Playthink is back and Zoomier than ever!! Please join us for a Zoom conversation between Eric Zimmerman and Tracy Fullerton about the recently released “The Infinite Playground,” the final book by visionary game designer Bernie De Koven, written with Holly Gramazio and edited by Celia Pearce and Eric Zimmerman. Eric and Tracy Fullerton will be discussing Bernie’s work, his influence on so many other designers, and the importance of the themes of his final book in our world today.

Bonnie Ruberg, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Informatics and the Program in Visual Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Their research explores gender and sexuality in digital media and digital cultures with a focus on queerness and video games. They are the author of Video Games Have Always Been Queer (2019, New York University Press) and The Queer Games Avant-Garde (2020, Duke University Press) and the co-editor of Queer Game Studies (2017, University of Minnesota Press). Ruberg is also the co-founder and co-organizer of the annual Queerness and Games Conference. They received their Ph.D. with certification in New Media and Gender and Sexuality Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and served as a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Interactive Media and Games Division at the University of Southern California.

For this Playthink session, we’re changing up the format! Bonnie will do a talk at 5:30PM in SCB 104 (just next door in the Animation building) and we will do our podcast interview earlier in the day. If you are in the neighborhood, please come to the talk and, if you can’t make it in person, look for the follow up interview here on the Playthink podcast!

Talk abstract:

"Video Games Have Always Been Queer"

Video games are a site of rich potential for exploring gender, sexuality, and identity. This talk explores the relationship between video games and queerness. It looks beyond LGBTQ representation in games (such as the inclusion of LGBTQ people and romances on screen) and argues that video games themselves can be understood as queer. To do this, it points to three key ways of finding queer experiences within games: through interpretation, through play, and through design. Looking forward to future work, it also demonstrates the queer implications of the underlying technologies on which video games are built. At once conceptual and political, this work insists that queer people have always belonged in video games, because video games have always been queer.

Liz Ryerson is a composer, critic, and occasional game designer and podcaster. She is an avowed leftist and a co-founder of Game Workers Unite. She believes strongly that the power of action of people, both collectively and by individuals, against large corporate conglomerates is crucial to preserving and forwarding digital culture for the better of humanity. Her artistic and curation work often explores the strange, ephemeral, and oft-ignored aspects of the digital culture. Notable works include her experimental game Problem Attic, the music for the IGF-nominated Dys4ia, and the music and sound for the cult game Crypt Worlds. She has also written for publications like Jacobin, The New Inquiry, and Waypoint about the political relationship between games and broader culture.

Join us for a conversation between Liz and USC Games professor Jane Pinckard on April 23rd in the SCI 201 Fishbowl at 5:30PM. All are welcome!

Paul Slocum is an artist, software developer, curator, and musician based in Pasadena, California. He is director of a new media art gallery called And/Or Gallery that exhibits digital art and develops software for digital art displays and music. He has performed music and exhibited artwork internationally at numerous venues including The New Museum of Contemporary Art and Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York, The National Center for the Arts in Mexico City, README Software Art Conference in Denmark, The Liverpool Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, The Dallas Museum of Art, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. His best known work is the Metro PCS "Hello Hello Hello" jingle. 

Join us at Playthink for a conversation between Slocum and Tracy Fullerton about art games, curating digital art and art in the age of play. March 26, 2019 at 5:30PM in the SCI Think Tank. All are welcome!

Videaux-Martinez’s work lives at the intersection of experience design, immersive storytelling and experiential learning. She creates projects and cultivates spaces that harness story, design, and technology as tools for critical play and social dreaming. She is currently serving as a Designer-in-Residence at the Critical Design and Gaming School (C\DAGS) in South Central Los Angeles. http://www.hawkinscdags.com/ In this role, Videaux-Martinez is designing an experiential learning model and play-space a.k.a. the Imagination Lab (ImL).

Join us for a conversation about design, learning and play with Videaux-Martinex and Jeff Watson in the SCI Think Tank on February 26 at 5:30PM to kick off a new semester of Playthink!

Lauren Ludwig is an LA-­based multimedia director and writer who grew up outside of Syracuse, NY. She regularly helms the Los Angeles comedy show Lost Moon Radio, which she co-founded in 2009. With Lost Moon Radio, she created the television sketch comedy show Passive Aggressive History which aired on truTV last year. Lauren's immersive theater show Hamlet-Mobile (an adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet staged in a cargo van) was included in the anthology Best Plays from American Theater Festivals 2015 and was the winner of the Best Game Design award at IndieCade 2016. This summer Lauren directed a sold out run of a new original immersive show, Red Flags, as part of the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Lauren is a founder of the filmmaking collective Darty Hall; with them she wrote and directed the feature, 5 Pilgrims. Lauren also directed the web series Ex-Girlfiend which won the truTV Development Award at the 2015 New York Television Festival. Lauren is a graduate of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women and Northwestern University. More information on Lauren's work at laurenludwig.com.

