Fox Harrell named in ARTFORUM Top 10. Plus, video of his talk "A Phantasmal Media Approach to Empowerment, Identity, and Computation"
Arthur and Marilouise Kroker -- writers and lecturers about technology and culture and editors of the influential electronic review CTheory -- included Fox Harrell in their ARTFORUM Top 10. Fox is Associate Professor of Digital Media at CMS and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and leads the Imagination, Computation, and Expression Lab, one of CMS's research groups, also paired with CSAIL...
4. RICARDO DOMINGUEZ AND D. FOX HARRELL have created brilliant counter-strategies within and through the culture of simulation. Cocreator of the Transborder Immigrant Tool, 2008, Dominguez, an artist and University of California, San Diego, professor, has retrofitted basic flip phones with mobile technology that helps migrants find water and shelter in austere border zones. Likewise, D. Fox Harrell, an MIT research professor working at the interface of the humanities and artificial intelligence, has rewritten the codes of computer gaming to combat social stigma, bias, and prejudice, as well as to reveal biographies yet untold--those still unwritten stories about the disappearance of identity in the digital haze of network culture.
Meanwhile, Harrell visited the Krokers' own Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture at the University of Victoria to deliver "Digital Inflections: Visions for the Posthuman Future"...
Dr. Fox Harrell, Associate Professor of Digital Media in the Comparative Media Studies Program and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT.
Focusing on questions of social identity, empowerment and computation, Fox Harrell explores the emerging world of "phantasmal identities," that moment when the meaning of social identity is complicated by its intersection with computing technologies including social networking, gaming, virtual worlds and more. Here, social identities are not addressed only through persistent issues of class, gender, sex, race, and ethnicity, but also through dynamic construction of social categories, body language, discourse, metaphorical thought, gesture, fashion, and so on. When these "real" identities meet their counterparts in the virtual world, the results are identities that are a sudden blend of cultural ideas and sensory imagination, namely the increasing development of "phantasmal identities."
The life and work of Junot Díaz contains many worlds -- and that makes him all the more worth listening to. His books, including National Book Award finalist This Is How You Lose Her and Pulitzer Prize-winner The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, journey between the old and the new, and between the America that was and the America we're becoming. Born in the Dominican Republic, but raised in New Jersey and American to the core, Junot Díaz is a spotter of the future, a curator of the past, a man of the here-and-now.
Díaz joins Bill to discuss the evolution of the great American story. Along the way he offers funny and perceptive insights into his own work, as well as Star Wars, Moby Dick, and America's inevitable shift to a majority minority country.
"There is an enormous gap between the way the country presents itself and imagines itself and projects itself, and the reality of this country," Díaz tells Bill. "Whether we're talking about the Latino community in North Carolina, a whole new progressive generation of Cuban Americans in Florida, a very out queer community across the United States, or an enormous body of young voters who are either ignored or pandered to, I think we're having a new country emerging that's been in the making for a long time, and that I think for the first time is revealing itself more fully to the entire country."
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January 4, 2013
Video: Molly Sauter on "The Ethics of Activist DDOS Actions"
Molly Sauter ('13) presented in Germany on her study of a framework for ethical analysis of activist DDOS (distributed denial of service -- or more plainly, crashing a website by overwhelming its servers with coordinated traffic) actions.
The CHSI held on 29 NOVEMBER, 2012 in Science Center 469 @ 5:30pm a panel discussion about artificial intelligence, Turing Test and Thinking machines. We had a great panel composed of Daniel C. Dennett (Tufts University), Fox Harrell (MIT), John Searle (UC Berkeley), Peter Galison (Harvard), Jonathan Zittrain (Harvard) and Sophia Roosth (Harvard).
The idea stems from an exhibit produced on the topic: Go Ask A.L.I.C.E.: Turing Tests, Parlor Games & Chatterbots. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi_goa.html
(NOTE: there were some technical difficulties at the end of the discussion; don't be surprised when the video stops abruptly. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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November 30, 2012
Casalegno speaking in Moscow, Dec. 3rd, 4th, and 5th, about design for connected, sustainable cities
Federico Casalegno, director of our Mobile Experience Lab, is headed to Moscow for three events December 4th and 5th. If you're local, go! If you're not, we're keeping an eye out for live feeds and recordings to share. (We'll share them here and on Twitter at @cms_mit).
Dec 4, 10 PM, "Designing Connections", a one-hour lecture with Q&A, at the Polytechnical Museum in Moscow.
Dec 5, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM "Smart, Sustainable, Connected Cities" lecture and Q&A, at the Moscow Urban Forum, Manezh Hall in Moscow
And as MEL colleague Nate Howe tells us, "As if that wasn't enough, as part of the Urban Forum, he will also take part in a session on customer-focused transport on the 4th from 2-3:30, and an event on the development of new types of transport and road networks at the Dandy Cafe in Moscow from 6-8 on the 3rd."
