<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
yes "computers as theater" has also been a very important book for
me in my journey; yay brenda laurel! :)<br>
<br>
h : )<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/04/15 6:41 11AM, Ana Valdés wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAFbYiEKRkkJqyE7FzpNrBdmOLq-O7Y3KUuo-w0cmnuU7TB1wGw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------</pre>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<br>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div>
<div>Hi empyre and all guests and specially to Brenda
Laurel! Maybe you don't remember me, we met in Stockholm
when the world was very young and the web was still
unexplored :) I read at that time your excellent book
"Computers as Theater" and I travelled later to Palo Alto
to make an interview with you. At that time you were
working at Interval Research and you were launching Purple
Moon. I wrote at that time for Swedens largest newspaper,
Dagens Nyheter, and I made enthusiastical reviews about
all the games you launched. Games based on collaboration
and networking, games without violence, games aimed to
develop leadership and comradeship.<br>
</div>
I wrote a book called "Women@Internet" where my interview
with you was published. Sadly the book is only available in
Swedish :(<br>
</div>
Very nice to meet you again after all those years, you were a
real pioneer and I am glad your work has been recognized in
it's just value.<br>
</div>
Ana<br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 6:41 PM, Brenda
Laurel <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:blaurel@soe.ucsc.edu" target="_blank">blaurel@soe.ucsc.edu</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">----------empyre-
soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<p>I’ve been interested in gender issues in computer
gaming
for many years. In 1996, after 4 years of qualitative
research with over 1000
girls and boys throughout the US, I co-founded Purple
Moon, a company to create
interactive media explicitly for 8-12-year-old girls.
This was the “girl games”
moment with many entries into the field from such
companies as Her Interactive
and Mattel with “Barbie Fashion Designer.” Purple Moon’s
first mission was to
learn as much as we could about how girls play and then
to create interactive
experiences that took advantage of these insights in
order to encourage girls
to put their hands on the machine. In this period, girls
were extremely
reluctant to play computer games and were generally both
afraid of the
technology and afflicted with the belief that using it
would be
gender-transgressive. As we did the interviews, however,
another goal emerged
that would overshadow the first. We saw the opportunity
to meet girls where
they were (including their social structures, dreams and
fears). We strove to
encourage through play a cultural intervention to
counter the sort of female
gender identity as promulgated by the enforcers of a
consumerist, sexist status
quo (exemplified by Mattel).</p>
<p>We decided to make a cultural intervention in the
definition of femininity itself, including stereotypes
about beauty, proper
behavior, intelligence, social interaction and
self-esteem. Purple Moon lasted
for about 3 years until its investors pulled their
funding to move to web-based
enterprises that promised greater valuations and
profits. Just as we released
our eighth game we were suddenly taken into Chapter 7
bankruptcy. We raided our
real estate deposit to be sure that all 40+ employees
went home with a paycheck
that day. Later, we persuaded our investors to choose
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
instead so that the company might be sold. Purple Moon
was eventually acquired
and killed by Mattel, as were most of the girl game
properties of the time, and
the party was over. However, I still get mail at least
once a week from former
Purple Moon players thanking me for our efforts and
testifying to the positive
differences the games made in their lives. Usually I
send them a copy of my
book Utopian Entrepreneur that talks about how the
sausage was made.</p>
<p>More recently, I have done design research with my
students on such topics as the construction of
masculinity in relation to media
with 6-year-old boys. I have just finished another
design research project with
my UCSC game design students looking at ways to make
interventions for kids
with math anxiety. Over the last three years I have
become more closely
affiliated with feminists in games as well as with the
queer games movement. I
believe that games can serve to disrupt stereotypes –
most importantly, the
stereotypes that young people apply to themselves. I
also believe that the
current efflorescence in queer gaming reflects a desire
to create social and
personal spaces where one feels safe and happy in one’s
own skin. I see games
as a powerful force for cultural intervention in
stereotypical identities and
as places where one may investigate alternative versions
of one’s own identity.</p>
<br>
<div>
<div>On Apr 8, 2015, at 1:56 PM, Soraya Murray <<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:semurray@ucsc.edu" target="_blank">semurray@ucsc.edu</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">----------empyre- soft-skinned
space----------------------<br>
Welcome to WEEK 2 of -empyre's April 2015 discussion
dedicated to Digital Media and the Interstices of
Identity.<br>
<br>
The WEEK 2 theme focuses on issues of GAMES AND
REPRESENTATION. These matters have dramatically come
to the fore in recent months, although in truth these
challenges have faced the games industry and its
visual cultural production since its inception.
