Mary Flanagan is a well known Irish artist, author, educator and designer. For the last years her work has been focused on raising the understanding of the public on how video games matter and on how we can use video games for the betterment of the youth and of ourselves.
Mrs. Flanagan has been exploring the relationship between technology and human psychology and experience. She believes in the value of both physical and digital games as they can offer a profound symbolic teaching which could have a positive reflection in the different sectors of everyday life such as politics, relationships and self understanding. She is the designer of the video game LAYOFF (2009) which asks players to act as employes during the time of an economic crisis. Its a social experiment that reveals how empathy works and a great example of what Flanagan is trying to accomplish with her campaign about the importance of games.
