"One
might argue that the extension of play into all kinds of non-gaming contexts
leads to an over-accumulation of play. This is to suggest that play loses
its liberating dynamics and becomes characterised by a quantitative increase
of games and gaming, to a point of saturation. A situation could arise
where the system’s capacity to cope with further increase of playfulness
is exhausted. This might lead to a qualitative leap that turns diversity
into totality, and free play into total play. As a perversion of the original
play drive that is sensuous, liberating and free, a model of total gamification
could be prefigured by a conception of games as the new normal."
(Fuchs, 2015)
Musician, Game Artist, Senior Researcher
Mathias Fuchs (20/10/1956)
Mathias Fuchs studied computer science and composition in Erlangen, Vienna (University of Technology and the Music Academy) and in Stockholm (EMS Fylkingen). In 2010 he obtained his PhD at Humboldt University, Berlin with a dissertation on musical semantics.
Mathias worked as a lecturer and researcher at University of Applied Arts and the Music Academy in Vienna, at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and at the University of Salford in Manchester, UK, where he developed and headed three Master’s level programmes. He has pioneered in the field of artistic use of games and is a leading theoretician on Games Studies. From 2012 to 2015 he held a professorship at Leuphana University, where he directed the research project „Art & Civic Media“ and founded the Gamification Lab. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at the „Institute of Advanced Study on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation“ (mecs) in Lüneburg/ Germany.
His most recent publications are:
• Fuchs, M. (2015) Diversity of Play (Ed.) meson press, Lüneburg 2015
• Fuchs, M. (2014) Predigital Precursors of Gamification. In: Mathias Fuchs, Sonia Fizek, Paolo Ruffino, Niklas Schrape (Eds.): Rethinking Gamification. meson press, Lüneburg 2014
... complete list of publications
Mathias presented sound art and media installations in Vienna, London, Mexico City, Tokyo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Norwich, London, Cairo, Vancouver, Paris, and Providence. Commissioned work for ISEA94 and ISEA2004, resfest, ars electronica, PSi #11, futuresonic, EAST, the Greenwich Millennium Dome. Creative games for museums, urban planning and theatre performances.
... complete list of artwork and performances
 |
(Fuchs, performance shot at pergames conference in Salzburg, 2007) |
Documents for Download
short c.v.
1978 - 1984 Studies in computer
science at Technical University Vienna
and of Electroacoustic Composition at Music Academy Vienna.
1988 - 1989 Research Fellowship at Electronic Music Studios in Stockholm.
1989 - 2001 Lecturer at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the
University of Music and the University for Art & Design in Linz.
2001 - 2002 Visiting professor for music and media at Sibelius Academy
Helsinki, Finland.
2002 - 2012 Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for MA Creative Technology
at Salford University in Manchester.
2005 - 2012 Programme Leader for MSc Creative Games at Salford University.
2011 - 2012 Visiting Professor at the University of Potsdam
2012 - 2015 Prof. for "Art & Civic Media" at the Centre
for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University, Lüneburg.
2015 - 2016 Senior Research Fellow at the „Institute of Advanced
Study on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation“ (mecs) in Lüneburg/ Germany.
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