#GamerGate, which purports itself to be about ethics
in games journalism, came in the form of misogynistic
treatment and violent threats against outspoken women
in games who were labeled "Social Justice Warriors"
out to destroy games by demanding the industry adhere
to so-called PC politics. Women have been threatened,
like Anita Sarkeesian, who critiques games for their
sexism, and Zoey Quinn, an alternative game designer
publicly and falsely maligned by her ex on his blog,
setting off a firestorm of debate about her, but also
about the state of games criticism. Their private
information has been hacked, circulated online with
the entreatment that they should be harmed or even
killed. In any event, recent games 'culture wars',
notably (but not exclusively) #GamerGate, definitively
confirmed that games traffic in the politics of
representation, just as any other form of mass media.
Among other things, the burgeoning indie and
alternative games movement(s) happening strike a
hopeful note that games and their representations can
be more, and can be better than the dominant industry
would offer. Also, the demographics of those who play
have changed, making the term "gamer" (a label which
is under its own duress) potentially more diverse than
ever. <br>
<br>
I'm interested to hear from our many guests, some
newer to games, some who have been in and around the
industry for many years, about their sense of the
terrain. As with last week's guests, I would like to
begin by asking each of our discussants to talk a
little bit about a recent project, and outline some of
their intellectual investments, or individual "stake"
in the week's topic. <br>
<br>
<br>
Guests for Week 2: GAMES AND REPRESENTATION<br>
Shira Chess (US) / Brenda Laurel (US) / Jennifer
Malkowski (US) / Stacey Mason (US) / TreaAndrea
Russworm (US) / Sarah Schoemann (US) / <br>
<br>
Biographies:<br>
<br>
SHIRA CHESS is a critical/cultural theorist whose work
interrogates several aspects of gaming and digital
culture. Her primary research project considers ways
which women gamers are marginalized: through industry
conventions, textual constructs, and audience
placements of the games deliberately designed for this
audience. Recent published articles have examined the
#GamerGate phenomenon, as well as several casual game
designs, and the use of romance in video games.
Additionally, her research also deals with broader
aspects of digital culture and pervasive gaming, such
as Ingress, Alternate Reality Gaming, and the Slender
Man. Recently she co-authored Folklore, Horror
Stories, and the Slender Man: The Development of an
Internet Mythology (Palgrave, 2014). Her research on
gaming and digital culture has been published in
Critical Studies in Media Communication; The Journal
of Broadcasting and Electronic Media; Feminist Media
Studies; New Media & Society; Games and Culture;
and Information, Communication & Society as well
as several essay collections. She is an Assistant
Professor of Mass Media Arts at the Grady College of
Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of
Georgia. Information on her research can be found at
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.shirachess.com" target="_blank">http://www.shirachess.com</a>.
<br>
<br>
<br>
BRENDA LAUREL has worked in interactive media since
1976 as a designer, researcher, writer and teacher.
She worked in the computer game industry from Atari to
Activision. She also worked in research labs at Atari,
Interval Research, and Sun Labs where she was a
Distinguished Engineer. She currently serves as an
adjunct professor in Computational Media and research
associate in the Digital Arts and New Media programs
at U. C. Santa Cruz. Her current work focuses on
design research and learning tools. She served as
founding chair of the Graduate Program in Design at
California College of Arts from 2006 to 2012. She
designed and chaired the Graduate Media Design Program
at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="tel:%282001-2006"
value="+59820012006" target="_blank">(2001-2006</a>).
