Natasha Sebben
What does a typical working day involve for you?
As a teaching assistant in Game Design I provide support for different modules – mostly in the areas of narrative and visual design. I offer input to the students and discuss their work with them. In-between, I drink coffee. Probably too much coffee.
Where at the ZHdK can you be found?
Generally between the fourth floor, the library and the coffee bar. Every so often I sneak through the Game Design studio, gauging the students’ degrees of desperation and offering help where it is needed.
Which topics are you focussing on at the moment?
I am currently working on my game «Psychotic Bathtub – The Story of an Escalating Mind. And Ducks.», developing it further. So the subjects I deal with are, alternately, psychoses, bathtubs and ducks. I find Thomas Melle’s book «The World at My Back» especially helpful for my research. He describes his life with a bipolar disorder, as in this excerpt: «With every manic episode, life as you knew it becomes more impossible. The person you thought you were and knew has lost a firm foundation.»
What motivates you?
(Audio) books. Music. Song lyrics. Conversations. Films. Series. The urge to understand why we love and reproduce certain narrative structures so much. And the desire to experience many more stories and make them come alive. Coffee helps me with this.
