Workshops and tutorials will take place on 30th September 2024

WS1 – Aesthetics and Empowerment: Exploring AI-Driven Creativity

This workshop aims to investigate how AI transcends human limitations to inspire creativity and to uncover innovative approaches for leveraging AI to enhance creative processes while addressing potential risks. We anticipate stimulating discussions and collaborations on AI-driven creativity among researchers, practitioners, designers, artists, and industry professionals, with a specific focus on empowerment across various domains. This workshop will serve as a platform for sharing insights, exchanging ideas, and exploring new and emerging trends in this exciting field.

We are accommodating a specific track for this workshop. Contributions can be submitted on EasyChair following the same guidelines for regular papers and will be peer-reviewed. The accepted papers will be included of the conference proceedings.

Organizers:

Mengru Xue - Zhejiang University, Ningbo, 1 Xuefu Rd, Ningbo, China | Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang, Hangzhou, China

Cheng Yao - Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang, Hangzhou, China | Zhejiang University, Ningbo, 1 Xuefu Rd, Ningbo, China

Jun Hu – Eindhoven University of Technology, 5612 AZ Eindhoven, The Netherlands

WS2 - Game Accessibility Research Summit

Game accessibility has evolved significantly during the last decade, both in research and in industry. Progress includes accessible controllers, development kits, educational material, inclusive design processes and research about specific, often neglected groups such as deafblind gamers and people with cognitive disabilities. The Game Accessibility Conference gathers developers and researchers in presentations and discussions. Research conferences also enable ad hoc meetings and of course, individual researchers collaborate on specific topics in various research efforts.

The purpose of this focused full-day workshop is to have all peer researchers in the field working together, to identify gaps with opportunities and challenges to further advance game accessibility and inclusion in games. Thus, the workshop is open to all researchers and PhD students in the field of game accessibility, in a hybrid format to enable as many as possible to participate.

Main objectives of the workshop

The goals of the workshop are:

1. discuss submitted short abstracts from each participating researcher, student and/or research group.

2. outline research gaps with opportunities and challenges, including possible collaborations.

3. decide on a continuous academic forum format for advancing game accessibility research.

Workshop format

This is a full day workshop to have ample time for the following activities:

1. Introductions of attendees

2. Peer-review all submitted abstracts and discuss them

3. Identify intersections between research groups and efforts

4. Identify challenges and opportunities to collaborate on

5. Create a plan for potential collaborations

6. Decide when and where to have the next yearly summit

Participation

You can participate either onsite at ICEC or online during the workshop hours (local time for the conference).

Please note: To make this workshop as inclusive as possible for researchers on all levels (from students to professors), there is no peer-review process. However, to ensure a good workshop, the workshop organizers make a basic review checking the coherence and pertinence of the topic. This review and selection will be done within a week after the deadline.

Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract of 1-2 pages outlining your current research efforts, including references to your own work, no later than 30th August 2024.

Organizers:

Thomas Westin, Stockholm university, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Borgarfjordsgatan 12, Kista, Sweden

Jérome Dupire, Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM), 292 Rue Saint-Martin, Paris, France

Lizbeth Goodman, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

Esteban Clua, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Reitoria da UFF, Rua Miguel de Frias, 9 Icaraí Niterói - RJ

WS3 - III Workshop on XR Experiences for Entertainment and Industry (WXREEI)

This workshop intends to bring together researchers, developers, and anyone interested in the latest in entertainment and industrial uses of immersive technology. While these technologies are developing quickly, there are still many challenges that slow down investment in the entertainment field. The workshop will discuss how immersive technology is growing and what the future might hold for areas like immersive movies, video games, and simulations.

We are also excited to introduce the third edition of the IFIP ICEC XR Experiences, focusing on a range of extended reality (XR) interactions, from mixed and virtual to augmented realities. These XR experiences will cover a wide range of areas including gaming, storytelling, marketing, education, healthcare, and more, even reaching into new sectors like Industry 4.0.

We invite participants to share their research, especially if it involves some kind of interactive experience for users. It’s important for authors to explain what equipment will be needed to ensure users get the full experience. The most innovative and original projects will be highlighted at the IFIP ICEC 2024 Conference. The workshop extends an invitation to individuals actively involved in Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, Augmented Reality, and other immersive environments to partake in this academic workshop.

For the IFIP XR Experience contribution, all authors will submit a two-page abstract describing their demo together with a video demonstrating how it works. Only the video demo will be published in IFIP ICEC 2024 Youtube Channel. During the event, the authors are expected to present an interactive demonstration and it is worth suggesting bringing with you all equipment needed for that.

