About
Tobias Zarges is a designer working across audio-visual communication and interactive experiences focusing on cultural, scientific, social, environmental projects, topics and clients.
Art Direction, Communication and World Building
Development of identities, worlds and design systems.
Design across Print, Digital, Spatial and Sound
Ranging from editorial-, packaging and typeface design to exhibitions, soundtracks, motion and interaction.
Interactivity and Experiences
Creating novel and immersive experiences, agentic and systemic storytelling, behaviors and simulations.
Teaching, Participation and Workshops
Facilitation of playful workshops and participative and transformative design processes.
Tobias studied Visual Communication at Kunsthochschule Kassel focusing on Graphic Design and New Media and later returned to co-establish a department focusing on interactive experiences and emerging technologies, together with Prof. Auriea Harvey.
He was a Nuovo Award Finalist at the IGF in San Francisco. His interactive and other audio-visual works have been shown in numerous international exhibitions such as documenta fifteen, the Independent Games Festival and the Hammer Museum Los Angeles.
Exhibitions / Events / Awards / Text (selection)
| 2025 | Text | Empowerment through the mutual expansion of agency in participatory, transdisciplinary, and transformative spaces for research and design, w/ Prof. Susanne Lang, Michelle Terschi, Iz Paehr, Jasper Meiners, in Partizipative Forschung und Empowerment, Beltz Verlag |
| 2025 | Text | Transformative, transdisciplinary and co-productive social work in virtual-digital spaces, Anthology „GesellschaftBilden im Digitalzeitalter“/ „Society Education in the Digital Age“, w/ Prof. Susanne Lang, Michelle Terschi, Iz Paehr, Jasper Meiners |
| 2025 | Text | Body-oriented vireal-digital media behavior of adults with childhood-related experiences of sexualized violence, Merz, Journal for Media Education, w/ Prof. Susanne Lang, Michelle Terschi, Iz Paehr, Jasper Meiners |
| 2022 | Exhibition | Good Game Well Played, documenta difteen, Kassel |
| 2021 | Exhibition | Afterlife, Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Kassel |
| 2018 | Event | Swimming Jewels, Le Monde Diplomatique, w/Auunan & Sheree Domingo, Berlin |
| 2018 | Exhibition | Experimental Videogame Showcase, Atlanta |
| 2018 | Exhibition | Goethe-Zentrum, Cluj |
| 2018 | Exhibition | Leftfield Collection, Burningham |
| 2017 | Residency | On Improvisation, Super Tokonoma, w/Auunan, Kassel |
| 2017 | Exhibition | Game On, Buenos Aires |
| 2017 | Award | Most Innovative Newcomer Game Finalist,Play 17, Hamburg |
| 2017 | Event | Kitokia Grafika, w/Auunan & Sheree Domingo, Kaunas |
| 2017 | Event | Floatation Device at documenta 14, w/Auunan, Kassel |
| 2017 | Exhibition | Game Happens, Genua |
| 2017 | Exhibition | Reversed Festival, Wien |
| 2017 | Exhibition | IGF Pavillion, San Francisco |
| 2017 | Award | IGF Nuovo Award Finalist, San Francisco |
| 2016 | Award | CDW Stiftung Förderpreis, Kassel |
| 2015 | Event | CTM Festival, w/Grebenstein, Berlin |
| 2012 | Exhibition | Ucla Game Art Festival, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles |
Teaching / talks (selection)
| 2026 | Lecture | Overlapping Worlds and Ambiguous Play, TH Augsburg |
| 2025 | Seminar | Escapist Experience, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2024 | Seminar | Gentle Gardening Quest, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2024 | Seminar | Overwhelming realities – conversation, research and project on right-wing extremism as media practice, Kunsthochschule Kassel, /w Dr. Strick, Prof. Dr. Schaffer, Prof. Baumann |
| 2024 | Seminar | Past, Present, Future, Kunsthochschule Kassel /w Prof. Auriea Harvey |
| 2023 | Workshop | Melting Interfaces, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2023 | Seminar | Interactive Narratives, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2023 | Teaching | The Prototype, /w Prof. Auriea Harvey, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2022 | Teaching | Environmental Play, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2021 | Text | Death and economics are the two things that games are basically always about, right? , Journal of Media Studies, w/ Auriea Harvey |
| 2021 | Teaching | Collaborative Worldbuilding and Storytelling, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2021 | Talk | Unreliable Play: Power, Fleetingness and Metafiction, Universität Kassel |
| 2021 | Teaching | Vision – Desire – System, /w Johanna Schaffer, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2020 | Teaching | Instructions and Possibilities, Kunsthochschule Kassel |
| 2018 | Workshop | Narrative Play, Goethe-Zentrum, Cluj |
| 2017 | Talk | Hidden Systems, Genua |
| 2014 | Talk | Hörverstehen, SuperTokonoma, Kassel |