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November 5, 2012
Video, William Uricchio: "We've Digitized The Archive...Now What?"
CMS Professor William Uricchio: "Things are changing radically in the university...it's a moment of great terror." But fear not, as you learn more from him in his keynote address at Kennisland's event on Sustainable Futures for Digital Archives...
Federico Casalegno to speak at the Guardian's Mobile Business Summit
As if you needed any more reasons to visit London, Federico Casalgeno, director of our Mobile Experience Lab, will be a key speaker at the Guardian's Mobile Business Summit. His talk ("Future mobile and the blurring of screen technologies") takes place on November 19.
DDOS as a tool cannot be wholly condemn or lauded without its surrounding context.
In this talk, I'll be examining those previous characterizations, and at different DDOS campaigns that do and do not fit those models. Next I'll be outlining the current state of play of activist DDOS. Finally I'll be presenting a new analytical model for looking at activist DDOS campaigns, and presenting an analysis of the December 2010 Operation PayBack DDOS campaign against PayPal.
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March 22, 2012
Molly Sauter: "Policy Effects of Media Portrayals of Hacktivists"
Our grad student Molly Sauter just returned from SXSW, .mp3 and Prezi in-hand of her talk about how films and other media show us what they think hackers are...
Hollywood and the international news media delight in presenting us with depictions of hackers and hacktivists as subterranean Ohmian "Super Users," capable of hacking *all* the ISPs with a few keystrokes in between shots of Red Bull. How do these depictions, both in fiction and news coverage of hacktivist actions, affect the development and implementation of Internet policy and regulations? In this talk, I'll be examining how media coverage and depictions of hackers and hacktivists has changed as the hacktivist movement has developed since the 1980s. I'll be describing how such coverage, from "Sneakers" to photo galleries of Fawkes-masked Anonymous protests, influences policy on subjects from intellectual property and communications regulations to information security and cyberwar. I'll be questioning what these trends of laws, regulations, and apparent media biases mean for the future of hacktivism and digital activism.
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.
Scot Osterweil to give keynote address at Media Literacy Conference, at MIT
Education Arcade program manager Scot Osterweil is slated to speak at MIT on October 22nd, giving the keynote address for a conference on youth media literacy:
HOME, Inc. invites educational decision makers, curriculum developers, after-school program coordinators, superintendents, instructors and community leaders are all welcome to attend and participate in relevant panel discussions and breakout sessions. The conference is the fourth to be held on a biennial schedule and will feature today's most topical 21st Century educational challenges: Play in Education At the Core of 21st Century Learning, Learning By Design, Using Alternative Reality Games to Uncover Real Science, Student As Television Journalist and Producer, Backpack Journalism and Youth as Advocates and Educators in public health. The conference will feature leaders in the field including Arnie Packer, the father of 21st Century skills and project based learning; and other prominent educators, filmmakers, public health workers and representatives from organizations dedicated to developing programs that promote and generate awareness and a deeper understanding of media literacy. Our Keynote address will be delivered by Scot Osterweil, Creative Director of the MIT Education Arcade and a research director in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He is a designer of award-winning educational games, working in both academic and commercial environments, and his work has focused on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects.
The GAMBIT Game Lab is closed this week as the staff attends the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco--but they haven't been out of touch with MIT, as events coordinator Generoso Fierro keeps uploading great conversations by Gambit staff about the topics coming up at GDC.
"What Is Transmedia?" A great vid from Futures of Entertainment volunteer
Many thanks to FOE4 volunteer Kevin Lim, a doctoral student in Communication at the University of Buffalo, for these video interviews with CMS's Xiaochang Li, Sheila Seles, and William Uricchio--asking the question, "What is transmedia?"
Case Study: Transmedia Design and Conceptualization - The Making of Purefold
Session 3: Transmedia for Social Change
Session 4: The ROI of ROFL: Why Understanding Popular Culture Should Matter to the C-Suite
Session 5: Producing Transmedia Experiences: Participation & Play
Session 6: Unboxing the Medium
Session 7: Free? Contemporary Media Business Models
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December 3, 2009
Caduceus to be featured on Classroom 2.0 live this Saturday
The Education Arcade game "Caduceus", created in partnership with Boston-based Fablevision and Children's Hospital Boston, will be featured on Classroom 2.0, with designers Alex Chishom and Wade Munday. Caduceus transports children to a world of science and alchemy--teaching them about the challenges of modern medicine in the process.
Learn more about Caduceus at generationcures.org and about The Education Arcade's central role in its development here at cms.mit.edu.
From Sticky To Spreadable: The Antidote to "Viral Marketing" and the Broadcast Mentality
Many thanks to CMS alum/C3 researcher Sam Ford for putting together the presentation below. It also features former CMS director Henry Jenkins and C3 researcher Joshua Green.
