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PhD Defence Jeanette Falk Olesen

How Game Jams and Hackathons Accelerate Design Processes

Info about event

Time

Monday 8 March 2021,  at 10:00 - 13:00

Monday 8 March 2021 at 10:00 CEST Jeanette Falk Olesen, MSc, will be defending her dissertation.

 

The defence will be conducted online via Zoom. In order to attend the defence, please register here before  8 March 2021 at 08:00 CEST. You will receive an email shortly hereafter with information to logon to Zoom.

 

Assessment committee:

·     Jonas Fritsch, Associate Professor, Digital Design, IT University of Copenhagen

·     Kristina Höök, Professor, Division of Media Technology and Interaction Design, KTH Royal Institute of          Technology, Stockholm

·     Peter Dalsgaard, Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University (Chair)

 

Main supervisor:

·       Kim Halskov, Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University

Co-supervisor:

·       Rikke Toft Nørgård, Associate Professor, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University

 

The defence is public, and everybody is welcome; the defence, scheduled for a maximum of three hours, will be held in English.

 

The dissertation will be available to borrow for reading before the defence in a digital version. Please contact Jeanette Falk Olesen by email jfo@edu.au.dk this respect before before 4 March 2021 at 15:00 CEST.

Abstract

 

Game jams and hackathons are organised in many different contexts and for many different purposes as well, such as: internally in companies to spark new ideas; for fostering citizen innovation for municipalities; in cultural and governmental agencies; integral parts of education; entry points for developers wanting to enter especially the game industry. During the recent decade, game jams and hackathons have been introduced to academia as well, as formats for teaching and learning, and as research platforms. Only few research contributions engage with understanding how accelerated design processes in game jams and hackathons unfold, or how the organisation of game jam and hackathon formats influence these accelerated design processes. A proposition of my PhD project is that a meticulously developed understanding of how game jam and hackathon formats accelerate design processes can provide a base for advancing how the formats are adapted and organised for different purposes.

 

The main contributions of my PhD project are:

1)       Descriptive process-level knowledge, which contextualise and solidify how accelerated design processes unfold under the circumstances of a game jam and a hackathon.

2)       Overviews of how game jams have been organised for supporting participants’ creativity and of how hackathons have been used as means and as research focus within academia.

3)       Exploring how game jam and hackathon formats may be organised in order to support knowledge generation such as within academia, and in order to support creativity.