About
Associate Professor Troy Innocent is an urban play scholar and artist gamemaker at RMIT University's School of Design, directing the Future Play Lab. His work focuses on socially engaged urban play, integrating experimental game design, posthuman methods, and creative technologies to reimagine urban spaces. Innocent leads projects globally, including playable city initiatives in Melbourne, Aarhus, and Istanbul, emphasizing connections between people and place through augmented reality and participatory design. He established the Urban Play School (UPS) in 2019, collaborating with cities like Melbourne and Merri-bek to develop playful pedagogies through location-based games. His 2023 urban play festival on Bowen Street showcased student-led projects, with two selected for RMIT orientation programs. Innocent's research spans posthumanism, Indigenous studies, and design practice, with key projects like 64 Ways of Being and the Playable City Melbourne initiative. His work bridges disciplines including sculpture, animation, and installation, using multiplatform storytelling to create speculative worlds that disrupt urban norms.
Education details are not explicitly provided, but his 25+ year career includes exhibitions, symposia, and site-specific projects worldwide. Innocent's creative outputs combine art and technology to explore themes of language, reality, and environmental connection. His lab's methodologies emphasize scalability and community engagement, addressing urban challenges through playful interventions. Current research focuses on Indigenous-led creative placemaking, post-pandemic social wellbeing, and transdisciplinary urban design frameworks.
Advancing the Future Play Lab's mission, Innocent supervises research projects like Posthuman Rave Disruption and Threads and Undercurrents, exploring spiritual play and creative interventions. He collaborates with institutions globally, advocating for urban play as a tool for social sustainability. The lab's impact includes policy recommendations for playable cities and partnerships with organizations like the City of Stonnington, demonstrating tangible urban regeneration through play.
