Designing a playful experience with critical board games

Games are a reflection of societal values, aspirations, and struggles—making them powerful tools for critical engagement. This workshop provides an opportunity to develop design skills while tackling contemporary issues through playfulness, storytelling, and interaction. Participants will gain hands-on experience in integrating game mechanics, visual communication, and narrativity into an engaging design project in the form of a board game. 

By the end of the workshop, we aim to inspire participants to recognize the potential of game design as an apparatus for activism. We want them to see games not only as entertainment but as powerful tools for discussion, proposing alternatives, and encouraging collective reimagination of the world we live in.

Tereza Ruller (she/her) identifies as a mother, a communication designer, and an educator. In her practice

—The Rodina— she investigates the performative and critical approach toward communication design. Her transdisciplinary approach emphasizes the power of playfulness, active spectatorship, and relations between human and nonhuman actors. Ruller’s work thrives in the cultural context, weaving together participatory events, spatial installations, virtual environments, and visual identities. 

Engaging with the ecological and social issues of our time, she seeks to foster collective reimagination and to embrace the interdependence that defines our shared world. Tereza Ruller is a professor of Communication Design and Digital Practices at HfG Karlsruhe and Critical Narratives tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven.

Explore how to better apply design and storytelling to shape strategy, systems, and public conversations.

The way we imagine the future shapes how it unfolds. From the worlds of film, media, and entertainment, we’ve seen how visions of the future can shift expectations and inspire action. Design plays a similar role today — not just creating functional solutions, but visualizing paths forward that feel real, relatable, and within reach.

This workshop gives students the opportunity to contribute to this process. By working within the context of a high-speed train, students will create visual narratives that transform broad societal ambitions — like connected infrastructure, collective well-being, and sustainable growth — into clear, actionable ideas. By providing clear parameters for creative exploration, the course encourages deeper thinking, sharper design concepts, and more refined outcomes.

Kaave Pour is a creative entrepreneur and the founder of several ventures focused on reimagining the future through design, policy, and collaboration. Previously, he was the co-founder, CEO, and Creative Director of SPACE10, the acclaimed R&D lab known for its pioneering design explorations in partnership with IKEA, Apple, and MIT.

Kaave also leads Sun-Sun, a venture focused on rethinking the home through thoughtful design and technology. His work spans design, culture, and innovation, with a focus on ideas that create new possibilities for how we live, work, and connect. As Chair of the Danish Design Awards, he advocates for design as a way to create thoughtful, tangible impact on how we live and interact with the world.

Where does “AI” end and “we” begin? Artist and researcher Sougwen Chung’s ever-evolving work in human and machine collaboration builds upon a decade-long international journey. Starting with a simple line, the process has led to interdisciplinary insights, philosophical inquiry, and technological invention through pioneering artistic practice. Intertwining perspectives in art and science, Chung’s practice envisions alternative futures for the relationship of humans and machines. “Embracing contradictions in art and research can pave the way to a third path, inspired by tradition and the development of new hybridities,” Chung says.

Sougwen 愫君 Chung is a Chinese-Canadian artist and (re)searcher based in London. Chung’s work explores the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the dynamics of humans and systems. Chung is a former research fellow at MIT’s Media Lab and a pioneer in the field of human-machine collaboration. Sougwen’s work MEMORY is part of the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and is the first AI model to be collected by a major institution. Recently, Chung was recognized as a Cultural Leader at the World Economic Forum, one of four recipients of the TIME100 Impact award, and named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI.

Scilicet is a studio exploring collaboration; engaging modes of sensing and mark-making between the human and machine, organic and synthetic, and improvisational and computational.

Founded by artist and researcher Sougwen Chung, Scilicet pioneers interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and robotic technologies, with a focus on experimentation, invention, and care.

By engaging technology not as a tool but as a collaborator, Scilicet develops configurations of human and machine beyond automation. We explore these ideas through installations, performances, experiences, and artefacts.

What can we learn from Ray & Charles Eames that might apply to the challenges we face today?

Ray & Charles Eames demonstrated—time and time again—design’s unique ability to address disparate clients’ needs, while finding ways to improve quality of life for all. What can we as designers and creatives learn from the Eameses that might apply to the challenges we face today?

Llisa Demetrios is the youngest granddaughter of iconic designers Charles & Ray Eames. She began her archiving career at the Mies van der Rohe Archive at MoMA in New York, and has since dedicated herself to extending her grandparents’ most important gifts to the world: their infinite curiosity and iterative design process. Her personal mission is to equip everyone with lessons of Charles & Ray so that anyone can use design to solve problems at all scales. Today, as Chief Curator at the Eames Institute, Llisa continues to share learnings from her legacy through exhibitions, events, and public tours at the new public space in Richmond.

Llisa Demetrios has spent decades caring for the Eames Collection and curating the Eames Ranch, initially alongside her mother, Lucia Eames, and now as Chief Curator alongside the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity team. Llisa loves welcoming guests, be they Eames aficionados or people entirely unfamiliar with design. Before the advent of the Institute, Llisa facilitated loans for “The World of Charles & Ray Eames” exhibition that started at the Barbican Centre in England in 2015 and continued to Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Michigan, and the Oakland Museum of California in February 2019. She is also a founding and current member of the Eames Foundation Board of Directors, which oversees the historic Eames House in Los Angeles, and also a shareholder of the Eames Office.

Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity

The overarching goal of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity is to unpack the way that Ray & Charles Eames worked, the way they infused their designs and lives with curiosity and discovery at every turn to solve problems at any scale. “We don’t do ‘art’ – we solve problems,” said Charles. Then he added “How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?” They demonstrated—time and time again—design’s unique ability to address disparate clients’ needs, while finding ways to improve quality of life for all.

Being able to share the legacy of Ray and Charles in this way, to showcase their incredible process and wide-angled vision of design, is the dream of a lifetime. Their boundless curiosity and relentless pursuit of solving problems in furniture, film, exhibits, architecture, and textiles is in the name of the Institute. The Institute aspires to be a home for curious problem-solvers, both on-line and on-land.  I hope the Institute’s efforts will help people find inspiration for solving problems in their own world.

Making data speak human

Designers across domains must increasingly engage with data. With the rise of AI, there is an opportunity to humanise data in innovative ways. In this presentation, I will introduce recent projects that explore these possibilities, ranging from an experimental tool translating energy forecasts into proverbs, to an internal application enhancing organisational efficiency. To bridge technology and human experience and decision making, data needs to speak human.

Yosuke Ushigome (yoh-skay oo-shee-goh-meh) is a London-based designer/technologist, currently working for Normally as Lead Interaction Designer. He works across disciplines with a focus on interaction design, digital prototyping, and futures research. For over 10 years, he has been involved in various R&D and visioning projects with organisations worldwide such as the NHS, Hitachi and Swarovski. He also writes about more equitable and sustainable ways we interact with technology on design publications such as Core77 and ICON magazine.

Normally unlocks the transformative potential of AI for clients, including IKEA, Google, Panasonic, and the NHS. We have a decade of experience at the intersection of human-centred design and AI engineering, applying AI to enhance operational efficiency and growth, and deliver innovative AI-enabled products and services

Tolaas has shown her projects in many museums and institutions including Museum of Modern Art, MOMA, New York; National Gallery of Victoria NGV, Melbourne; DIA Art Foundation, New York; CCA Singapore, Tate Modern London; Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai; MORI Museum, Tokyo. She has worked with universities such as MIT, Nanyang Technical, Tsinghua, Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford. She has built up several types of smell archives such as: Smell & Communication/ language; Smell & Coding, Smell & Anthropocene; Smell & Extinction; Smell & Sensory Ecology; Functional Smell Molecules. Tolaas’ collections of smell molecules; smell complex structures and smell para data from 1990 and ongoing are including up to 20,000 smell recording samples and formulas.

Smell Molecules are the Air’s Alphabet

How much of what we communicate is influenced by what we see? And what happens to our stories when sight is no longer an option?

How can we activate the hidden information in the air that surrounds us all? Air is a shared medium, connecting all living beings. Where there is air, there is life, and with life comes the language of smell. Air is both information and emotion in motion.

Could the details carried by smell molecules transform how we communicate? How can we engage with critical topics from an entirely new perspective through olfactory information? What if the essence of content could be revealed through smell, offering a new way of perceiving the past, present, and future?

Working with experts and scholars worldwide, I focus on developing a new approach to understanding, communicating, and displaying the chemistry of smell in diverse contexts. I capture smell molecules from various sources, analyze them, build precise databases, and create innovative ways to narrate their stories. These molecules reveal dimensions often overlooked.

The goal is to inspire a shift towards a more sensory-driven perception of the world. The transformative power of smell has shown me that change is not just possible—it is essential. Smell, deeply linked to emotion and memory, has a profound significance in human experience. Its connection to the amygdala-hippocampal complex enhances its ability to evoke emotions and memories, making it a powerful yet neglected tool for understanding life.

Life is everywhere and constant. We all breathe the same air, collectively shaping it. My work serves as a reminder of this shared reality.

Historical, sociological, and cultural influences have led us to neglect parts of our potential. Education is vital for reawakening these dormant capacities, tapping into our sensory abilities.

Smell unites us and kindles joy, which is often overlooked today. Across cultures, it enriches social rituals and gatherings, shaping human connections. In a world dominated by virtual and artificial intelligence, we must remember that our senses are our most advanced interface—intrinsically intelligent and grounding us in our humanity.

Our emotional depth distinguishes us from machines, and smell plays a central role in that.

The essence of life lies in reconnecting with our olfactory senses. Training this sense provides fresh perspectives on societal challenges and brings optimism. With growing global instability, recalibrating our communication and decision-making processes is more crucial than ever.

We need a sensory reboot—an approach to interpreting sensory inputs constructively. Engaging our sense of smell activates memories and emotions, fostering learning and action. Instead of being constantly online, we should strive to be “on-life,” rooted in genuine experiences. Addressing global challenges begins by reconnecting with our senses, cultivating tolerance, and rediscovering what it truly means to live.