Bonn Lab for Analog Games and Imaginative Play
The Bonn Lab for Analog Games and Imaginative Play at the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft is an experimental laboratory for all activities related to (analog) games and play in the university context.
What is the Bonn Lab?
The Bonn Lab for Analog Games and Imaginative Play is a humanities research and teaching laboratory at the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft of the University of Bonn.
As a game lab, it is focused on the transformative potential of analog games in a digital world, with a particular interest in tools, toys, and theory for harnessing the imagination (see Montola/Stenros 2004).
Director: Prof. Dr. Adrian Hermann. Researchers and Staff: Petra Tillessen, Kathrin Fischer, Lina Burket.
TTRPG Conference 2024
In 2024, the Bonn Lab for Analog Games and Imaginative Play at the FIW hosted an international conference on “Agency, Analog Tabletop Role-Playing Games, and Asymmetrical Dependency” from May 24 to May 27, 2024.
The conference in Bonn – funded by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) and the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft (FIW) – was organized by Adrian Hermann (Bonn, FIW/BCDSS), Evan Torner (University of Cincinnati), and Emily Friedman (Auburn University). It built on recent philosophies of play that understand games as a “unique social technology” and method to “submerge ourselves in alternate agencies” (C.T. Nguyen).
More information on the conference can be found here.
Activities
The Bonn Lab for Analog Games and Imaginative Play is engaged in various research and teaching projects and activities focused on (analog) games and (imaginative) play. Some of these are described here:
Workshops and Lectures
- On 7 March 2024, the second meeting of the "Game Labs an Hochschulen" network took place in Bonn, hosted by Bonn Lab and organized by Michael Mosel (Marburg) and Adrian Hermann.
- On 28 February 2024, Kathrin Fischer and Adrian Hermann, in cooperation with the Transfer Center enaCom of the University of Bonn (Dennis Daseking/Florentin Schmidt), organized the 1st network meeting and workshop of the Uni Bonn Games Community: "UniBonnSpielt - Spiele als Medium des Transfers".
- In February and March 2024 we held the first workshops on an exhibition project with Yulia Lokshina (February 3) and on an analog game project with scientists from the University of Groningen on the topic of "Microplastics" (March 8).
- On December 6, 2023, Adrian Hermann gave a lecture entitled "Religion, Games, and Imagination" at the Religion, Body, Media and Heritage seminar (Meertens Institute, Amsterdam), which placed the topic of the Bonn Lab in a broader cultural studies context.
Research Projects and Proposals
- Praktische Wege in die Religionswissenschaft: Vielfältige Spieledidaktik, nachhaltige Begegnungen und digital-gestützte Fachorientierung in der Studieneingangsphase – PI: Prof. Dr. Adrian Hermann, funded by the Strategiefonds Studium und Lehre of the University of Bonn in the program "Zukunftsorientierte Lehre: vielfältig.nachhaltig.digital – 2023-2026. The project will run from 1.10.2023–30.9.2026 (ca. 300.000 €).
- Zukunft erspielen: Das Innovationspotenzial von Tabletop-Rollenspielen in der Bildungsarbeit – Funding as part of the DATIpilot Innovationssprints of the BMBF, Project start probably 1.12.24 (ca. 80.000 €). Collaboration partner: EduTale (Kathrin Fischer)
- In January 2024, in cooperation with practice partners (Waldritter e.V., Anna Kpok, Bildungswerk interKultur), Adrian Hermann, Julia Stenzel (DFG Heisenberg Program) and Lasse Scherffig (TH Köln) submitted a proposal to the Volkswagen Foundation entitled "IMAGINEERING DEMOCRACIES: Analog Imaginative Play as a Transformative Method of Future Building" in the program "Transformational Knowledge on Democracies under Change" (proposed budget: 1,3 Mio. €).
Publications
-
Hermann, Adrian / Reininghaus, Gerrit (2021): Beyond the Character Sheet: ‘Character Keepers’ as Digital Play Aids in the Contemporary Indie TRPG Community. In: Japanese Journal of Analog Role-Playing Game Studies 2: 31–50.
-
Hermann, Adrian / Reininghaus, Gerrit (2021): Live Action Online Games (LAOGs) als Impulsgeber für die digitale Lehre. In: Hermann, Adrian (Hg.), Experimente mit digitaler Lehre. Überlegungen und Modelle jenseits einer Defizitperspektive. Bonn: FIW, S. 107-118.
-
Hermann Adrian / Tillessen, Petra (2021): Spielbeispiel: Von Pop! zu Bücherfreunde! zu KreatYve! In: Hermann,
Adrian (Hg.), Experimente mit digitaler Lehre. Überlegungen und Modelle jenseits einer Defizitperspektive. Bonn: FIW, S. 99-106. -
Tillessen, Petra (2021): Digitale Lehre – und alles nur Spielerei? In: Hermann, Adrian (Hg.), Experimente mit digitaler Lehre. Überlegungen und Modelle jenseits einer Defizitperspektive. Bonn: FIW, S. 85-97.
-
Hermann, Adrian/ Reininghaus, Gerrit (2023): Digital "Character Keepers" for Analog Games: Analyzing Online Play Aids in the Contemporary Indie TTRPG Community. In: Torner, Evan et al. (Hg.), Generation Analog 2021: Proceedings of the Tabletop Games and Education Conference. Pittsburgh: ETC Press, S. 155–169.
-
Hermann, Adrian (2023): Die Zukunft (er)spielen: Tabletop-Rollenspiele, Handlungsmacht und die Kunst des Spielens, in: Cornelia Richter, Andreas Odenthal (Hg.), Semantisierung in Zukunftsdiskursen: Theologische Analysen krisenbezogener Sprachbilder. Freiburg: Herder, S. 55–82.
The Bonn Lab for Analog Games and Imaginative Play also contributes to teaching at the University of Bonn. So far we have included game-based teaching elements in various seminars in the B.A. and M.A. programs in the Study of Religion (facilitated by Petra Tillessen) and offered the following semester-long courses: Vom Kriegsspielapparat zum Twitch-Stream: Transmediale Erzählkulturen des Tabletop-Rollenspiels in globaler Perspektive (WiSe 2020/21), Einführung in die Game Studies (SoSe 2021), Einführung in die Game Studies (WiSe 2023/24), Religion im/als Spiel - Mediale Vermittlungsformen von Religion(en) (SoSe 2024), Asien und Europa (er)spielen: Kultur und Religion im/als Spiel in Geschichte und Gegenwart (SoSe 2024), Philosophie und Anthropologie des Spielens (SoSe 2024)
Kontakt
Adrian Hermann