Based on her research in gender and technology at
Interval Research (1992-1996), she co-founded Purple
Moon in 1996 to create interactive media for girls. In
1990 she co-founded Telepresence Research, focusing on
virtual reality and remote presence. Her books include
The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design (1990),
Utopian Entrepreneur (2001), and Design Research:
Methods and Perspectives (2004), and Computers as
Theatre, Second Edition (2014). She earned her BA
(1972) from DePauw University and her MFA (1975) and
PhD in Theatre (1986) from the Ohio State University.<br>
<br>
<br>
JENNIFER MALKOWSKI (Ph.D. University of California,
Berkeley) is Assistant Professor of Comparative Media
Studies and Film Studies at Miami University of Ohio.
Her book manuscript Dying in Full Detail: Mortality
and Digital Documentary is under contract at Duke
University Press, and her work has been published in
Jump Cut, Film Quarterly, and the anthology Queers in
American Popular Culture. She is also co-editing a
collection, Identity Matters: Race, Gender, and
Sexuality in Video Game Studies.<br>
<br>
<br>
STACEY MASON is a writer, critic, and researcher of
interactive narratives. She is currently working
toward her Ph.D. in Computer Science with the
Expressive Intelligence Studio at the University of
California, Santa Cruz. Stacey formerly worked as an
editor of interactive literature for Eastgate Systems,
a renowned publisher of hypertext literature. She also
writes about feminism and gaming culture, and
advocates for women in gaming and tech industries.<br>
<br>
<br>
TREAANDREA M. RUSSWORM received her Ph.D. in English
from The University of Chicago. Currently an
Assistant Professor of English at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, her articles and book chapters
have appeared in Teaching Media, Flow, and in the
anthologies Watching While Black and Game On,
Hollywood! She is the co-editor of two edited
collections, From Madea to Media Mogul: Theorizing
Tyler Perry, and Identity Matters: Race, Gender, and
Sexuality in Video Game Studies. Professor Russworm’s
monograph, Blackness is Burning, is about race,
popular culture, and the problem of recognition.<br>
<br>
<br>
SARAH SCHOEMANN is the founder of Different Games and
a doctoral student in Digital Media at Georgia
Institute of Technology. Her research on interactive
tech and games investigates the implications of
accessible media and tech as tools for personal
expression and social critique within various
communities of practice. She is interested in
considering the ways the work of individual creators
and communities can speak to broader issues of equity
and social justice, both online and off. More
information may be found at: <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sarahschoemann.com" target="_blank">www.sarahschoemann.com</a><br>
<br>
___________________________<br>
Soraya Murray, Ph.D.<br>
Assistant Professor <br>
Film + Digital Media Department<br>
University of California, Santa Cruz<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au"
target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu"
target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
<div class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://anavaldes.wordpress.com/"
target="_blank">https://anavaldes.wordpress.com/</a><br>
</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.twitter.com/caravia158"
target="_blank">www.twitter.com/caravia158</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/"
target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia"
target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0"
target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
<br>
<div><br>
<br>
cell Sweden +4670-3213370<br>
cell Uruguay +598-99470758<br>
<br>
<br>
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever
walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for
there you have been and there you will always long to
return. <br>
— Leonardo da Vinci</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<br>
<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
empyre forum
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
helen varley jamieson<br>
<a href="mailto:helen@creative-catalyst.com">helen@creative-catalyst.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.creative-catalyst.com">http://www.creative-catalyst.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.talesfromthetowpath.net">http://www.talesfromthetowpath.net</a><br>
<a href="http://www.upstage.org.nz">http://www.upstage.org.nz</a></div>
</body>
</html>