The abstract and the video (a YouTube link) must be sent, using the track IFIP ICEC 2024 – XR Experience and choose the Entertainment or Industry Track. The video should be on 1280×720 or better resolution, limited to 1:30 minutes. Each uploaded video on YouTube needs to be unlisted (unlisted videos and playlists can be seen and shared by anyone with the link. Your unlisted videos won’t appear in the Videos tab of your channel homepage).

Organizers:

Thiago Porcino - Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro - PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil

Esteban Clua, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Reitoria da UFF, Rua Miguel de Frias, 9 Icaraí Niterói - RJ

WS 4 - 1st IFIP Workshop on Interactive Storytelling in Extended Realities (IFIP-WISER)

The IFIP-WISER workshop invites presentations on all aspects of interactive storytelling in eXtended Realities (XR). Possible topics include (but are not limited to) adaptation of interactive storytelling techniques from other platforms to XR, the unique affordances of XR technologies and their relevance to interactive stories, narrative mechanics suited for XR, analysis of actual XR narrative experiences, presentations of original XR narrative works, and the use of XR interactive narratives in serious games (e.g., for learning or cultural heritage).

The aim of the workshop is to advance our understanding of interactive storytelling research in the specific medium of XR. The organizers expect that the discussions at the workshop will form the foundation of a journal paper, which the participants will be invited to co-author. Participants will give short presentations and participate in informal panel discussions on relevant topics of interest.

Organizers:

Prof. Mads Haahr, School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Prof. Edirlei Soares de Lima, Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands

WS 5 - Are Aesthetics and Accessibility Conflicting Aspects in Serious Games Design?

This workshop is a part of the long-term work in WG14.8 on serious games. The focus this year is on accessibility and aesthetics & multimedia usage.

The goals are twofold: On the one hand, we aim to shed light on the need for accessibility already during the design phase considering different user needs in the target group and still paying attention to appealing design and usage of multimedia input. On the other hand, we want to collaboratively identify suitable components and methods to facilitate this goal. The results will be disseminated via communication channels of the IFIP WG 14.8 “Serious Games”, such as the WG 14.8 webinar.

The workshop will alternate between several activities, including brief introductory talks on the topics of aesthetics, multi-media and accessibility. Collaborative brain-storming sessions in small groups and subsequent plenary sessions (including presentation of the results and discussion) provide the possibilities to share previous experience and devise new means to reuse and repurpose serious games and their components.

Organizers:

Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge - BIBA – Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik GmbH, 28359 Bremen, Germany | KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, 15181 Södertälje, Sweden

Erik van der Spek - Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513;5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Barbara Göbl - University of Vienna, Centre for Teacher Education, 1090 Vienna, Austria

Ioana A. Stefan - ATS, Targoviste, Romania

Heinrich Söbke - Hochschule Weserbergland, 31875 Hameln, Germany | Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Bauhaus-Institute for Infrastructure Solutions (b.is), 99423 Weimar, Germany

WS 6 - Ethics of Mixed Reality Entertainment

This workshop will explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the ethical implications of interactive locative entertainment services, games, and social media. We want to expand HCI situational ethics into locative media and augmented and mixed reality technologies. We are looking at developing an ongoing ethical framework to inform the design to avoid unintended consequences that these digital technologies generate (i.e., from anti-social behavior to dark tourism) and resolving legal questions about the duty of care of designers and the rights of creative stakeholders (artists and writers). Starting from the ethical responsibilities of place and people, we will explore how ethical frameworks can avoid physical trespass, respect cultural norms and heritage, safe passage, respect for social and psychological norms, and awareness of values embedded in narratives.

Researchers and practitioners working with interactive locative entertainment services, games, and social media are invited to participate in this workshop, sharing their ideas, case studies, and experiences. Participants will be asked to submit a short (between 2- and 5-pages) position paper on their ideas on a practical game, social media, or entertainment experience. All the participants’ position papers will be made available on the workshop website.

Participants will work solo or as self-assembled groups to tackle the creative challenge of developing a paper prototype of MR gaming ideas that challenge ethical issues and opportunities. At the end of the session, the participants will document and present their artifacts and discuss them in a plenary session. The documentation of the artifacts will be archived on the Workshop website, which is part of the LoGaCulture EU-funded project. Further iterations of the workshop will build on these initial efforts with possibilities to participate in future editions and potential journal special issues.

Additional information and more details about this workshop are available at the LoGA culture website.

Organizers:

Valentina Nisi - ITI/LARSyS, IST – U. Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Nuno Jardim Nunes - ITI/LARSyS, IST – U. Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Charlie Hargood - U. Southampton, Southampton, UK

David Millard - U. Bournemouth, Bournemouth, UK