Using Game Aesthetics to Explore the Affective Atmosphere of School Buildings

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 7:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: The Power of Collaborative Research: Co-Contstructing Inquiries, Worlds, and Realities

Abstract

This paper reports on an interdisciplinary project, collaborating with practitioners in architecture, which explored the affective atmosphere in NYC school buildings. Our methods combine sensory ethnographic data collection with game design and software experiments. Our work is framed by theories of spatial justice and investigative aesthetics. We show how architectural research methods for investigating learning environments can be integrated into qualitative research, to increase our understanding of the socio-emotional life of school buildings. Using speculative models of the school generated in software experiments, and workshops with students navigating such models, we argue that the digital game aesthetic — with its specific way of playing to fantasy and hidden forces — helped make visible and known the affective atmosphere of the school building.

Authors

• Elizabeth De Freitas, Adelphi University

• Matthew X. Curinga, Adelphi University