Videogames: Theory, Practice & Play [Nideffer, Salin & Gustafson]
1:30 to 4:30, Olin 149 [Sponsored by Carleton ITS, Instructional Technology Services]
Robert Nideffer's Interactive Project Map offers an overview of his research, teaching and publishing in the areas of virtual environments and behavior, interface theory and design, technology and culture, and contemporary social theory.
His work "Proxy, 2001" is currently online at the Whitney Museum Artport.
He has participated in a number of national and international online and offline exhibitions, speaking engagements and panels for a variety of professional conferences. Currently he is hard at play initiating an interdisciplinary program in Gaming Studies, and directing the newly formed Game Culture & Technology Lab.
Robert Nideffer has an MFA in Computer Arts, and a Ph.D. in Sociology, and is an Associate Professor in Studio Art and Information and Computer Science at UC Irvine, where he also serves as an Affiliated Faculty in the Visual Studies Program, and the Art, Computation and Engineering (ACE) Program.
Robert Nideffer's Curriculum Vita
Cal-ITSquared on Nideffer's "Proxy" at the Whitney
MetaGame Group at UC Irvine
GameSpy on the UC Irvine Game Studies
Salen: Of punk music, rock critic Greil Marcus writes, "The Sex Pistols made a breach in the pop milieu, in the screen of received cultural assumptions governing what one expected to hear and how one expected to respond." Decades later, the same DIY cultural sensibility would resurface in a video game called DOOM. As the game that introduced the world to the art of the mod, DOOM's infiltration of popular culture has reinvented the way we play. From the streets of Liberty City to the suburban living rooms of the Sims, players are remaking game systems in their own image. Street Mods will explore and celebrate games and game mods with an eye to urban identity, social resistance, and cultural play.
Katie Salen is the Director of Graduate Studies in the Design and Technology Program at Parsons School of Design, and does freelance interactive and game design for clients such as Microsoft, gameLab, the Design Institute, Eyebeam Atelier, and LEGO. She recently published Rules of Play, a game design textbook co-written with Eric Zimmerman (MIT Press), and is a contributing editor to RES Magazine. She has curated game-related content for the Lincoln Center, CinemaTexas, and the Walker Art Center. Katie secretly wishes she had more time to play.
Game Lab
Quake! Doom! Sims!: Transforming Play: Family Albums and Monster Movies
Cinema Texas
Big Urban Game
In the early 1980's, arcade games ushered in a whole new way to think about gaming, technology, and the social connection between the two. Yet over the course of the last 20 years, many of these works of art have been lost to destruction, decay, or simply forgotten altogether. Today, through the use of a technology called emulation, "Arcade Console" brings this archive of classic games back to life. 
Using a custom-built arcade cabinet created by Gus the Country Carpenter, "Arcade Console" mimics the look, feel and experience of a real arcade machine and includes virtually every arcade game ever created. It's a look back at the history and nostalgia of arcade gaming for those who remember it, and those who never had a chance to.
Brent Gustafson is a New Media Designer at the Walker Art Center, and holds a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. His interest in video games stems back to his childhood, and also through his work as a video gaming journalist for Gannett News Service in the early 1990's. His website, assembler.org, is a virtual playground for his video game projects.
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