About Cnap
The Center for Non-Anthropocentric Play (CNAP) is a research group situated within Noroff University College's Interactive Media Department in Kristiansand, Norway.
Co-founded in 2021 by Dr. Erik Geslin and Dr. Filipe Pais, colleagues in the Interactive Media Department, CNAP emerged from their shared passions for ecology, nature, and play experiences. Dr. Geslin is an expert in game and VR/XR development, specializing in affective gaming, while Dr. Pais is a researcher in Interactive Arts and Design, with a particular focus on exploring the intersection of these fields with technological agendas and their impacts on nature, human behavior, and non-human entities.
As a response to the pressing need to rethink design in the post-Anthropocene, CNAP is dedicated to the cultivation of new social imaginaries in game experiences.
Our primary goal is to incorporate more-than-human worlds into the realm of play, addressing their often overlooked or misrepresented status in the gaming industry. Our interests transcend the confines of screens and traditional magic circles; we are equally committed to investigating and proposing design methodologies that account for the lives of all beings, including human minorities and marginalized groups, as well as non-human lifeforms. Our focus also extends to promote energy efficiency and reducing the carbon footprints associated with game development and usage.
In our pursuit of a non-anthropocentric approach to interactive games and play, our ultimate goal is to cultivate a profound understanding of the intricate relationship between humans and non-humans, with a measurable impact beyond the gaming realm. We envision play experiences that entertain while also embodying environmental responsibility, nurturing care, and inclusivity. To make this transformative journey possible, CNAP is committed to forming a diverse community, by inviting researchers, developers, and thinkers from an array of disciplines, ethnical backgrounds, genders, religions, and sexual orientations, as well as embracing the rich perspectives of indigenous peoples.
Team
DR. Erik Geslin
(PhD, Associate Professor, CNAP co-lead)
Dr. Erik Geslin is a researcher working at the intersection of cognition, neuroscience, and interactive media, with more than three decades of experience in AAA interactive media and immersive media industries across AAA, AA and XR technologies. After many years working in interactive media development, his work progressively shifted toward academic research focusing on the cognitive and emotional mechanisms underlying human–media interaction, including emotional design, flow, and user engagement.
Dr. Geslin holds a Ph.D. in Engineering specializing in cognition and neuroscience from ENSAM ParisTech, with a dissertation on the induction of emotions in interactive media and extended reality. He has collaborated with both industry and academia, contributing to emotional design research for productions such as Assassin’s Creed and Fated: The Silent Oath.
He is currently an Associate Professor and co-lead of the Centre for Non-Anthropocentric Play at Noroff University College in Norway.
His research explores how media can help shape new social imaginaries grounded in biocentric perspectives. He developed the Non-Anthropocentric Media Evaluation Questionnaire (NAMEQ) to help researchers and creators evaluate media through an ecocentric lens, and has proposed a conceptual extension of the Drake Equation introducing a “willingness factor” to stimulate reflection on humanity’s ecological behavior.
DR. Filipe Pais
(PhD, Associate Professor, CNAP Co-lead)
Filipe Pais is an educator-researcher and curator.
His work explores the intricate relationships between contemporary art and design movements, investigating how they inquire into and represent technological agendas, play, human and non-human behavior, digital materiality, algorithmic sovereignty, and ecology.
Filipe is an associate professor and co-lead of the research laboratory "Centre for Non- Anthropocentric Play" at Noroff University College in Norway. He is also an associated researcher at the Reflective Interaction Group at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and an associate lecturer at the London College of Communication, UAL, in London.
Some of the international collective exhibitions that Filipe organized as a curator and co- curator, in connection with his research, include "Playmode" (Lisbon, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, 2019 - 2023), "From bits to Paper" (Strasbourg, 2016), and "Re-enter Lisbon" (Lisbon, 2012).
Network / Collaborations
Ensadlab, Ensad, Paris
LCC, UAL, London
Arts & Metiers ENSAM
UCO L3Di Laval
Rïtsumeikan University Kyoto
About the Center
The Center for Non-Anthropocentric Play (CNAP) is a research group situated within Noroff University College's Interactive Media Department in Kristiansand, Norway.
Co-founded in 2021 by Dr. Erik Geslin and Dr. Filipe Pais, colleagues in the Interactive Media Department, CNAP emerged from their shared passions for ecology, nature, and play experiences. Dr. Geslin is an expert in game and VR/XR development, specializing in affective gaming, while Dr. Pais is a researcher in Interactive Arts and Design, with a particular focus on exploring the intersection of these fields with technological agendas and their impacts on nature, human behavior, and non-human entities.
