and performance using worlding, relational networking, and poetic translation to imagine a parallel world where the sun is missing.

Only 99 hours of sunlight a year leads to a world where heliocentric rituals, adapted nature, and artificial lights emerge as artifacts of a culture of longing. A wind-gifted origin book acts as the base for imagining this parallel world. Rather than fixed narratives, the work emphasizes gaps in perception, what remains uncertain between profane and sacred, inviting navigation through belief‘s fragile illusions via sonic, visual, and choreographic transmissions.

Multimedia installation & performance;
Images: © die Angewandte, 2026,
photos: Erli Grünzweil, CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 - 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 🚀 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐈

Last week, our students concluded the semester by presenting their final works on the semester theme 𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙎.

The presentations reflected a broad range of artistic approaches, combining cinematic reflections with the development of playable prototypes. 🎮✨

It was great to see how "Play Things" was translated into such distinct positions—ranging from experimental systems to very personal, nuanced explorations of play. Watching these ideas evolve from an initial spark into tangible, interactive realities was a highlight of our time in the studio.

❤️ Thank you! ❤️

How does play feel in our hands and mind? ✨🤲✨🧠✨

We invite you to 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨, a Pop-Up Show and Screening at the Studio Experimental Game Cultures. Join us for an evening of TOUCH and playful encounters between human participants and non-human elements.

Explore the ambiguity and transformative power of play—as a counter-movement to power games. We will be showcasing semester projects and work-in-progress "Ludic Objects" created by our students. 🕹️👾

📅 When: Jan 28, 2026 | 18:30
📍 Where: University of Applied Arts Vienna Georg-Coch-Platz 2
[1st Floor, Room 151], 1010 Vienna

🔗 experimentalgamecultures.uni-ak.ac.at

🎮 Guest Lecture: Kawika Guillermo – "Of Floating Isles"
We are thrilled to announce Kawika Guillermo for an upcoming Ludic Method Talk!

In cooperation with the Department for Cultural Studies, Experimental Game Cultures presents an exploration of the deep intersections between autobiography, cultural meaning, and the "growing pains" of gaming.

📖 About the Book
Kawika’s recent work, Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games, breaks new ground in game studies. Instead of analyzing games as mere systems, the book focuses on the player’s personal experience and the social and political economy of emotions that surround them.

🎤 About the Speaker
Kawika Guillermo (they/he), also known as Christopher B. Patterson, is an award-winning author of seven books and a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Their debut novel, Stamped, won the 2020 AAAS Book Award and was even adapted into a free-to-play video game!

📅 When & Where
Date: Monday, Jan 19, 2026
Time: 18:30 – 20:00 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM)
Location: Online via Zoom (Link in Bio!)

Agenda: Presentation of the book followed by an open Q&A and discussion.