This Event of the 'Embracing Complexity in Design II' Research Cluster was part of the UK AHRC and EPSRC Research Initiative 'Designing for the 21st Century'.

MAGIC in COMPLEXITY comprised a Symposium and Serendipity Syndicate workshops, with inter-disciplinary participation, Keynote presentations, and a Networking Soiree. Hosted on the Friday 23rd February by the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute in its MAGIC (Multimedia & Games Innovation Centre) studios, at the Docklands Campus of the University of East London, it involved intellectual academic exchange between researchers and practitioners dealing with complexity theory.

This event brought together members of the ECiD2 Cluster in the Designing for the 21st Century Network, along with practice-based researchers from SMARTlab, including a number of international practice-based PhD students, and another cohort of NESTA fellows attached to the SMARTlab-NESTA Legacy Projects Scheme. It explored emergent directions in design research concerning the arts with particular focus on digital games design. Many designs increasingly involve dynamic performances associated with products and systems. Complexity science aims to understand complexities of such situations yet only fairly recently have the disciplines of Art and Science come together to design new gaming models. There is now an emerging recognition that designers in the dynamic arts, such as in game design and interactive art, often deal with complexity and can offer insights into practical applications of complexity theories.

The Event aims to contribute to the ECiD II Research supported by the AHRC/EPSRC and make connections between theory and practice.

Click on the 'hot-text' in the MENU BAR at the top of the page for details.
(PowerPoint slides shows, pdf notes, photos and video clips will be available in due course.)