As a response to the pressing need to rethink design in the post-Anthropocene, CNAP is dedicated to the cultivation of new social imaginaries in game experiences.
Our primary goal is to incorporate more-than-human worlds into the realm of play, addressing their often overlooked or misrepresented status in the gaming industry. Our interests transcend the confines of screens and traditional magic circles; we are equally committed to investigating and proposing design methodologies that account for the lives of all beings, including human minorities and marginalized groups, as well as non-human lifeforms. Our focus also extends to promote energy efficiency and reducing the carbon footprints associated with game development and usage.
In our pursuit of a non-anthropocentric approach to interactive games and play, our ultimate goal is to cultivate a profound understanding of the intricate relationship between humans and non-humans, with a measurable impact beyond the gaming realm. We envision play experiences that entertain while also embodying environmental responsibility, nurturing care, and inclusivity. To make this transformative journey possible, CNAP is committed to forming a diverse community, by inviting researchers, developers, and thinkers from an array of disciplines, ethnical backgrounds, genders, religions, and sexual orientations, as well as embracing the rich perspectives of indigenous peoples.
Game Design
HCI
Non-human Centred Design
More-than-human Design
Serious Games
Gamification
Critical Play
Eco games
Eco-design
Ecofeminism
Affective Videogaming
Extended Reality technologies
Arts
Phenomenology
Aesthetics
New Materialism
Object-Oriented Ontology
Team
DR. Erik Geslin
(PhD, Associate Professor, CNAP co-lead)
Dr. Erik Geslin is a researcher working at the intersection of cognition, neuroscience, and interactive media, with more than three decades of experience in AAA interactive media and immersive media industries across AAA, AA and XR technologies. After many years working in interactive media development, his work progressively shifted toward academic research focusing on the cognitive and emotional mechanisms underlying human–media interaction, including emotional design, flow, and user engagement.
Dr. Geslin holds a Ph.D. in Engineering specializing in cognition and neuroscience from ENSAM ParisTech, with a dissertation on the induction of emotions in interactive media and extended reality. He has collaborated with both industry and academia, contributing to emotional design research for productions such as Assassin’s Creed and Fated: The Silent Oath.
He is currently an Associate Professor and co-lead of the Centre for Non-Anthropocentric Play at Noroff University College in Norway.
His research explores how media can help shape new social imaginaries grounded in biocentric perspectives. He developed the Non-Anthropocentric Media Evaluation Questionnaire (NAMEQ) to help researchers and creators evaluate media through an ecocentric lens, and has proposed a conceptual extension of the Drake Equation introducing a “willingness factor” to stimulate reflection on humanity’s ecological behavior.
DR. Filipe Pais
(PhD, Associate Professor, CNAP Co-lead)
Filipe Pais is an educator-researcher and curator.
His work explores the intricate relationships between contemporary art and design movements, investigating how they inquire into and represent technological agendas, play, human and non-human behavior, digital materiality, algorithmic sovereignty, and ecology.
Filipe is an associate professor and co-lead of the research laboratory "Centre for Non- Anthropocentric Play" at Noroff University College in Norway. He is also an associated researcher at the Reflective Interaction Group at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and an associate lecturer at the London College of Communication, UAL, in London.
Some of the international collective exhibitions that Filipe organized as a curator and co- curator, in connection with his research, include "Playmode" (Lisbon, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, 2019 - 2023), "From bits to Paper" (Strasbourg, 2016), and "Re-enter Lisbon" (Lisbon, 2012).
Network / Collaborations
Ensadlab, Ensad, Paris
LCC, UAL, London
Arts & Metiers ENSAM
UCO L3Di Laval
Rïtsumeikan University Kyoto
Noroff School of Technology and Digital Media
Noroff Education AS, Tordenskjoldsgate 9
4612 Kristiansand S
Norway
Dr. Filipe Pais
filipe.pais@noroff.no
Website design by Joana Pestana and Nuno Maio
Dr. Erik Geslin
erik.geslin@noroff.no
Noroff School of
Technology and Digital Media
Noroff Education AS, Tordenskjoldsgate 9
4612 Kristiansand S
Norway
Dr. Filipe Pais
filipe.pais@noroff.no
Dr. Erik Geslin
erik.geslin@noroff.no
Website design by Joana Pestana and Nuno Maio