|
|
CMS News Archives
Download a recording of this event.
 A "newsgame" is a videogame that does journalism. Drawing from five years of commercial development and academic research on this new approach, this talk summarizes the principles of newsgames and then offers two related but conflicting perspectives on its role in the future of newsmaking, framed by general thoughts on the challenges of designing and understanding contemporary media.
Ian Bogost, Professor of Digital Media at Georgia Tech, is a designer, philosopher, critic, and researcher who focuses on computational media--videogames in particular. He is also an author and an entrepreneur. He is also a Founding Partner at Persuasive Games and a Board Member at Open Texture (an educational publisher).
Continue reading "Podcast, Ian Bogost: "The Cartoonist and the Whaler: Notes on the Future of Journalism and Other Media"" »
Download the video of this event or view below.
This talk explores what it means to consider games an aesthetic form -- something akin to literature, music, or film. That this is the most appropriate category within which to place games seems like an emerging consensus. But what does it actually mean? Are only video games an aesthetic form, or do non-digital games also deserve that status? Are the aesthetics of games a hybrid blend of other forms or a distinct form unto themselves? Do they express a new aesthetic fresh-born of the computer age or a primal, fundamental aesthetic that computers have amplified and brought into focus? The talk will examine these and other related questions.
Frank Lantz is the Interim Director of the NYU Game Center. For over 12 years, Frank has taught game design at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. He has also taught at the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons School of Design. His writings on games, technology and culture have appeared in a variety of publications. In 2005 Frank co-Founded Area/Code, a New York based developer that created cross-media, location-based, and social network games. In 2011 Area/Code was acquired by Zynga and is now Zynga New York. Frank has worked in the field of game development for the past 20 years. Before starting Area/Code, Frank worked on a wide variety of games as the Director of Game Design at Gamelab, Lead Game Designer at Pop & Co, and Creative Director at R/GA Interactive. Over the past 10 years, Frank helped pioneer the genre of large-scale realworld games, working on projects such as the Big Urban Game, which turned the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul into the world's largest boardgame; ConQwest, which featured the first major application of semacodes in the United States, PacManhattan, a life-size version of the arcade classic created by the students in his Big Games class at NYU, and many other experiments in pervasive and urban gaming.
Thanks to Generoso Fierro for producing the videos and James Barrille for editing.
Continue reading "Video: Frank Lantz, "The Aesthetics of Games"" »
Download or watch below.
In 1955, the Museum of Modern Art mounted one of the most widely seen - and widely excoriated - photography exhibitions of all time, The Family of Man. For the last forty years, critics have decried the show as a model of the psychological and political repression of cold war America. This talk challenges that view. It shows how the immersive, multi-image aesthetics of the exhibition emerged not from the cold war, but from the World War II fight against fascism. It then demonstrates that The Family of Man aimed to liberate the senses of visitors and especially, to enable them to embrace racial, sexual and cultural diversity - even as it enlisted their perceptual faculties in new modes of collective self-management. For these reasons, the talk concludes, the exhibition became an influential prototype of the immersive, multi-media environments of the 1960s - and of our own multiply mediated social world today.
Fred Turner is Associate Professor of Communication and Director of the Program in Science, Technology and Society at Stanford University. He is the author most recently of From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. His essays have tackled topics ranging from the rise of reality television to the culture of engineering at Google. He is currently drafting a history of immersive media environments in the decades after World War II.
Continue reading "Podcast, Fred Turner: "The Family of Man and the Politics of Attention in Cold War America"" »
Associate Professor of Digital Media Fox Harrell spoke recently with Action Speaks, whose podcasts celebrate great, America-changing anniversaries.
Last October 12, when Fox spoke with them, it happened to be the 39th anniversary of "Pong"...
Pong introduced America to video games and now there seems to be no turning back.
[...]
As more and more people around the world use video games to pass the time, to teach and learn and to create alternative realities, it is time for us to consider what its implications are and whether or not we are leading or being led--and to where.
Fox and two fellow panelists discussed the rise of video games and the need for a nuanced understanding of the impact of games, just as we've learned to apply to other media.
Action Speaks is broadcast on their presenting station WGBH in Boston and on over 250 other radio affiliates around the United States.
Action Speaks -- October 12, 2011: 1972 - The Birth of Pong and Video Games
This talk explores what it means to consider games an aesthetic form -- something akin to literature, music, or film. That this is the most appropriate category within which to place games seems like an emerging consensus. But what does it actually mean? Are only video games an aesthetic form, or do non-digital games also deserve that status? Are the aesthetics of games a hybrid blend of other forms or a distinct form unto themselves? Do they express a new aesthetic fresh-born of the computer age or a primal, fundamental aesthetic that computers have amplified and brought into focus? The talk will examine these and other related questions.
Frank Lantz is the Interim Director of the NYU Game Center. For over 12 years, Frank has taught game design at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. He has also taught at the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons School of Design. His writings on games, technology and culture have appeared in a variety of publications. In 2005 Frank co-Founded Area/Code, a New York based developer that created cross-media, location-based, and social network games. In 2011 Area/Code was acquired by Zynga and is now Zynga New York. Frank has worked in the field of game development for the past 20 years. Before starting Area/Code, Frank worked on a wide variety of games as the Director of Game Design at Gamelab, Lead Game Designer at Pop & Co, and Creative Director at R/GA Interactive. Over the past 10 years, Frank helped pioneer the genre of large-scale realworld games, working on projects such as the Big Urban Game, which turned the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul into the world's largest boardgame; ConQwest, which featured the first major application of semacodes in the United States, PacManhattan, a life-size version of the arcade classic created by the students in his Big Games class at NYU, and many other experiments in pervasive and urban gaming.
Download!
Continue reading "Podcast: Frank Lantz, "The Aesthetics of Games"" »
 Our research group for digital humanities, the HyperStudio, is looking for a Web Applications Developer.
It's a great opportunity to be a part of humanities software development, focused around data visualization and user collaboration.
Learn more and apply...
WEB APPLICATIONS DEVELOPER,Comparative Media Studies-HyperStudio Team, to build the front and back ends of scalable web applications. Will be part of the core team responsible for the design and development of online tools for information visualization and user collaboration in the humanities and social sciences. Will provide system design, prototyping, implementation, functional verification, debugging, and deployment on Mac OS X and UNIX server platforms; and occasional system administration support. Will work closely with a team that includes developers, designers, graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty.
REQUIREMENTS: a B.S. in EE, CS, or CE; a minimum of three years of development experience; expertise developing database-driven web applications and data modeling; an understanding of software engineering best practices, object-oriented design, and test-driven development; strong programming skills in Ruby on Rails; advanced knowledge of JavaScript, CSS, and HTML 5; and a track record of delivering high quality products including a commitment to delivering a great user experience. Solid knowledge of SQL (PostgreSQL) preferred. Familiarity with basic Mac OS X system administration also preferred, in particular managing Apache, MySQL, and PostgreSQL installations. Some familiarity with PHP and Java is desirable. Experience building web application user interfaces and an interest in and enthusiasm for the humanities and social sciences also preferred. If applicable, you may include links to your work in your resume.
|
