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)

2025TextEmpowerment 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
2025TextTransformative, 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
2025TextBody-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
2022ExhibitionGood Game Well Played, documenta difteen, Kassel
2021ExhibitionAfterlife, Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Kassel
2018EventSwimming Jewels, Le Monde Diplomatique, w/Auunan & Sheree Domingo, Berlin
2018ExhibitionExperimental Videogame Showcase, Atlanta
2018ExhibitionGoethe-Zentrum, Cluj
2018ExhibitionLeftfield Collection, Burningham
2017ResidencyOn Improvisation, Super Tokonoma, w/Auunan, Kassel
2017ExhibitionGame On, Buenos Aires
2017AwardMost Innovative Newcomer Game Finalist,Play 17, Hamburg
2017EventKitokia Grafika, w/Auunan & Sheree Domingo, Kaunas
2017EventFloatation Device at documenta 14, w/Auunan, Kassel
2017ExhibitionGame Happens, Genua
2017ExhibitionReversed Festival, Wien
2017ExhibitionIGF Pavillion, San Francisco
2017AwardIGF Nuovo Award Finalist, San Francisco
2016AwardCDW Stiftung Förderpreis, Kassel
2015EventCTM Festival, w/Grebenstein, Berlin
2012ExhibitionUcla Game Art Festival, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Teaching / talks (selection)

2026LectureOverlapping Worlds and Ambiguous Play, TH Augsburg
2025Seminar Escapist Experience, Kunsthochschule Kassel
2024SeminarGentle Gardening Quest, Kunsthochschule Kassel
2024SeminarOverwhelming realities – conversation, research and project on right-wing extremism as media practice, Kunsthochschule Kassel, /w Dr. Strick, Prof. Dr. Schaffer, Prof. Baumann
2024SeminarPast, Present, Future, Kunsthochschule Kassel /w Prof. Auriea Harvey
2023WorkshopMelting Interfaces, Kunsthochschule Kassel
2023SeminarInteractive Narratives, Kunsthochschule Kassel
2023TeachingThe Prototype, /w Prof. Auriea Harvey, Kunsthochschule Kassel 
2022TeachingEnvironmental Play, Kunsthochschule Kassel
2021TextDeath and economics are the two things that games are basically always about, right? , Journal of Media Studies, w/ Auriea Harvey
2021TeachingCollaborative Worldbuilding and Storytelling, Kunsthochschule Kassel
2021TalkUnreliable Play: Power, Fleetingness and Metafiction, Universität Kassel
2021TeachingVision – Desire – System, /w Johanna Schaffer, Kunsthochschule Kassel
2020TeachingInstructions and Possibilities, Kunsthochschule Kassel
2018WorkshopNarrative Play, Goethe-Zentrum, Cluj
2017TalkHidden Systems, Genua
2014TalkHörverstehen, SuperTokonoma, Kassel