How do you understand and measure success in social media?
How do you create content that audiences not only pay attention to, but want to share with others?
Do you really want to make a video "go viral"?
How does the language you use to describe social media campaigns impact the end result?
Based on years of researching how and why people spread news, popular culture, and marketing content online through the Convergence Culture Consortium for the past several years, our speakers are currently working on a book entitled Spreadable Media. This Webinar will look at what "spreadable media" means, why the concept of "stickiness" is inadequate for measuring success for brands and content producers online and ultimately why marketers and producers should spend more time creating "spreadable material" for audiences than trying to perfect "viral marketing." In this one-hour session, the speakers will share the ideas and strategy behind "spreadable media" and a variety of examples of best--and worst--practices online for both B2B and B2C campaigns.
From the Christian Science Monitor's Centennial Conversation. The full playlist, including more clips of Ellen Hume, Mark Jurkowitz, Doug Smith, and Sree Sreenivasan is available here.
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November 12, 2008
Jesper Juul and the Casual Revolution
Jesper Juul, a Gambit game researcher, spoke with University of Buffalo doctoral candidate Kevin Lim this week on the growth of "casual games," simpler video games that are often as satisfying as their complex, blockbuster counterparts.
Posted by Andrew Whitacre at 11:06 AM in |Permalink
October 20, 2008
Ellen Hume to speak on news literacy
For three days this week, Oct. 23-25, educators, journalists, researchers, and all those interested are invited to Philadelphia for "Rebooting the News: Reconsidering an Agenda for American Civic Education." The goal? To finds ways to bring young people back into a civic mindset--helping them learn how to navigate the news in ways that make them feel more connected to their world.
[. . .]
Ellen Hume from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Future Civic Media, along with Renee Hobbs, a professor with the Media Education Lab, are among the participants. So far, attendees include journalism professors, students, researchers, and news professionals in radio, online, and print.
Henry Jenkins at the Aspen Institute, Forum on Communications and Society
CMS Co-Director Henry Jenkins last month joined the likes of Madeleine Albright, Craig Newmark, and Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson for a panel on how public policy and private initiatives can better meet the public's information needs.
Jenkins participated in a similar panel at Aspen last year on media and values and blogged about the experience:
As I found myself making small talk with everyone from the heads of major media companies to former members of the Bush administration, the one topic which seemed to have captured everyone's interest was Harry Potter. Almost everyone had stories to tell about the experience of reading the final book in the series. In Convergence Culture, I suggested that fan communities might offer us better chances to talk about shared values across the ideological divides that currently shape American politics because they offer us shared fantasies and common reference points. Well, this was a pretty dramatic illustration of that principle at work.
William Uricchio to present learned lessons from GAMBIT at GLS 4.0
William Uricchio, the co-director of Comparative Media Studies and a lead principal investigator for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, will present a selection of lessons learned from the lab's first year in existence at the fourth Games, Learning and Society Conference July 10-11 in Madison, Wisconsin. From the conference's website:
Can we make a game that can be played equally by sighted and sightless players (AudiOdyssey)? How do we make a multiplayer game where the collective behavior of the players shapes the simulation (Backflow)? These are some of the research challenges presented by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab in their 5-year initiative to bridge the cultures of engineering and humanities. GAMBIT Game Lab incorporates academic researchers into the process of game development, and provides a space for researchers to work across and learn from both Eastern and Western cultures. In this fireside chat, William Uricchio, a lead principal investigator of GAMBIT Game Lab, will share the techniques and strategies that have been particularly effective... and those that were not. How does this project compare with other cross-disciplinary game development initiatives, like the Dutch GATE project? Where are they going from here?
William Uricchio to give keynote at European Network for Cinema and Media Studies conference
William Uricchio will speak about new directions in archiving-- social tagging, access, recycling
and the broader implications for the interaction between history and memory-- in his opening keynote for European Network for Cinema and Media Studies in Budapest, Hungary. Founded in February of 2006, NECS brings together scholars and researchers in the field of cinema, film and media studies with archivists and film and media professionals who share a common interest in academic film study and the preservation, distribution and programming of film and media art and the film heritage. Click here for more information.
Molly Sauter ('13) presented in Germany on her study of a framework for ethical analysis of activist DDOS (distributed denial of service -- or more plainly, crashing a website by overwhelming its servers with coordinated traffic) actions.
Education Arcade program manager Scot Osterweil is slated to speak at MIT on October 22nd, giving the keynote address for 
The Education Arcade game "Caduceus", created in partnership with Boston-based Fablevision and Children's Hospital Boston, will be featured on Classroom 2.0, with designers Alex Chishom and Wade Munday. Caduceus transports children to a world of science and alchemy--teaching them about the challenges of modern medicine in the process.