Events

Welcome to listen what kind of master's theses our students in Game Studies have been working with this year. Lunch break around 12-13.

The event is free of charge and open for everyone.

Cyborg, Avatar, Virtual: An Explorative Playground of Hybrid Performance
Davide Giovanzana
 
This talk describes The Theatre of Unconsciousness: a research-based course that weaves together digital theatre, motion-capture acting, gaming environments, and the exploration of unconscious experience. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, the project embraces the cyborg—avatar, hybrid, technological monster—as a way to unlock new modes of storytelling that break free from classical narratives of loss and redemption. Instead, it invites alternative forms of presence, perception, and meaning to emerge.
 
Davide Giovanzana is a theatre director, theatre pedagogue, and researcher based in Helsinki. His work draws on physical theatre, mask performance, and object theatre. His most recent book, Performing Violence (Routledge), reconsiders the possibilities and limits of representing violence on stage. He is Honorary Professor at the Latvian Culture Academy, former Visiting Professor of Artistic Research at the Theatre Academy of Helsinki, and currently University Lecturer in Acting at Tampere University. He serves as Artistic Director of the Finnish theatre company Teatteri Metamorfoosi, which has performed widely in Finland and internationally.

Fault Lines of Science through Scientometric Approaches to Understand Knowledge Inequalities and Disciplinary Changes

How is scientific knowledge organised, who benefits from its current structure, and can we predict how it might change? The talk offers a journey through several connected ties of research in scientometrics and science of science (as well as science sociology), united by a socio-cultural concern with structural inequalities in global knowledge production. The research presented draws on large-scale bibliometric data and network-analytic methods, with the key objective to understand whether the dramatic expansion of international collaboration has translated into a more equitable distribution of intellectual recognition or whether “working together” and “being heard” remain fundamentally different things.
 
Gergely Ferenc Lendvai is a researcher in scientometrics, network science, and science of science at Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest, where he also serves as Chief Reference Officer at the Science Strategy Office. He holds a JD from ELTE Budapest and an M1 in French and International Law from Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2), and has completed his PhD in scientometrics, science policy, and network science (SSN) in 2026 at the Ludovika University of Public Service. His work focuses on the diffusion of scientific ideas, knowledge hierarchies, and structural inequalities in global and local Academia, with publications in outlets including Scientometrics, Journal of Informetrics, and Journal of Information Science. He is particularly interested in science policy and science regulation with special attention to research funding. He has held research fellowships at the University of Richmond, CAIS Bochum, the University of Milan, and the Digital Authoritarianism Research Lab, and has presented at conferences across Europe, the Americas, and Australia.

The event is open for everyone and free of charge. Welcome!

The Role of Tax in Driving Game Development: Lessons from Ireland and Finland
Maria O’Brien
 
Both Ireland and Finland support game dev, but in different ways. The games industries are seen as important for multiple reasons, as scaleable tech-driven industries, source of job creation and as cultural forms. The types of tax policies in place in different countries reflect the priorities of the respective governments. Ireland, like other countries in the EU, has introduced cultural tax incentives for the digital games sector. Finland takes a different approach with the use of research and development (R&D) tax credit regimes to support game dev. This talk compares various uses of the tax system to incentivise game dev, taking the Irish and the Finnish approaches to compare and contrast the form, impact and evaluation of these systems.
 
Dr Maria O’Brien is lecturer in taxation in the School of Law and the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at the University of Galway. Her research brings together law and political economy perspectives on the intersection of taxation and the cultural and creative industries. Her recently published book on Ireland’s tax incentives for creative industries looks at the impact of the film and digital games tax incentive regime within the wider context of EU policy.

A group of university staff and student will take some photos around OASIS during these hours. The space is still normally open.

Organized by Jasmin Heinänen & Jonne Renvall

This talk by Professor Marcus Foth from Queensland University of Technology examines how community groups are beginning to appropriate generative AI and data-driven tools not as instruments of efficiency or automation, but as infrastructures for democratic engagement, social learning, and sustainability advocacy.