“PLAYING ART”

Since 2007, FROG has brought together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines to discuss key questions in game studies and game development, to reflect on the significance of play for society, culture, education, and democratic participation, and to jointly explore the future and realities of gaming. With the 20th edition, FROG enters a new chapter at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna: for the first time, the conference will be hosted by an Austrian museum and complemented by a preceding game jam series. For several years, the Belvedere has been engaging with games as a contemporary form of art and knowledge transfer, fostering experimental approaches between collection, digital culture and participation, making it an ideal partner for FROG and further strengthening Vienna as an important meeting point for international discourse on games, culture and education.

Under the theme “PLAYING ART” FROG 2026 explores the relationship between art and play as a contemporary cultural practice and asks how art can be experienced, interpreted, and made accessible through playful formats – and how games themselves operate as independent forms of cultural expression. A central focus lies on the translation of artworks, collections, and curatorial narratives into playful systems, interactive environments, and game design logics. Particular attention is given to the creative reuse of digital cultural heritage data. As museums increasingly invest in the digitization and public availability of their collections, new opportunities emerge to use these resources as the foundation for innovative forms of interactive and playful cultural mediation. Developing such formats requires interdisciplinary collaboration between cultural heritage institutions, researchers, educators, game designers and developers. FROG 2026 aims to strengthen these connections and provide a platform for networking, knowledge exchange and future collaborations.

When art is transferred into game worlds, not only the form of mediation changes, but also the roles of all participants: audiences become active players, artists and game designers become creators of experiential spaces, and cultural institutions become platforms for participatory, democratic, process-based, and non-linear forms of knowledge production. Art is not only viewed, but played, rethought, modified, and recontextualized. This creates significant potential for new approaches to art, particularly for young people, by reaching them directly within their everyday lives shaped by digital and analog play. Playful formats enable audiences to actively explore, experiment with, and collectively experience art, opening new personal and collective forms of engagement. In this way, they have the potential to support critical thinking, media literacy and participatory forms of cultural engagement. At the same time, FROG 2026 highlights that playful approaches to art are never neutral. They are designed – and therefore limited. Questions of access and accessibility, platform logics, technical frameworks, and cultural responsibility are as central as the role of museums, collections, and curatorial decisions in playful mediation formats.

FROG 2026 invites scholars from various disciplines, educators, artists, curators, game designers, and developers to discuss these questions together and to present their research, projects, concepts, and critical perspectives on “PLAYING ART” at the conference.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

From Artwork to Game System – How Artworks, Collections and Exhibitions Become Playable Worlds: How can artworks and museum narratives be translated into game mechanics, interactive storytelling and playable environments? What happens when curatorial practice meets game design? Which methods, tools and case studies explore the transformation of art into game systems? How can digitized collections and cultural heritage datasets be creatively reused as resources for game design and interactive cultural experiences?
When Games Become Art – Experimental Game-Making as Cultural and Artistic Practice: How do games function as artistic media and critical cultural expression? What happens when artistic practice adopts game engines, mechanics and participatory design? How do authorship, aesthetics and co-creation change when art is designed to be played?
Playing the Museum – Participation, Platforms and Co-Creation with Audiences: How do playful formats reshape the relationship between institutions and audiences? What forms of user participation, co-creation and democratic cultural engagement emerge in playful cultural contexts? How can museums become spaces for participatory and community-driven play?
Understanding Art Through Play – Game-based Mediation in Museums, Schools and Informal Contexts: How can games create new ways of learning with and about art? How can playful approaches to art foster cultural literacy and democratic forms of cultural participation, especially for young audiences? Which educational frameworks, projects and research explore game-based mediation of art?
Designing Access – Inclusion, Platform Logics and the Politics of Playful Cultural Spaces: How are playful cultural experiences shaped by questions of accessibility, inclusion and technical infrastructures? What role do platform logics and digital economies play in shaping access to art through games? Which ethical and institutional responsibilities arise when art becomes playable?
Producing PLAYING ART – Collaboration Between Museums, Academia and Game Development: How can interdisciplinary collaboration enable playful cultural production? What can we learn from game jams, experimental formats and cross-sector partnerships? Which skills, competencies and forms of collaboration are required for museums and cultural institutions to successfully develop game-based formats? How can conferences, game jams and collaborative networks foster sustainable partnerships between museums, academia and the games industry? How are cultural institutions redefining their role within game culture?

Submission & Deadlines

Please submit your abstract via this form.

Contributions to FROG 2026 can be submitted for the following formats:

Option 1: on-site talk (20min presentation + Q&A)
Option 2: video talk (20-30min video presentation + 3min teaser video) Please note: The submission deadline for the finished videos is November 1st, 2026. The videos will be included in the FROG YouTube playlist. Together with the video, a 3-minute teaser of the video talk is to be submitted. This will be played in front of the audience at the conference. Further instructions will follow with the acceptance notification.

Important Dates:

Submission deadline: 15 September 2026
Notification of acceptance: end of September / early October 2026

Conference Dates: 20-22 November 2026 (All talks will be scheduled either 21 or 22 November. The 20 November is dedicated to the game jam presentations.)

Submission includes:

title of your presentation
short abstract (200 – 350 words)
short bio (max 100 words) and photo of the author

Conference language: English
Participation is free of charge.