Exploring the Physical Future of Digital Games: Heather Kelley's Keynote at SBGames 2024
Heather Kelley
Heather Kelley from Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center gave a keynote address at SBGames 2024, Latin America’s premier academic conference on games and digital entertainment. Kelley's talk, titled "The Physical Future of Digital Games," delved into the evolving relationship between the physical and virtual worlds within the gaming industry.
SBGames, hosted this year by the State University of Amazonas in Manaus, Brazil, has consistently drawn diverse participants from across Latin America and beyond. It serves as a nexus for professors, researchers, students, and entrepreneurs passionate about games as both subjects of study and products of innovation.
Heather Kelley's career is marked by a pioneering spirit in game design, media art, and sensory integration. As an Associate Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, Kelley brings expertise to her role, exploring how games can transcend traditional sensory boundaries to engage touch, smell, movement, sound, and even nervous system responses.
There is increasing concern about the effects of prolonged digital media use on teens and adolescents, particularly regarding the development of depression and anxiety. (Image: Alexander Jawfox/Unsplash)
Kelley's keynote abstract, "Behind the Eyes: The Physical Future of Digital Games," challenges the conventional notion that digital gaming primarily caters to sight and sound. Instead, she advocates for a more holistic approach that includes other senses, arguing that these sensory modalities can evoke more profound emotional responses and connections. This shift, Kelley suggests, is not merely about commercial novelty but about enriching the gaming experience and addressing broader societal concerns regarding digital immersion and its potential drawbacks.
Kelley raises pertinent questions about the role of game designers in fostering a more balanced engagement with technology. She posits that creators are responsible for leveraging gaming tools to reconnect players with themselves and their environment rather than further distancing them. This perspective is timely amid growing awareness of prolonged digital interaction's psychological and physiological impacts.