[ISEA2023] Institutional Presentation: Emma Westecott, Cindy Poremba, Kate Hartman, Becks Levick, Pam Punzalan & Ellie Huang — Bodies in Play? (OCAD University)

Institutional Presentation Statement

Keywords: Embodied interaction; Design justice; Critical Making; FAR; Research-creation; partnership; game jams

As feminist, black, and queer discourses have repeatedly emphasized, bodies matter, but have frustratingly been deprioritized in technology development and discourse. This institutional presentation will introduce a community and academic partnership that seeks to address this critical omission as well as outline activities to date. It will create networking opportunities for those interested and invested in equity-seeking research-creation in embodied interaction. The grassroots feminist methods deployed throughout this partnership to date have enabled a symbiotic relationship between partners as the project has necessarily shifted in response to the global pandemic. This presentation will reflect on key learnings garnered to date in this inter-sectoral context – across academic, community, and individual settings whether online or in person.