Ludological Investigations
The Ludological Symposium is a Viennese affinity group investigating transdisciplinarily the cultural realm of play, games and simulations. It assembled spontaneaously in early 2024 and continues to grow by rejoining regularly to describe various game designs in terms of cultural techniques.
This concept received fundings and was turned into a INTRA-research project. Therefore a international workshop of game scholars and designers is held at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna: The Anatomy of Games, took place in May 2025, hosted by the Department of Experimental Game Cultures to discuss ventures into outlining a common object of research: Spiel/Ludus – not it’s psychology, sociology, philosophy, etc. So it is part of a feasibility study, that asks, whether a coherent Ludology is possible, eligible, how it operates and what the scientific community and society could expect from it.
This site documents the research process; thus it is itself a work in progress. As soon as we find the current state sufficiently presented, we will continue with our regular Symposion-meetings.
For now, please find
- a blog-post for each investigation down below (in German).
- a poster presentation for the Angewandte Research Days.
- a protocol and some gleanings of our Anatomy of Games Workshop.
As soon as available, please find further dates for meeting Ludological Symposium, as well as background information on the collective. This site continues now in German.
Was bisher geschah…
Hände schütteln (einigen), Astragli würfeln (losen), Bälle passen (werfen), Spielfiguren hinstellen (platzieren), Pokerchips verschieben (einsetzen), Würfelergebnisse spicken (verbergen), Puzzles lösen (zusammensetzen), Spielsteine horten (sammeln), Spielflächen kombinieren (kacheln), Railshooter spielen (schießen), Spielfeld verlassen (ausscheiden), Bausteine türmen (stapeln), Ergebnisse zählen (punkten), Masken aufsetzen (maskieren), Formulare eintragen (ausfüllen), Kartenhand sortieren (ordnen), Perlen auffädeln (mustern), Kombinationsräder einstellen (drehen), Sanduhren umdrehen (wenden), Entscheidungen treffen (auswählen), Spielzüge ausführen (ziehen), Schattenspiele aufführen (projizieren), Daumenkinos schauen (blättern), Eieruhren aufziehen (timen), Kartendecks mischen, …
