Talks: Worlds We Build Together – game design, art and institutions

Worlds We Build Together – game design, art and institutions

What: Talks and Conversations with Outi Kaarina Laiti, Itha O’Neill and Marija Šumarac
When: 27.10.2026 9:30–13:00 
Where: Aalto University, Marsio, Otakaari 2, 02150 Espoo 

Games are where millions of people already gather, play and imagine together. Could they also be where art institutions, artists and civil society find new ways of working side by side? Join a curator, a Sámi game researcher and a dialogue designer for a morning of talks and conversation about the futures we could build together.

Worlds We Build Together – game design, art and institutions is a learning session exploring what collaboration between art organisations, creative practices and the gaming industry could look like in today's cultural and social contexts. The session brings together Itha O'Neill – Head of Curation, Amos Rex Museum, Outi Laiti – Sámi game researcher and designer at the University of Helsinki – and Marija Šumarac – Dialogue Designer at Remedy Entertainment. 

For many contemporary artists, game technologies and game culture have become both a tool and a subject. Games also offer a format of participation and a sense of community – that thing which many art institutions are seeking as they try to find meaningful ways to connect with a new generation of audiences. More broadly, civil society is always in need of new forms of exploring agency and participation. Meanwhile, the gaming industry already works with a wide range of artistic and creative practices creating participatory experiences. 

These talks explore the needs, hopes and ideas that could shape new collaborations between art institutions, the gaming industry and civil society, at a time when arts funding is shrinking, the games industry is in transition, and we urgently need new ways and voices to imagine the future.

Programme

9.30 Welcome and introduction
9.40 Itha O’Neill: Gaming as an Artistic Medium – Games in Museums
10.25 Outi Kaarina Laiti: Sámi Game Design – We Know What We Are Doing
11.10 Marija Šumarac: Sound Between Worlds – Sound Design Across Industry and Artistic Practice
11.55 Break
12.15 Conversation with all speakers
13.00 End

Speakers and talks

Outi Kaarina Laiti
Sámi Game Design: We Know What We Are Doing

Outi Kaarina Laiti draws on the slogan of the Finnish game industry to empower Sámi game developers with the same conviction. Behind every game is an economy of making and in this talk she asks whose futures it serves. Tracing a path from Utsjoki's collaborative game making roots through exhibitions and global game jams to a new generation of Sámi developers, she shows what collaboration looks like when it strengthens rather than extracts. At stake is nothing less than who gets to imagine the futures of the North.

Dr. Outi Kaarina Laiti is a Sámi game researcher and designer at the University of Helsinki, focusing on the intersection of engineering, education, computer science, and Indigenous studies. Her work examines Indigenous game development, Sámi-led design practices, and the role of games in innovation and Indigenous Futurisms. She is interested in a community-based approach to game-making, such as game jams, and a decolonial approach to the game industry. In addition, she has coached a Counter-Strike team with an average age of over 70. Dr. Laiti is a co‑founder of the Saami Game Jam and the curator of the exhibition Digital Natives? Sámi Games Now presented as part of Helsinki Design Week 2024 and at Siida Sámi Museum in 2026.

Itha O’Neill
Gaming as an Artistic Medium: Games in Museums

Gaming is emerging as a powerful artistic medium, offering new possibilities for worldbuilding, participation, and imagining alternative futures. Amos Rex, a Nordic contemporary art museum engaging with art, technology, and the public realm, explores how game-based artworks challenge traditional exhibition formats and create new forms of engagement through interaction. Through examples including Bill Viola’s The Night Journey and works by artists working with games, this presentation considers the evolving relationship between contemporary art, museums, and the gaming industry, and the potential of games as spaces for artistic experimentation and cultural innovation.

Itha O’Neill is Head of Curation at Amos Rex where she oversees curatorial matters in alignment with the institution’s focus on art, technology and society.  She is an experienced curator with a special interest in new media and advanced technologies that bring art closer to the public, engage with pressing topics of our times and nurture new forms of expression. She holds degrees in media, film and cultural studies from the University of Greenwich, and in art history from the University of Helsinki. With over 20 years of experience, she has curated projects including Jeppe Hein, Studio Drift, Bill Viola, Tadashi Kawamata, Yinka Ilori, and contributed to solo shows by teamLab, Larissa Sansour, 24-h with Tony Cokes and the experiential installation “Spirit Systems of Soft Knowing ༊*·̊'' by artist collective Keiken. She is currently co-curating a solo show by Natasha Tontey in Venice 2026 with Amos Rex and LAS art foundation.

Marija Šumarac
Sound Between Worlds: Sound Design Across Industry and Artistic Practice 

Marija Šumarac explores the relationship between working in the games industry and developing an artistic practice. Through sound and dialogue design, the talk looks at how industry-based creative work and artistic experimentation can inform and challenge one another. Rather than treating these as separate practices, it considers what happens when they overlap – and how working across both contexts can open up new approaches to collaboration, narrative, sound and audience participation.

Marija Šumarac is a Finland-based sound designer, composer, and trombonist. She holds a Master’s degree in Recording and Sound Design from the University of Arts in Belgrade, as well as a Master’s in Sound in New Media from Aalto University. Her approach to sound design and composition is deeply informed by her extensive experience in sound manipulation across film, radio (notably at the Electronic Studio of Radio Belgrade 3), theatre, television, and video games. Marija’s work has been showcased internationally at prominent festivals and venues including the Prague Quadrennial, Ars Electronica, the European Science Open Forum (ESOF) in Trieste and the UCLA ArtSci Center in Los Angeles. She is currently working as a Dialogue Designer at Remedy Entertainment, following her previous role as a Junior Sound Designer at Rovio  Entertainment.

About Gaming the Civic

Gaming the Civic is M-Cult's programme bringing together media art, game design, critical thinking, and the gaming industry. It supports artists creating works that use digital games and emerging technologies to involve people as active participants in the public realm. Rather than observing from the sidelines, audiences are invited to play, interact, and contribute. Gaming the Civic is supported by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation and AVEK Audiovisual Centre.

Worlds We Build Together – game design, art and institutions, in collaboration with Aalto Media Lab and the Game Design and Development programme at Aalto University.