CosTechPlay: Towards a Teaching Concept that brings Cosplayto Schools

Cosplay is a trend that originated in Japan and is also becoming increasingly popular in Austria.The word cosplay is a combination of the words "costume" and "play".Cosplayers slip into different characters known from media worlds -such as movies, TV series, comics, mangas or games.Cosplay costumes are often elaborately designed and as true to the original as possible, typically with a large do-it-yourself component.They are worn and presented at special events (conventions, fairs or fan meetings) and many cosplayers also share their costumes and insights into the creation process online, e.g.via social media.In this way, cosplay is not only a creative form of expression, but also a diverse and vibrant community which can be characterised by openness, tolerance, diversity and inclusion.(see e.g.Yang 2022, Akademie der Kulturellen Bildung 2019, Birnbaum 2019) Cosplay is not exclusively a phenomenon of gaming culture but bears increasingly relevance for it.On the one hand, characters from video games are often portrayed by cosplayers, and on the other, more and more gaming events provide cosplayers a stage to promote the cosplay community.The current state of research explores the skills that are necessary and also promoted in the course of active participation in the cosplay scene (see e.g.Bender and