Monica Miklas is a creative producer and dramaturg with a career-long specialization in new work. In addition to her work with Capital W, she was an in­-house producer for Lost Moon Radio from 2010 to 2016, producing more than a dozen live music and comedy shows, as well as the company’s performance at the 33rd Annual LA Weekly Theater Awards at the Avalon. She served as the Executive Director of Lost Moon while attending CSULB's MBA/MFA Theatre Management program, which she completed in 2015. An active member of the Hollywood Fringe community, Monica co­-produced the 2013 Best of Fringe Extensions (now known as the Encore Series), has juried several sponsored awards, and in 2015 helped launch a creative workshop series for festival participants. At Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Monica produced special events and a guest artist residency program, and developed a tiny immersive concert experience called the MusicBox. More information on Monica's freelance event producing and theatre consulting can be found at monicamiklas.com.

Join us at Playthink for a conversation between Lauren Ludwig, Monica Miklas, and Jane Pinckard, Associate Professor of Cinematic Arts in Interactive Media & Games on November 20th, 2018 fro 5:30-6:30PM in the SCI 201 Think Tank. We will talk about immersive theatre and participatory play. All are welcome!

This conversation will be recorded as part of our Playthink podcast. This year, our salons will also be shorter, focused conversations. Beat the traffic home and join us for this fascinating conversation!

Brian Upton is an internationally-known game designer and game theorist with over 20 years of professional experience in the game industry.  For 14 years he worked as a senior game designer at Sony’s Santa Monica Studio where he collaborated with external teams on titles such as Fat Princess,Warhawk, Sorcery, Everybody Has Gone to the Rapture, Bound andHere They Lie.  Prior to joining Sony, he was the creative director at Red Storm Entertainment where he pioneered the tactical shooter genre as the lead designer on Rainbow Sixand Ghost Recon.  He is the author of two books on game design:The Aesthetic of Play and Situational Game Design.Currently he is working as a senior designer at Tangent Games.

Join us at Playthink for a conversation between Brian Upton and Tracy Fullerton, Professor of Cinematic Arts in Interactive Media & Games on October 16, 2018 fro 5:30-6:30PM in the SCI 201 Think Tank. This conversation will be recorded as part of our Playthink podcast. This year, our salons will also be shorter, focused conversations. Beat the traffic home and join us for this fascinating conversation!

Adam Badawy is a computational social scientist and a PhD candidate in the Political Science Department and Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at the University of Southern California (USC). Working at the Machine Intelligence and Data Science Lab, Adam uses machine learning, network analysis, and natural language processing to study and measure malicious activities and political behavior on online social networks. His latest research on the political misinformation campaign during the 2016 US presidential elections has been covered widely by various news outlets, including the MIT Technology Review, VOX , infobae, and PBS NewsHour.

Here is his latest article on "Analyzing the Digital Traces of Political Manipulation: The 2016 Russian Interference Twitter Campaign".

Join us at Playthink for a conversation between Adam Badawy and Jeff Watson, Assistant Professor of Cinematic Arts in Interactive Media & Games on September 18, 2018 fro 5:30-6:30PM in the SCI 201 Think Tank. This conversation will be recorded as part of our inaugural Playthink podcast re-design. This year, our salons will also be shorter, focused conversations. Beat the traffic home and join us for this fascinating conversation!

Join us at 6:00pm on Tuesday, February 6th, in SCI 201 at the USC School of Cinematic Arts for a discussion about games and play as art and culture. The theme for this Playthink salon is “Play for Justice.” We’ll be thinking of ways that play can intervene and intersect with themes of resistance, social justice, and equality!

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS:

Playthink is asking for presentations, talks, demos, panels, etc. around the theme of PLAY FOR JUSTICE! Works in progress for which you want feedback are especially welcome. We also invite projects that can be demoed and will organize exhibition space if we have enough submissions of that nature.

The session will take place Tuesday, January 23rd, from 6-9PM in SCI 201, USC School of Cinematic Arts, 3470 McClintock Ave Los Angeles, CA 90089. Refreshments will be served!

Examples of submissions could be:

A demo of a game with justice themes you’re working on.

Your research on how play subverts power structures.

A history or review of ways play has challenged oppression.

A panel discussion on protest games.

