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Animex Symposium on
Game Cultures and Net Zero

Games of all kinds allow us to play with imaginary futures and situations. For example, humanity's own future, as the Anthropocene era comes to a dangerous close and we begin to consider the post-Anthropocene. Relevant games include:

  • those in fictional settings with a climate crisis metaphor, such as Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind
  • games set in our own apocalyptic future, such as the Citizen Sleeper series
  • explicitly educational or pro-social climate games, such as Earth Rising!
  • games where the player must consider issues of privilege and limited resources around the access and play of games, such as Solar Server/Known Mysteries.

The Animex Academic Conference, now in its second year, builds on more than ten years of Teesside University's Animex Festival of games, animation and VFX. The Animex Conference brings an academic aspect to the more industry and practice-focused Animex Festival. For the first year, we are adding an Animex Symposium to the conference, a chance to really focus in on a specific area.

8.30am

  • Registration and tea/coffee

9.00am

  • Opening remarks

9.15am

  • Keynote: Poppy Wilde
  • The promises and pitfalls of posthuman and postanthropocene games

10.15am

  • Break

10.30am
Panel 1: Tabletop climate futures

  • Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Douglas Brown - Onwards to PeaceGames! Examining new modes of play in boardgames for change
  • Tonguc Sezen and Digdem Sezen - Island Istanbul: TRPG worldbuilding as speculative practice

12.00pm

  • Lunch

1.00pm
Panel 2: Digital and hybrid climate futures

  • Darshana Jayemanne, Hadi Mehrpouya and Alenda Chang - Planting paratexts: modelling flora in game asset stores
  • Thomas Yount - Climate Cooldown as a serious game to cultivate active hope in a post-extractivist world
  • Silvia Ruzanka - Playing in the soil: a hybrid CAVE-VR and analogue game about microbes and climate change

2.30pm

  • Break

3.00pm

  • Special presentation - Patrick Prax
  • Systemic sustainability in and through games: standing on the edge and looking forward

4.30pm

  • Closing remarks

Key dates: Thursday 31 July - Entries sent through submission portal. Monday 1 September (authors are notified). Wednesday 19 November (Animex Symposium on Game Cultures and Net Zero).

Queries: Email i.sturrock@tees.ac.uk.