“… a cyborg culture’s fear, love, and confu­sion ..."

In this talk, Aska Mayer presents how digital game cultures provide spaces for the experience and critical reflection of human augmentation, the technological enhancement and modification of human capabilities. Connecting the simulation of augmentation in digital games, the use of human augmentation for games, and the real-life dynamics of human augmentation treated as games, this talk provides a perspective on games and play as a lens for critical technology studies.

Aska Mayer is a media-and-technology researcher, curator, and critical technologist based at the Game Research Lab of Tampere University (FI) and the Human-Centered Digital Design Lab of TU Munich (DE). Mayer’s current research is focused on the impact of augmentation technologies on practices and experiences of intimacy, DIY maker cultures, and the presence of game-like dynamics in technology development and marketing. Their dissertation “’Fear, Love, And Confusion.’ Making Sense of Human Augmentation through Game Cultures” is expected for publication in the end of 2026.