FROG Crossroads 2021

UPDATE: Due to the new Covid-19 regulation in Austria, we sadly had to cancel the FROG Crossroads event. Instead, the FROG online conference will now take place on two days, Nov 26th & Nov 27th 2021. We still hope to host a FROG Crossroads event with you in the near future!

///

What’s it all about: 

Let’s be honest: when was the last time you sat down with colleagues outside your institution to put your heads together and consider the pressing issues of our field, those that deserve a bit more attention than our busy schedules usually accommodate? To ask what kinds of games, research or other game-related projects the world will need most urgently over the next few years? And to think about whom you would want to involve when following through with such projects? 

FROG crossroads is an attempt to re-capture and expand on what made the conferences of the not so distant but socially not so distanced past so great, and what we are at the verge of losing in the age and comfort of online conferences (even though we might need it now more than ever). FROG crossroads takes place in the real world. It is a non-hybrid, analogue, offline event that brings people together in an actual physical location (adherence to COVID-related social distancing measures notwithstanding). This year, it takes place in Vienna (though we might also broach the issue of future locations), and whoever can make the trip is wholeheartedly welcome. 

FROG crossroads is an opportunity to meet like-minded colleagues from the field of game studies, game creation and game activism in a casual, but engaging setting (think game jam for more than games). Together, we will uncover what we miss the most in current games discourses and practice; we will sketch project ideas to counter this absence; and we will loosely form new collaborations to make these ideas a possible reality – projects that can cover everything from research to game design to social events and more. Instead of strict agreements and formalizations, FROG crossroads aims at the quick and dirty sketching of possibilities, at playing around with loose associations, and at bonding over promising (or simply fun) ideas. Those who wish to showcase ideas will have the opportunity to present them at next day’s FROG 2021 Online Conference. And as a gateway to future exchange, participants of the FROG crossroads will be involved in the first brainstorming for next year’s FROG conference theme.  

FROG crossroads is an experiment. It takes place the first time this year, and together, we will see if there will be other crossroads events in the future. We want to start with one possible vision for these events and find out what other possibilities come to our collective minds. And we will invent, try out and adapt various formats to make these events joyful, productive and transformative, for ourselves, our collaborations, and our field. 

After all, a crossroads is a place where paths cross, but also where we decide in what direction we want to go next. Boldly. 


FROG Crossroads 
November, 26th 2021 
10:00 – open end 

Location:  
Premises of the Medien-Jugend-Info (MJI) 
Untere Donaustraße 13-15 
1020 Vienna 

Open to anyone who wants to engage in a fruitful, lively, and creative dialogue in and around the field of Game Studies / Game Making / Game Activism.