Projects
Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Play
Dr. Sarah Stang
The “Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Play” research project is led by Dr. Sarah Stang and her collaborator Dr. Lauren Cruikshank from UNB. This project seeks to critically examine the complex intersection of motherhood and video game play, conducting a multifaceted analysis of the demographics and practices of reception and production. The objectives of this project are 1) to use survey data to assess how players and developers—with particular focus on those who identify as mothers—perceive pregnant and maternal characters in games as well as their experiences within game communities and the industry and 2) to conduct interviews with survey respondents who identified as mothers and indicated interest in being interviewed to gain deeper insight into the challenges faced by both players and developers as a method of pinpointing if, how, and where resistance and change are happening within both game communities and the mainstream and independent game industries.
Step 1 of this project is underway, and the survey data collection is complete. We received 230 responses and our next steps are to scrub and begin to analyse the data and contact potential interviewees. This project has been initially funded by Brock’s Research Initiative Award and Dr. Stang and Dr. Cruikshank have submitted an Insight Development Grant application to fund this project, and results will be announced in June 2025.
Related News and Events:
Dr. Stang organized and ran a feminist game jam called “The Mother of All Game Jams” at Brock University in February 2024 in which participants were tasked with using game design to explore the topic of motherhood, mothering, and maternal identity. Dr. Cruikshank organized and ran a sister motherhood game jam at UNB the following month. Both game jams were extremely successful and drew a diverse crowd of participants from all ages, backgrounds, and experience levels. These game jams resulted in the creation of many exciting and fun digital and analog games that all address the topic of motherhood, mothering, and maternal identity and mothering in various ways.
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Wordscape
Dr. Alex Christie
Project Website: https://www.wordscape.io/
Wordscape is an experimental data visualization tool designed from a Humanities perspective. Rather than being designed for a traditional mouse-and-keyboard interface, Wordscape is designed for spatial computing headsets and tracks a user’s hands as they walk around a room wearing a headset. The result is a spatially-aware research tool that blurs the distinction between data visualization and installation art. Users can see a 3D visualization of their data in the room with them; they can reshape and “sculpt” this data with their hands; finally, users can create their own unique “data sculptures” (Wordscapes) that communicate quantifiable trends and patterns in the textual data they have chosen to visualize. The result is a research tool that draws from technical methods in the Sciences (e.g. tokenization, text analysis) as well as artistic approaches in the Humanities (e.g cubism, situationism). Wordscape approaches data as a phenomenon users experience as tactile, embodied, and spatially-situated, even as they identify clear research findings based on that data’s visual appearance.
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