GAME OPEN CALL | SCIENCE GALLERY

A FLAGSHIP INTERACTIVE EXHIBITION EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF PLAY FROM SCIENCE GALLERY TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

Call for Proposals

Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland is seeking proposals for an upcoming major exhibition GAME

Call Opens: Wed 23rd May

Call Closes: Monday 2nd July

Exhibition duration: 26 October 2012 – 18th January 2013

Open call submission page: http://opencall.sciencegallery.com/

Calling all gamers from casual to hardcore, newbies and retrogamers, data nerds, hobbyists, artists, scientists, tech geeks, edgy engineers and serious gamers, Science Gallery is seeking proposals for its major 2012 exhibition GAME launching in October 2012, during Dublin’s year as European City of Science.

With global industry sales predicted to reach $68.4 billion this year, the gaming industry has overtaken all other entertainment industries in the last ten years. An average UK gamer is 23 years old, has been playing games for over ten years and spends on average 11 hours per week playing games. Ireland is rapidly emerging as a global hub for animation and games with many of the leading software and middleware developers located here.

GAME at Science Gallery will explore the multifaceted world of gaming from the technology and design behind games to gaming and society and the history of games. Jane McGonigal in her book “Reality is broken” argues that games can make us better and that by harnessing what game developers have learnt about optimizing human experience we can develop games that can tackle some of the major issues of the 21st century from depression and obesity to making people more socially connected. GAME at Science Gallery will explore the amazing potential of games and offer opportunities to visitors to engage in numerous aspects of this theme, even creating their very own game during a visit.

GAME will ask why people play games? How do our brains respond to games? What makes a game compelling? What will the future of gaming look like? How can we harness games for good?

GAME is Science Gallery’s end of year exhibition for 2012. We are interested in receiving proposals for exhibits, events and workshops along the following themes,

• Game Technology from state of the art physics, graphics, animation and audio to augmented reality to cutting edge interfaces to neuro-gaming
• Game Design from the art of games, to the mechanics of games and game narratives and storytelling
• Games & Society from gamification to competitive games to the psychology of gaming and serious games to gaming as a professional sport to the opportunity for gaming to make us better
• History of Games from Spacewar! to the first home consoles to speculative pieces exploring the future of gaming
• Game production and the business of games – what do game designers consider in developing a new game, how do games make money and what are the new trends in this growing market?

GAME objectives

• To engage young adult visitors to GAME not merely as consumers of games, but as potential game creators;
• To inspire visitors with the opportunities in the games sector;
• To provide an engaging experience of the creative process of game design and development;
• To provide exciting experiences of current trends and future directions in games (mobile/social games, neuro-gaming, AR, etc);
• To provoke critical engagement with games and game-culture and “gamification”;
• To highlight the different skills (art, science, design, storytelling, strategy) involved in game creation
• To impact over 50,000 visitors on-site during the 3 month exhibition run and over 100,000 visitors online (through key online-only elements)
• To work with key games industry and research partners and EI/IDA to highlight Ireland’s position as a potential hub for games industry
• To help put Ireland on the map for games with key international audiences including game industry, investors, tech community through significant national and international media coverage for GAME and its participants
• To host high impact events, workshops and demos during the course of GAME for young adult, educational and industry/investor audiences
• To inspire more young people to take an interest in computer science, physics and mathematics and to motivate them to develop their skills in these areas

Curator and Advisors:

GAME will be curated by Steve Collins, Founder of Swrve and previously co-founder of Havok and Kore, Mads Haahr a lecturer in Trinity College Dublin’s  Department of Computer Science with a focus on computer game studies, mobile and ubiquitous computing and self organizing systems, Dylan Collins, Founder of Fight My Monster and previously Demonware and JOLT and Michael John Gorman, the Founding Director of Science Gallery and Adjunct Professor of Creative Technologies at Trinity College Dublin.

How to submit a proposal:

To submit your proposal, please follow the link the submissions page:http://opencall.sciencegallery.com/

If you need any help, please email help@sciencegallery.com.

About Science Gallery

Science Gallery (www.sciencegallery.com) is a dynamic new model for public engagement at the interface between science and the arts which has rapidly achieved significant international profile since its launch in Dublin in 2008. Science Gallery is an initiative of Trinity College Dublin with support from the Wellcome Trust, our Science Circle of Dell, Google, ICON, NTR Foundation, and PACCAR.  Science Gallery is also supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Science Foundation Ireland.  Sponsors during 2012 include Intel, IBM and Dublin City Council.

Since opening in 2008 it has attracted almost 1,000,000 visitors.

Attracting a core audience of young adults aged 15-25 from diverse backgrounds Science Gallery ignites a passion for creativity through engaging, dynamic exhibitions and events on major themes ranging from music and the body, and the future of water to the future of cities.

These programmes bring science and technology into dialogue with art and design, and give young adults a taste of the excitement of cutting-edge research and innovation in a stimulating sociable environment.

Five factors distinguish Science Gallery from existing models of public engagement with science and technology, including science centers and museums:

1. Our flexibility – five dynamic, changing programmes per year, with no permanent exhibition;
2. Our focus on 15 – 25 year olds as our core target audience bridging high school, university and early stage career;
3. Our open call process – Science Gallery crowd-sources its installations and events on broad themes linking science, technology and the arts;
4. Our fresh approach to connecting the university and the city –  bringing university research groups, staff and students into dialogue with the arts and creative community and the public; and
5. Our Leonardo Group – 50 inspirational individuals drawn from the local creative community of scientists, artists, engineers and entrepreneurs who feed ideas into the development of Science Gallery exhibitions and events.

Following the success of Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin and significant international interest in this new model of engaging young adults with science, technology and innovation, we received seed support of €1M from Google to launch the Global Science Gallery Network (GSGN), in partnership with leading universities located in urban centres worldwide, with the goal of establishing eight Science Galleries worldwide by 2020.

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