Sabine Harrer

ISEA2016

My name is Sabine Harrer, and I am a games scholar, writer, and experimental game maker. I currently work as a faculty member of the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland. I’ve recently written a book called Games and Bereavement, and I’m a member of the Copenhagen Game Collective, an experimental collective creating and curating alternative games in the Nordic region.

In the past, I have worked as a lecturer in cultural studies and media/visual literacy at the university of Vienna, the IT University Copenhagen, and BTK Berlin. In my artistic and teaching praxis, as well as in my writing, I use videogames as a thing to reframe, challenge, and queer norms around desire and intimacy. For my PhD, I led the development of Overcoming, a game that has helped me review 20th century grief literature, and Jocoi which explores loss and attachment to dead babies. I’ve been co-designing games about what it’s like being a lapsed catholic, and how rocks, touch screens, and computer mice can participate in players’ erotic rituals.

I have presented on these topics internationally, at events like GDC San Francisco, Gotland Game Conference Visby, A.Maze Berlin, and DiGRA Game Studies Conference.