Jessica Creane
Teaching Climate Change Resilience Through Play
About the author
Jessica is a game and immersive experience designer who believes that the things we take most seriously in life are the things we ought to be most playful about. She is the founder of IKantKoan Play/s, a medium-agnostic design studio at the intersections of games, immersive experiences, and social transformation.
Jessica has been a keynote and/or featured speaker at TEDx (‘Gamifying Chaos: Embracing Uncertainty Through Play’), Beyond Opera (Helsinki), The World Economic Forum DQ Symposium on Xr+ (NYC), Next Stage Immersive Summit (L.A.), and Games for Change (NYC).
She has been featured by NYTimes, Imaginary Worlds, and on KQED San Fransisco, among others. Jessica is a published author of critical game theory with the journal Game Environments (‘Let the Magic Circle Bleed: Bridging the Gap Between Games and Reality’) as well as a contributing author of Existential Toolkit for Climate Educators, contributing a chapter on 'Teaching Climate Change Resilience Through Play'. She is a Professor of Game Design at Drexel University, Professor of Non-Linear Storytelling at CUNY City Tech, a 2022 Arctic Circle Artist-in-Residence, and an environmentally-focused game designer with The National Parks Service.
Her work has been presented at ArsNova, HERE Arts, Fastaval, SXSW, Tanween Creativity Festival, and La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival 2023. Her immersive theater productions Chaos Theory and Know Thyself have run a combined 18 months in NYC, and her interactive and immersive event Tea Party at the End of the World was presented first at ASLE/ASE and went on to a sold out inaugural run. IKantKoan’s seven ethics and philosophy themed tabletop games have been featured and garnered awards, including best tabletop game, at Fastaval (Copenhagen), Hawaiicon (Honolulu), and BostonFIG.
Chapter overview
In order to remain creative and energized in environmental work, this chapter explores the role of playfulness and games in environmental education and emotional resilience. This chapter touches on philosophical, emotional, and actionable approaches to play-based work, specific games and lenses on gameplay to incorporate in classrooms, and a nuanced analysis of the relationship between grief and play.
