MIT Graduate Program in Comparative Media Studies
Studying Media and Making Media
Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson present their book, Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do.
John Bell examines the nature and implications of object performance both as a global cultural tradition and as a contemporary medium that dominates our culture.
Diana Tamblyn, Ho Che Anderson, and Jeet Heer on the unique opportunities comics allow for critiquing and revising dominant historical narratives.
Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi will talk about the various meanings of what counts as a "compelling experience" for military simulation -- and how this phrase “compelling experience” can be used as a thematic marker for differentiating the present moment from cold war-era immersive simulations.
Lev Manovich is the author of The Language of New Media, which is hailed as "the most suggestive and broad ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan."
Celia Pearce will use Uru Diaspora, a game community from the defunct massively multiplayer game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, which immigrated into other games.
Jennifer Roberston explores and interrogates the gendering of humanoid robots manufactured today in Japan for use in the home and workplace.
John Bryant and Wendy Seltzer ask, how does technology abet appropriation? How might it assist the useful designation of boundaries? Is the law keeping up?
Chris Claremont of X-Men fame will address thoughts and considerations that go into building a world that can support years of use.
Tucker Eskew explores the permanent campaign(s) of the last ten years. What is "message discipline" in an era of atomized opinion leadership -- a necessity or a fool's errand?
Ralph Baer on the continuum of invention, development, and marketing novel product ideas.
Ethan Gilsdorf will discuss some of the themes of his new book, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms.
Hannah Rose Shell screens and discusses her film-in-progress, called Blind, about the phenomenology of camouflage.
Elisa Kreisinger is a video remix artist, hacktivst and writer. She co-edits the blog, PoliticalRemixVideo.com.
Richard Rouse on the ways cinematic techniques can be used in gameplay to create even more stimulating experiences for gamers.
