Exploring Synthetic Worlds

Synthetic worlds — persistent, networked 3D spaces that mimic certain aspects of reality — are increasingly popular sites for work and play. This course investigates the social, cultural, scientific, and political implications of virtual worlds and persistent massively multiplayer environments.

Hacking Critical Theory

This course will examine the practice of critical theory in the 20th and 21st centuries, especially as it relates to technology. We will consider a broad swath of Western thought, ranging from Marx and Nietzsche to Avital Ronell and Slavoj Zizek. Drawing on their individual interests in contemporary digital technologies and associated cultural practices, students will engage the praxis of critique by reverse-engineering critical theories of their own.

Fall 2009 Garrison LeMasters
CCTP-628 Interactivity Immersion + Play

Is interactivity a property of the medium, or a perception of the user? How do the affordances of immersive technologies resituate our experience of the world? Is play an inherently innovative or derivative activity?

Interactivity, Immersion, and Play are three of the most widely-cited, but poorly understood, affordances of “new media.” With an emphasis on video games, simulative technologies, and “2.0” narrativity, this synthetic course will consider these three interrelated concepts from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including the historical, philosophical, rhetorical, technical, and aesthetic. We will weigh theory against praxis, supplementing scholarly and philosophical texts with weekly case studies of interactive technologies, immersive environments, and playful design.

During the semester, students will write and publish a work of interactive fiction (IF) using Inform, a natural-language design system.

The course will culminate in the public presentation of experimental interactive installations designed and built by the students.