Serendipity, ubicomp, and “over-coded smart cities”: an interview with Mark Shepard, creator of Serendipitor
Mark Shepard is an artist, architect and researcher whose post-disciplinary practice addresses new social…
Serendipity with an edge: A chat with Benrik about Situationist App
Situationist is an iPhone app that injects surprise and serendipity into everyday life. The app uses geolocation…
Jeff Hull on The Games of Nonchalance: a guerrilla street war against banality and routine
In the Games of Nonchalance, participants experience a vast transmedia interactive narrative woven into the fabric of the Bay Area, following threads of story and mystery through city streets and a wide array of on- and offline media artifacts. I caught up with Jeff Hull shortly after his appearance at IndieCade.
Subtlemob creator Duncan Speakman on “framing everyday realities”
Duncan Speakman’s Subtlemob project, “As if it were the last time,” will be taking place…
Transforming space with play: an interview with David Fono of Atmosphere Industries
Atmosphere Industries is a Toronto-based cross-media design collective whose projects “combine…
Taking risks and dancing with audiences: Andrea Phillips on writing for transmedia and ARGs
In this interview, Andrea Phillips discusses her creative process and the formal and technical limitations (and possibilities) of ARGs and other playful forms of transmedia storytelling.
Trans-Canada transmedia: Christopher Bolton’s multi-platform search for identity, sound, and story
This interview is a snapshot of Christopher Bolton’s thinking as his transmedia project, In Search of Gordon Lightfoot, moves through the funding process and into the first stages of pre-production.
Trap doors and hatches all around: Jeff Hull on infusing variability and play into the workaday world
Nonchalance’s practice stands at the intersection of three core concepts: Narrative, Consciousness, and Space (both public and private). Founded in Oakland in 1999 by director Jeff Hull, the organization’s primary goal is to infuse more variability and play into the civic realm.
Learning by ARG: an interview with Mela Kocher Lennstroem
Mela Kocher Lennstroem is a Swiss games researcher currently living in San Diego, where she conducts post-doctoral research on “the blurring of reality and fiction in digital media, especially in ARGs.”
Talking story with Jan Libby
Knowing that Jan Libby is a prolific and talented indie ARG designer, I asked her if she would be interested in doing a short interview about how she plans and evolves her games — and about the important role of story in the future of ARGs. We exchanged a few emails, and Jan sent me these responses — along with some great behind-the-scenes images from her upcoming indie storyworld, 36nine…
Building a vast world with an indie board game: an interview with James Taylor
In this brief interview, I ask game designer James Taylor a few questions about how his latest board game engages players in consuming and producing story both within and beyond the boundaries of the magic circle.