Pippin Barr

Curious Games

In this talk I introduce the notion of "curious games". Here, "curious" means inquisitive activity in opposition to a static aesthetic perspective or conventional interactions. A curious game may leverage conventions in some way, but is not obliged to adhere to them. A curious game may involve a kind of prying or meddling to the point of provocation. A curious game is for curious designers, but also for curious players. To push against the self-defined boundaries of conventional game design, we must not only talk about what video games are and can be, but must actively work to create games that move the conversation forward

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Barr is currently affiliated with the Institute of Digital Games at the University of Malta. He holds a PhD and an MSc in Computer Science from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) and he has taught courses in experimental interaction and programming for game designers at ITU Copenhagen. Barr's games have been featured in many online forums including Gamasutra, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Buzzfeed, The Verge, Killscreen, and Edge and he has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.