Research Areas

• New media spaces, or: Alternate Realities, Database Aesthetics, and the Poetics of Space
• History and Theories of Participatory Culture and Art Practice
• Interaction Design for Social Media and Pervasive Computing




Statement

My research focuses on transmedia interaction design, with an emphasis on the design and implementation of cross-platform pervasive games. Such games — variants of which include Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), location-based games, mixed-reality social media games, and “Big Urban Games” — extend play and participation beyond the confines of a single screen, context, place, or time, using everything from mobile phone technology and social media to physical artifacts and face-to-face encounters between players and/or game runners in order to generate ongoing, meaningful, and immersive play and performance experiences. Because pervasive games are played in lived environments (both physical and virtual) and often involve place-specific interactions, creative engagements, and various kinds of social activity, the simple act of playing such games can be a transformative intervention into the practice of everyday life.