Luento: Games and Bodies

Games and Bodies explores the ways that games, gamification, and playfulness have been connected to the human body. Three researchers provide an overview of the multitude of ways that the human body is playfully designed for, how the body is re-designed as an act of play, and how diversity and accessibility in game spaces deals intimately with both the bodies of players and characters.

Dr. Oguz Buruk is an Assistant Professor of gameful experience at Tampere University. He holds a PhD in Interaction Design at Koç University. His work focuses on creating novel interactive environments for gaming purposes. Specifically, he worked on topics such as gaming wearables or social touch in games. He has a recent book published in 2024 called ”Playful Wearables” which provides an academic overview of wearable technologies and gamification.

Aska Mayer MA is a Doctoral researcher at Tampere University. They are working on the exploration of human augmentation in order to provide a holistic and systemic perspective on augmented human bodies through the combined application of Game Studies, Somaesthetics, and HCI.

Maximilian Brückner MSC is a recent graduate of the Game Studies Master’s Program at Tampere University. His thesis work is on the intersection of accessibility, diversity and inclusion from the lens of the bodies of characters and players in digital game media.