An investigation into trolling behaviors on social media as a form of harmful play.

These are just examples! If you have a question about whether something you’re working on is a fit, just ask!

Submission Guidelines:

The deadline to submit is December 15th. Email your submission to Jane Pinckard [[email protected]].

Please submit an abstract or an explanation of what you will present. This should be between 250 and 1000 words long. Make sure you explain how your content fits the theme. If you already have slides or a paper, you may submit them along with the abstract.

The format is flexible! Please specify what format your presentation is in. You can aim for 10-20 minutes, or a microtalk/Pecha Kucha style of 5 minutes.

Please include a brief Bio of yourself (and any co-presenters, if you are presenting as a group). (Bios do not count towards the word count.)

All are welcome to submit!

Any questions? Please contact Jane Pinckard: pinckard@ usc.edu. Thank you!

Please join us at 6:00pm on Tuesday, November 7th in SCI 201 at the USC School of Cinematic Arts for a discussion about games and play as art and culture. The theme for this Playthink salon is “Childhood.”

Featured speakers include:

Yuting Su is a passionate inventor with background in digital/physical game design, medical device design, and bioinformatics. She is the product creator and entrepreneur behind Thinker-Tinker, the company behind OCTOBO, a smart toy learning platform with a built in game controller and programmable content that enables real-time emotions and gameplay. Yuting has great interest in creating games and toys that combine physical and digital gameplay. Her works have been selected for the Experimental Gameplay Workshop in Game Developers Conference, alt.ctrl.GDC, IndieCade@E3, IndieCade, IndiePrize, and more. She is also one of the awardees of the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Games, 2017.

Margaret Moser is an educator and independent game designer in Los Angeles. Her work has been shown at Come Out & Play, Games4Change, and the Babycastles guerrilla game gallery in Brooklyn. She has spoken at GDC, AlterConf, and IndieCade East and served as a curator for IndieCade. She holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons.

Jake de Grazia is a software product manager, research project manager, editor, and writer. Part of him wants to be more of a writer and less of those other things. Past and present clients include the Norman Lear Center, the Annenberg Innovation Lab, the National Football League, and RUST LTD. His proudest creative works include Life Advice Radio, Future Hit Musical Sweatpants Wedding, and Mrs. Claus. He’s also a parent, which is his biggest and most important job.

The following IMGD MFA students will be also presenting work in progress:

Stephanie J. Henderson is an MFA student at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where she experiments with interactive narratives focusing on psychology, comedy, and trope subversion. She received an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in media production, psychology, and art history from the University of Arizona, and has spent a good decade in the Hollywood trenches where she has been a producer for nationally broadcast documentary television and film. Her current thesis project is centered around creating a transmedia world which can support a productive form of collaborative play with its audience. 

Please join us 6:00pm on Monday, April 25th in SCI 201 at the USC School of Cinematic Arts for a discussion about games and play as art and culture. The theme for this Playthink salon is “Bringing Games to Life.”

Featured speakers include:

Alenda Chang is an Assistant Professor in Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara. She specializes in the environmentally informed analysis of contemporary media. Her writing has recently appeared in electronic book review, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, and the new collection Sustainable Media, and her current book project develops ecological frameworks for understanding and designing digital games. She also maintains the site Growing Games as a resource for researchers in game studies and the environmental humanities: http://growinggames.net.

Harrison Gish is a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s Cinema and Media Studies department, an adjunct professor of film history at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Media Arts, and an editor at Sony Pictures. He is also a co-chair of the SCMS Video Game Studies Scholarly Interest Group. His work has appeared in CineAction, eLudamos, Mediascape, The Video Game Encyclopedia, and the UCLA Game Lab blog.

Ingmar Riedel-Kruse is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University. His lab focuses on Multi-cell Biophysics and Interactive Biotechnology. The advancements of “interactive and playful” electronics provide a major inspiration for the lab as current biotechnology has many parallels with electronics 5 decades ago, suggesting novel means for putting microbiology into the hands of experts and lay people alike. Ingmar received his Diploma in Theoretical Physics at the Technical University Dresden, did his PhD in experimental biophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, followed by a postdoc at Caltech.

The following IMGD MFA students will be also presenting work in progress:

Kylie Moses is an Interactive Media and Game Design MFA candidate at USC. She also graduated from Reed College in 2014. When she isn’t making games, she’s making fancy cakes. Grab a slice.

Bethany Martin is a New York native with an undergraduate in Fine Art from SUNY Albany. After graduating she spent two years working as a game artist in casino and social games. She is now pursuing her MFA in Interactive Media and Game Design at USC.