Author Archives: Victoria Szabo

Role Playing Game Night at Duke!

Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Time: 7pm-9pm
Location: Biddle Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Will Hansen, 919-660-5958 or william.hansen@duke.edu

Is studying for finals stressing you out? Or do you need a break from hectic holiday shopping? Please join the staff of the Rubenstein Library to for a night of fun and games to celebrate the opening for research of the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Role-Playing Games. The collection, one of the first to be available at a research institution, contains thousands of boxed sets, game books, accessories, card games, and manuscript records from the 1970s to the present, documenting the history of a medium that has grown into a worldwide cultural phenomenon. Rare and unique materials from the collection will be on display.

Come play a classic board or card game with friends old and new, enjoy refreshments, and learn more about the history of games. We hope to see you there!

Spring 2012 Workshops

DATES AND TIMES TBA unless otherwise noted.

Recurring Events:

  • iApp programming (Wednesday nights; independent study options available)
  • Spring “critical” play group: pick a game, have someone introduce it, and then go!
  • Game design – modding board games; white papers – 101 board game recipes for inspiration

One-time/Short Workshops:

  • Unity 3D (short session)
  • Arduino (short session)
  • EZ-IO board
  • DIY videogame cabinet
  • iPack workshop
  • Interface Design

Upcoming Speaker: Mobile App Developer Matt Bischoff

Mobile Application Development
Matthew Bischoff, Lickability.net

7 December 2011, Noon – 1:30PM
Smith Warehouse
FHI “Garage” (Bay 4, Downstairs, Room C105)
Lunch will be served

Please join us for a lunchtime conversation at Noon, Wed, Dec 7 in the FHI Garage in Smith Warehouse Bay 4 with Mobile App Developer Matt Bischoff of lickability.net. Matt has been a successful independent developer, and recently got a job with the New York Times to develop mobile apps for the newspaper. He both has programming chops and a background in graphic arts and UI. He is a strong proponent of UI and believes this is the key to a successful app. I’m sure we can all learn a lot from Matt’s experience, so hope to see you there! All are welcome.

Spring 2012 Lab-Related Courses and Opportunities

Artificial Life, Culture, and Evolution
ISIS 72/COMPSCI 72/VISUALST 72A
Nick Gessler
TTH 10:05-12:55 in Link Classroom 6

Alternate Reality Games
ISIS 275S/LIT 265S/VMS TBA
Tim Lenoir
W 1:30-4 in Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C104 (GTG Lab)

Comparative Media Studies: Transmedia Narratives
LIT 215S/ISIS215S:
Kate Hayles
M 2:50-5:20 in Friedl 120

Digital Durham 3.0 Group Independent Study
ISIS 199.01 or VMS 198B.40 (undergrad) or VMS 298B-40 (grad)
Victoria Szabo
Meeting times TBA
by permission

iApp Development Workshop/Tutorial
ISIS 195T (undergrad) or 295T (grad)
Victoria Szabo/Chris Davis
W 7:15-9:30 in Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, Room C104 (GTG Lab)
by permission; non-enrolled participation pending space available

 

Project-based Connections:

ISIS Research Capstone (ISIS Capstone students only; some projects)
ISIS 200
Victoria Szabo
M 615-9p in Smith 228

Computational Media (MFA Students only; some projects)
MFAEDA 313
Victoria Szabo
TH 130-4 in Smith Warehouse, Room 228

The Digital Muse: The Internet, Social Media, and Contemporary Poetics on 11/11/11

Special Panel and Exhibit at the One Makes Many Colloquium in the Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C105 “Garage” on Friday, November 11, 2011

2:45-4:15  The Digital Muse: The Internet, Social Media, and Contemporary Poetics

w/ Steve Roggenbuck, Dan Anderson, and Bill Seaman (Moderator: Patrick Herron)

Exhibit of featured speakers’ digital poetry work opens in the GreaterThanGames Lab (FHI Bay 4, C104) 11AM – 6PM on Friday.

**

Panel and Exhibit Co-sponsored by the FHI GreaterThanGames Lab and the Program in Information Science + Information Studies

For full event information and schedule see the One Makes Many event website.

 

Visiting Artist Tamiko Thiel 10/3

The MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts  invites you to meet pioneering Augmented Reality artist,

Tamiko Thiel

Artist Talk and Reception
Monday, October 3
6:15-8pm
FHI Garage – C105, Bay 4, 1st Floor, Smith Warehouse

Internationally exhibited new media artist Tamiko Thiel is interested in developing the dramatic and narrative capabilities of interactive 3D virtual reality as a medium for addressing social and cultural issues. She lectures internationally on the creation of meaning in art and of dramatic experience in time-based and interactive media. She is developing a theory of dramatic structure for virtual reality that merges concepts of structured experience from music theory, drama and urban planning together with the possibilities for user engagement and immersion provided by first-person interactivity.

Thiel has taught and lectured internationally at such institutions as Carnegie Mellon University; the MIT Media Lab; the Bauhaus-University in Weimar, Germany; the University of California/San Diego; the USC School of Cinema-Television; and the School of Film and Television in Babelsberg, Germany. A founding member of the cyberartist group Manifest.AR, she participated in the path-breaking augmented reality exhibit “We AR in MoMA,” an uninvited guerilla takeover of MoMA New York. Her recent projects include interventions at the Museum of Modern Art, NY and the 54th  International Venice Bienniale, Italy.

This lecture is presented as part of the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts Visiting Artist Series, in collaboration with Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS) , Art, Art History and Visual Studies (AAHVS), the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), and the Program of the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI)

Tamiko will also be doing an Augmented Reality Workshop for the MFA students and some ISIS and GreaterThanGames students on Wednesday, 10/5 from 3-6pm in the Old Carpentry Shop (next to Smith Warehouse). Space is limited; please contact Victoria Szabo for more information or sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/TamikoThielAR

Digital Durham 2.0 -> 3.0

Last Spring, Trudi Abel and Victoria Szabo taught a class called Digital Durham where students took materials from the online Digital Durham archive, as well as primary source materials from Special Collections, and combined them together into Google Earth Map mashups. They used these materials to generate spatial history arguments about particular aspects of Durham’s history and culture, emphasizing 20th century transformations in its physical aspects, human geography, and build landscapes. We called the resulting projects Digital Durham 2.0 to reflect the ways in which students were remixing and participating in creating new views on a database of content.

Digital Durham 3.0 is an effort to bring some of that history to life though augmented reality applications that “rez” the annotations created for the Google Maps into lived experience of the city through online annotations. Users will be able to load up our “layer” and have information about the spaces they are visiting pop up as part of a larger critical narrative around Durham’s history. Later this semester we’ll demonstrate some of this work to the public!

GreaterThanGames Game Night -POSTPONED!

Due to numerous scheduling conflicts among our Lab members and affiliates, and the fact that we haven’t yet received and/or set up all our gaming equipment just yet, we are POSTPONING the GreaterThanGames Lab game night we had originally planned for this evening. We anticipate rescheduling for late September/early October when we have had time to settle in and sort our schedules.

Many apologies for the late notice. We will let everyone know when the new time is set, and hope to see you all there.

In the meantime, if you were planning on coming to the session tonight, we urge you to set aside that time and play games on your own!

Summer Planning

Hello everyone. As we gear up for our Fall 2011 start, our space in Smith Warehouse Bay 4 is being set up for action. We’ll offer some of our courses there, have machines, tables, and other equipment set up for project work, and will have regular Lab meetings in the new space. We also anticipate hosting game nights and other activities. Looking forward to seeing you all soon!