Ben Kirman

@ben.kirman.org

194 Followers 292 Following

Postdisciplinary games academic: Make/study/teach the playful, weird, wonderful and radical. (he/him) #criticaldesign #speculativedesign #designfiction #gamedesign Projects: https://ben.kirman.org

In a field, with tea towels flapping in the breeze, my arm is visible, holding an envelope with handwritten address made out to "Ben Kirman, museum of manky tea towels, elf camp"
A sunny field has a gazebo and washing line with hundreds of tea towels in the wind, some decorated
A black and white illustration of a jaunty fellow with a docker cap and fine moustache, holding up a tea towel by his fingertips. The text reads “the museum of manky tea towels”
A photograph of a tabletop laid out with 15 small Plasma2350W circuit boards on antistatic bags. A tray of header pins, some tape and some motivational geese miniatures sit nearby.
a screenshot of an email saying "students WILL NOT BE PERMITTED to arrive on horseback."
A hand with exceptional nail polish holds a deck of shrinkwrapped cards. The top card says "KIRMAN", with a picture of an american air force pilot, and a series of different stats.
Some tea towels and booklets are spread on a table, along with an annotated map of manchester city centre. The tea towels show scenes from York and Edinburgh as gig couriers encounter difficulties and hostile architectures.
An oystercatcher on a ledge, with the caption "u got any oysters M8"
Some gothic pixellated text saying "Research through Game Design" by authors Oliver Bates, Ben Kirman, Marcia Tavares Smith and David Philip Green. From Fractals Co-op, University of York, Lancaster University and UKCEH respectively
it's the bt logo with the lad blowing a vuvuzela
A kuwaiti paramilitary uniform sized for a 5 year old (with 2 berets). it is being modelled by an iron stag attached to a brick wall.
A photograph of Lincoln City FC players celebrating on top of a bus, in front of Lincoln Cathedral. Several players are wearing medals, and some lucky lads are enjoying cans of cider.
A collage of magazine cuttings showing an otter scientist stood in front of graphs and with laser beams shooting out of its eyes. The word ANTI leaks a yellow fluid
a black chalk street sandwich board saying "<- booze, food fun" and "Real life ->"
three people are sat around the table in a pub playing the game. Pieces and dice are scattered on the board. Hands and arms are blurred with activity, one player moving cards in their hand, another has hands open plaintively while the third player reaches over to grab something.
A photograph of a wooden tabletop covered in game components. A sepia map of a sea, some cards, some strange dice, a rulebook with a handsome cat, and a board game box with some lads in front of a castle.
A photograph of a pavement with seven small round access hatches marked "water"
A photograph of a tabletop showing a hex map with lots of sea spaces filled in, and one small island space with the marking "RIP". Also on the table is pages of charts and tables from the game "12 years at Sea" and expansions by Max Moon games. It is open on the page "Marsh creatures"
THE HAMMER OF TRANSFORMATIVE NOSTALGIFICATION, a black and white diagram illustrating a hammer (SHAFT/CLAW OF CYNICISM) striking a golden DESIGN cube held in a CONCEPT VICE, while NOSTALGIA PARTICLES fly off
A crudely drawn cool horse looking pretty darn pleased with her nice yellow raincoat
A scan of the first page of the linked book: "DER LUDUS DE ANTICHRISTO", a german translation of the latin play
A large red dumpster bin has a website link to a "customer zone" above a yellow warning label indicating a "crush zone"
its jonny 5! He's still alive and thirsting for input
A screenshot of text from a rulebook: "Hope is for the Dead is a game for everyone but rated 13+ due to its themes. Anyone who is prejudiced, bigoted, or who thinks that abuse or hatred of others based on sex, gender, ethnicity, or any other characteristic is acceptable should find a different game to play. This message should only offend someone with those views, so if you are offended by this message, THIS GAME IS NOT FOR YOU."
a stock photograph of a chocolate fountain, with someone dipping a very dry looking biscuit into the extremely thin looking chocolate sauce
A discoloured yellowing plastic rabbit with cute features and moving ears is held up to camera. It's belly glows pink.
A child hits a series of small pumpkins with a drum stick
A clip from Life of Brian where someone says "That's a nice gourd"
A photograph of a Settlers of Catan board, showing two d6s that have 3.5 spots on every side.
A "deep fried" image shows a hand drawn dog sniffing the backside of another. They are labelled as "client" and "server", and an arrow points to the middle noting "knowledge/data/insight". This is surrounded by text asking "What is happening?!", "dog text transfer protocol?" and "what do they know??"
The Draw a Fish website except I badly photoshopped the age verification thing from Bluesky into it in a half baked topical gag.
screenshot from kickstarter "UPDATE #9 Unlocked: Industrial Pump"
A still from the film showing a foot stepping in a comically large footprint in a muddy field
A picture of an academic presentation, featuring images from magazines labelled Boffins, Nerds and Whiz Kids
A cartoon of a sign instructs: "ABSOLUTELY NO PROJECTILE VOMITING", cropped out of context of the 9/7/92 Far Side comic by Gary Larson.
A simple sketch of two round objects either side of some kind of shaft with drops of material emanating from the tip.
A screenshot from a steam page saying "Complete your Collection" "Buy Economic Body Horror Bundle", while noting 1 of 4 items is already in my library
A ballroom projected with dramatic flames, with a group of actors in the centre, surrounded by audience members in the distance.
A view over a valley at dusk. In the middle ground there is a path and lit frame that illuminates the hillside and an audience member watching a video
A man with a delightful wolf head t-shirt reaches pensively into a cardboard constructed manor house to place a character. He is lit from below and looks an ickle bit scared
The letters "P H D" appear, followed by "PIRATE HOT DOG" overlaid on an AI video of some hot dogs and chips. A clip from Digitiser Piracy special on Youtube
A modern motorbike painted up in Afrika Korps paint job
A messy table of craft materials scissors and newspapers with a name badge in creation
It's a tiny pug that looks like a dragon!
A football match showing a player in black heading the ball away from a Rotherham player in Red and white. The black shirt extremely faintly says the University of Lincoln, but it is effectively unreadable.
A stock photo of a family superimposed with graphics of airplanes and missiles flying about, with the caption quoted in the post.
An advert shows a tub of Bovril Beef flavoured drink, at the low price of £5 a tub but an asterisk that notes the best before date is 30th november this year.
A path in the mountainside at Dusk, lit by a series of pink lights that stretch to the distance.
A dark room at IndieCade 2016 and someone moves the wobbly controller that makes lights shoot up a string of LED lights
A view over a countryside valley in Portugal. A picture frame made of mirrors, allows a view through the valley
A man stands in front of a store called "BIG CHINA"
A table covered in dozens of mobile phones amidst flight cases, boxes and coffee cups
Three young women give very concerned expressions to camera, flames reflected in their faces. The title of the show below, BRANNEN ("The Fire") is visible in flames.
A 3d printed set of spurs designed to fit on crocs. They also have dangly balls.
A landscape view over buildings to a fjord. A ferry crosses in front of views of snowcapped peaks under brilliant blue skies
A table in a graffiti filled room, the table and shelves covered in gadgets, screens, robots, computer components and potential
A yellow digger sits among grass and trees, overlooking a verdant valley
Photograph of a crowd of people dancing around a pair of giant white poodles playing drums and synths. A rotating neon sign says "DOGSHOW".