Are games worthy of academic attention? Can they be used effectively in the classroom, in the research laboratory, as an innovative design tool, as a persuasive political weapon? Game Mods: Design, Theory and Criticism aims to answer... more
Are games worthy of academic attention? Can they be used effectively in the classroom, in the research laboratory, as an innovative design tool, as a persuasive political weapon? Game Mods: Design, Theory and Criticism aims to answer these and more questions. It features chapters by authors chosen from around the world, representing fields as diverse as architecture, ethnography, puppetry, cultural studies, music education, interaction design and industrial design. How can we design, play with and reflect on the contribution of game mods, related tools and techniques, to both game studies and to society as a whole?
This article evaluates the practical limitations and dramatic possibilities of modding (which means modifying) the commercial role-playing game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the visualization and exploration of literature. The latest... more
This article evaluates the practical limitations and dramatic possibilities of modding (which means modifying) the commercial role-playing game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the visualization and exploration of literature. The latest version of a 20 year-old game franchise, Skyrim has inspired various writings and musings on its relation to Digital Humanities. Digital Humanities has moved to a more immersive, participative, tool-making medium, a recent report on digital archives has proposed digital tools integrate with history curricula (Sampo, 2014) and that “digital history may narrow the gap between academic and popular history”. Can games also be used to promote traditional literary mediums as well as experiential and immersive archives?
This physical computing project proposes a circle of re-purposing, in which both the interface and content are repurposed, and portions of the content are updated according to geographical location of its exhibition. The artefact employed... more
This physical computing project proposes a circle of re-purposing, in which both the interface and content are repurposed, and portions of the content are updated according to geographical location of its exhibition. The artefact employed is a repurposed bicycle intended to navigate computer-based environments. There is a history of cycle repurposing for this intention, from Jeffrey Shaw's Media Art project The Legible City to commercial sports cycle simulators such as Tacx; however, very few projects propose a repurposing of a cycle interface along with the content, as well as a geographically-specific repurposing. The main research concern continues a 25-year project by the author into the formal and material uses of 'found, sampled and stolen' (Media N, 2012) objects. While this concept has been explored in extensive terms in relation to Sound and Media Art, in Interaction Design the uses of repurposed materials has yet to be extensively theorised. This paper proposes a provocation in the form of a repurposed artefact, not merely for the purpose of denying originality, but as a means of illustrating how repurposing can create a skewed version of the original(s) and therefore create new meaning. In the face of limited resources, repurposing also serves as a potentially advantageous option for Interaction Designers.
This is an author draft of a paper that will be available soon as below: Champion, Erik Malcolm. 'Ludic Literature: Evaluating Skyrim for Humanities Modding'. In: Proceedings of the Digital Humanities Congress 2014.... more
This is an author draft of a paper that will be available soon as below: Champion, Erik Malcolm. 'Ludic Literature: Evaluating Skyrim for Humanities Modding'. In: Proceedings of the Digital Humanities Congress 2014. Studies in the Digital Humanities. Sheffield: HRI Online Publications, 2015. Available online at: <http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/openbook/chapter/dhc2014-champion> This article evaluates the practical limitations and dramatic possibilities of modding (which means modifying) the commercial role-playing game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the visualization and exploration of literature. The latest version of a 20 year-old game franchise, Skyrim has inspired various writings and musings on its relation to Digital Humanities. Digital Humanities has moved to a more immersive, participative, tool-making medium, a recent report on digital archives has proposed digital tools integrate with history curricula (Sampo, 2014) and that “digital history may narrow the gap between academic and popular history”. Can games also be used to promote traditional literary mediums as well as experiential and immersive archives?
The talk introduced the audience to emerging findings form the Revolution workshops that I was leading with groups of home-schooled students at the Teacher Education Lab at MIT. Revolution offers young people an opportunity to re-live a... more
The talk introduced the audience to emerging findings form the Revolution workshops that I was leading with groups of home-schooled students at the Teacher Education Lab at MIT. Revolution offers young people an opportunity to re-live a day-in-the-life of an ordinary person living in 18th century colonial Williamsburg prior to the outbreak of the American War of Independence. The talk demonstrates the game, introduces the audience to the model of a game-based pedagogy that I developed throughout a series of workshops (later conceived as a design experiment) and provides examples of students' experiences of learning about aspects of social history through immersion in the Revolution game world. The talk concludes with a demonstration of one of the machinema video diaries produced by a 15 year old girl using Window Movie maker to re-tell her story of participating in the virtual cyber-drama.
This talk generated a great deal of interest among the serious games community and led to invitations to presented at the London Knowledge Lab and the JISC Online Conference 2006. "
