Co-Creation Workshop
We are currently developing a serious game on the topic of 5G, electromagnetic fields (“radiation”), and health. In the game, the players take on the role of Annika, a science communicator. Annika has to communicate with the public on what the science says about “5G and health”. One of the goals of the game is to have players experience the dilemma that Annika is in: Her audience wants to hear that mobile phone radiation and 5G are definitely safe. But science can’t prove absolute safety. The game will have more to it, but that’s one key aspects.
Goals and target group are in principle set, and a first prototype of the game (a “core game loop”) exists. However, we’re still at the beginning of developing this game, and many things can change.
Now imagine that at this point, you have 16 people in one room, playing and discussing the game and its foundations. 8 citizens who you have never seen before, who have travelled a long way from 6 different European countries and 8 people from your project, with different expertise in game design, science communication, and radiation. Imagine that you have a creative and exceptionally open atmosphere from the first to the last minute. That you have people voicing ideas from new angles that you hadn’t taken into account at all so far. And that none of the citizens gets paid for this, but still none of them leaves when the workshop is over (at least for the next hour…).
If you imagined all of this, then you have quite a good idea of what happened in our CO-CREATION WORKSHOP at IU Internationale Hochschule, Campus Munich on January 19 and 20. Surely, it is still a very long way to go, the road will be stony and so far we have raised more questions than we have answered. But we will work together on this for at least the next six months. Let’s keep this up.
MASSIVE THANKS for your exceptional contributions to the workshop:
Citizens Advisory Board: Ginevra Papi, Emily O’Connor, Aistė Kesminaitė-Jankauskienė, Ileana G. Rouchota, Daniel Rodríguez Urbano, Evita KOUGIANOU, Shukurgeldi Myradov, Ursula Hoppener
Organisation: Ferdinand Abacioglu
Game Design: IU-Thorsten Zimprich
Speakers from SEAWave project: Ljubica Zupunski, Christian Raupach, Jens Kuhne, Ferdinand Abacioglu,
Experts from SEAWave project: Maria Christopoulou, Panagiota Founta
Our host: IU Internationale Hochschule and Robert Landmann
Professor Christoph Böhmert was ecstatic: “This went far beyond what I had hoped for. It really crushed my expectations.”!
