Ben Kirman

My background is in creative technologies: before joining academia I worked designing and developing digital prototypes for a wide range of clients including the BBC, Philips, Telecom Italia, the NHS, Honda and many others in the digital media industries. These prototypes included games, interactive TV, rich web apps, mobile apps, and interactive art.

In 2006 I joined the EU FP6 PASION (Psychologically Augmented Social Interaction Over Networks) project to lead the game design and development thread, and from 2010 - 2015 worked as a Senior Lecturer in Game Design at the University of Lincoln, as Leader of the Computer Games Production programme. I joined the department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York in January 2016 to teach on the BSc in Interactive Media, and research in association with the Digital Creativity Labs (www.digitalcreativity.ac.uk).

My PhD was in social aspects of game play, and identified links between patterns of social interaction and game mechanics. In addition I have a BSc (Hons) in Software Engineering, MSc in Computer Games Technology, and a PGCE in Higher Education Teaching & Learning.