2026
Conference Overview
The inaugural Playing Futures conference will establish our community of researchers, practitioners, and thinkers exploring the role of play during and after the climate catastrophe
Information
- Date: May 20th-22nd 2026
- Location: Literaturhaus - Map
- Format: In-person & Remote
- Information about the review and acceptance/rejection process
Registration Information
Registration information will be available soon. We will have a limited number of seats (around 75), so registration is required.
The conference is free to attend thanks to the support from the IT University of Copenhagen
Practical Information regarding travel, hotel, transport.
Program (Preliminary)
Conference Schedule
Day 1
| Time | Title | Speaker | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:30 – 10:30 | Keynote: Twin transition and other kinship metaphors | Steffen Dalsgaard | Professor, Center for Climate IT, IT University of Copenhagen |
| 10:30 – 10:40 | Break | ||
| 10:40 – 11:20 | The Paradox of Scale: Stellaris and the (Im)Possibility of Transcending Anthropocentrism This | Hans Joachim Løvind Backe | Theory |
| 11:20 – 11:30 | Break | ||
| 11:30 – 12:10 | Growing up in the post-apocalypse. Coming-of-age imaginaries of ecology and climate crisis in Horizon Zero Dawn and Caravan Sandwitch. | Violeta Moldes-Rivas | Theory |
| 12:10 – 12:20 | Break | ||
| 12:20 – 13:00 | Sentient Others at the Edge: Precautionary Play in Ecocritical Games | Udbela Escanero Xi | Theory |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch | ||
| 14:00 – 14:40 | Striving for Tomorrow: A Study of Agency in Post-Catastrophic Videogames | Elle Fieggen | Theory |
| 14:40 – 14:50 | Break | ||
| 14:50 – 15:30 | Playing Displacement: The Aesthetics of Climate Mobility in Video Game Futures | Alejandra Rosales-Diaz & Aida Navarro-Redón | Theory |
| 15:30 – 15:40 | Break | ||
| 15:40 – 16:20 | Videogames in the Anthropocene: Rethinking the scalability of play | Paolo Ruffino | Theory |
Day 2
| Time | Title | Speaker | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 – 10:40 | Sustainable Futures in Videogames Toolkit | Niva Kay | Theory |
| 10:40 – 10:50 | Break | ||
| 10:50 – 11:30 | Grow Still: A game poem | Heather Kelley | Interactive work |
| 11:30 – 11:40 | Break | ||
| 11:40 – 12:20 | Daybreak: a possitopian game to imagine post-capitalist futures | Matteo Menapace | Interactive Work |
| 12:20 – 12:30 | Break | ||
| 12:30 – 13:10 | The Unknown Realms of Mycelium: Mycelial logics and more-than-human in critical board game design. | Adrián Brito & Debashree Chatterjee & Ilana Mallak | Interactive work |
| 13:10 – 14:10 | Lunch | ||
| 14:10 – 14:50 | M*55 | Cindy Poremba | Interactive work |
| 14:50 – 15:00 | Break | ||
| 15:00 – 15:40 | Sandcastles | Patrick Smith | Interactive work |
| 15:40 – 15:50 | Break | ||
| 15:50 – 16:30 | We have never been ecomodern | Bart Simon & Darren Wershler & Rosie MacDonald & Shahrom Ali & Maia Earl | Theory |
| 16:30 – 16:40 | Break | ||
| 16:40 – 17:40 | Keynote: What is and is not possible in a society without fossil fuels? | Patrick Chuang | Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences, UC Santa Cruz |
| 17:40 – 18:00 | Closing Remarks |
Day 3
Workshop facilitated by Dr. Patrick Prax
“Systemic Sustainability starts where you are right now!” – A Workshop for the Exploration of Pathways towards Systemic Sustainability in and through Games
Strategize and plan how your decentralized sustainability work fits into the larger frame of systemic change of game making and design. Based on the newly released book “The Game Needs to Change - Towards Sustainable Game Design”, Patrick Prax presents what this goal of systemic sustainability in games looks like and offers one vision for a path towards it. We discuss how games are positioned right in the centre of the material and discursive exploitation of the planet and her resources and then consider how we can turn this position into a strategic advantage and use it to work for systemic change. This change needs to start local and at the fringes but ultimately must have the possibility to re-make the ways in which we produce games. You will then work in groups to imagine and plan this pathway based on your diverse starting points and individual situations and affordances to outline collective and material goals. In the end, we will put your perspectives together and share strategies with each other. Maybe we can even get something started right there and then.
Schedule
10:00 – 13:30
10:00 -10:45 What is meaningful sustainability in/through Games? How can we counter greenwashing and work for systemic change, but also start right here where we are?
Break
11:00 - 11:45 Group work: In groups based on location and game type, we plan both long-term collective sustainability goals that will be our guiding star, and actions that we can take right now to get started.
Break
12:00 -12:40 Presentation and exchange: Groups present their thought and goals. We learn from each other and decide which initiatives we would support to move forward with our time and resources.
12:40 -13:00 Finishing remarks and future work together
Keynotes
Day 1
Steffen Dalsgaard, Professor, Head of the Center for Climate IT, IT University of Copenhagen
Twin transition and other kinship metaphors
Abstract: A recent popular term within EU jargon is that of ’Twin Transition’. The term is one way to address in policy the hoped for alignment of the processes of digitalisation and green transition. The paper explores the origin, meanings and controversies over this term, and it discusses how well (or not) it represents the actualised relation between the latter two processes. Overall, the argument is that the term can be seen as an attempt to create a performative relationship (in the sense advocated by Michel Callon and other STS-scholars), yet to understand its appeal we should more likely treat it as a fantasy (in the sense used by Slavoj Zizek). Drawing inspiration from a classic anthropological debate on how statements reflect the social and natural world, the presentation will both try to take the use of the term seriously, but also propose a more accurate kinship metaphor - that digitalisation and green transition is rather a ‘marriage of convenience’.
Day 2
Patrick Y. Chuang, Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences, UC Santa Cruz
What is and is not possible in a society without fossil fuels?
Abstract: Human society will change profoundly after fossil fuels are phased out. Since society will inevitably be restructured due to this energy transition, how should this new society be structured? In other words, how can we design this new society in a way that avoids planned obsolescence, which, in retrospect, is how present-day society is designed? In this talk, we will explore which versions of this future society are and are not plausible within the boundaries of a finite planet.
Contact
For specific questions about Playing Futures 2026, contact us