Bodies in Play

"Bodies in Play" presents an extended abstract for a Canadian feminist research-creation project based at OCAD University, which uses games and play to co-create knowledge toward more inclusive embodied design practices in the creative technology sector. The authors argue that bodies have been persistently deprioritized in technology development, and they position play as a method for surfacing the embodied experiences of people most often excluded from design processes. The central questions concern how wearable technology and virtual reality can create new contexts for embodied play, and how equity-seeking groups might use these technologies to imagine interactions that better reflect their own bodies and identities.

The methodological core of the project is a participatory framework combining Feminist Action Research with principles from design justice and critical making. Its formal structure consists of three cycles of hybrid public game jams, held in-person and online and linked to a residency program, focused respectively on wearable technology and virtual reality. Participants employ "game sketching," an experimental approach to game-making that explores available materials, to prototype new interfaces and interaction paradigms for diverse bodies. The authors also describe supporting methods, including Discord-based ideation games with live illustration and persistent online skills resources for future participants.

The document is primarily descriptive and reports progress rather than final results, so it offers no quantitative findings, sample sizes, or evaluative outcomes. Its contribution is conceptual and methodological: it documents emergent approaches for reaching multiple audiences across academic and community settings, and it seeks to bring embodied expressive interfaces into the focus of game studies scholarship. The work is framed as ongoing, with the stated aim of advancing a more equitable technological future.