Mental Health | Atmospheres | Video Games

An exploration of the video game as an atmospheric medium questioning its impact on us and our mental health.

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany, working in the EU-funded project VIRTUALTIMES. His research focuses primarily on the temporality of video games from a formalist and cognitive-scientific perspective. He obtained his PhD at the Institute of Media Culture and Theatre of the University of Cologne and the Cologne Game Lab of the TH Köln in 2018 with his thesis »Time and Space in Video Games«.

Michael S. Debus conducted his PhD research as part of the Making Sense of Games project at the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen from 2016-2019. His research focuses on the analysis and synthesis of existing game ontologies into a clearer terminology for the study of games. He has published papers about the ontology of navigation in videogames and metagames.

Curtis L. Maughan is a PhD candidate in the Department of German, Russian and East European Studies at Vanderbilt University. From 2016-2019, Curtis managed the Master's program in Game Development and Research at the Cologne Game Lab. His research interests include surveillance and interactivity, narratology and digital games, and the novellas of Thomas Mann and Heinrich von Kleist. His dissertation project examines flanerie in the context of open world gameplay trends and game design practices.

Felix Zimmermann (Dr.) ist Referent für Games-Kultur, politische Bildung und Extremismus bei der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.