[-empyre-] Introducing our guest moderator Claudia Costa Pederson (PT, NL) and our guest for Week 1 Paolo Pedercini (IT)

[Renate Ferro]

Welcome Claudia and thank you so much for agreeing to host this
month's conversation
"Videogames and Art: Incite/Insight.  Claudia and I are collaborating
this month, Claudia
providing the expertise in gaming. Our interests intersect in the area
of social activism and political action. Claudia has been a friend to
-empyre- for quite some time and a friendly face we see at Cornell
very often. It is a special treat for me to collaborate with Claudia
and I I know many of our -empyre- subscribers whose interests in
gaming and social activism have been looking forward to this month's
discussion.

Though we have introduced a core list of discussants this month we
will be adding to that list as the week progresses.  We would like to
introduce Paolo Pedercini an Italian game designer who teaches at
Carnegie Mellon to launch our discussion during Week 1.  Welcome Paolo
to -empyre-  We really look forward to hearing about your own work and
teaching.

Best, Renate Ferro
-empyre managing moderator

Bios below.

Claudia Costa Pederson received her Ph.D from the Art History and
Visual Studies Department at Cornell with a dissertation entitled
“Gaming the System.” Her research combines interests in the history
 and theory of art and social activism, with a focus on the digital
arts in the United States and Europe, and beyond, as currently
emerging, in cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural perspectives. Her
current projects include, a second edition of her most recent
> publication, a short book entitled Declaration of Sentiments/Gün
> (2011) written with a group of Turkish women working in cultural
> fields, from electronic media, to politics, music, literature, and the
> visual arts; and an essay on Latin American artists working in media
> arts, which are extensions of social struggles around environmental
> issues. Her work in various forms can be found online.
>
> Paolo Pedercini is an Italian game developer, artist and educator. He
> teaches digital media production and experimental game design at the
> School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. He usually works under
> the project name Molleindustria, hopping between digital art,
> academia, game design, media activism and internet folk art.
>
> Molleindustria [soft industry/soft factory] is a project of
> reappropriation of video games, a call for the radicalization of
> popular culture, an independent game developer. Since 2003 we produced
> homeopathic remedies to the idiocy of mainstream entertainment in the
> form of free, short-form, online games. Our products range from
> satirical business simulations (McDonald's Video game, Oiligarchy,
> Phone Story) to meditations on labor and alienation (Every day the
> same dream, Tuboflex, Unmanned), from playable theories (the Free
> Culture Game, Leaky World) to politically incorrect pseudo-games
> (Orgasm Simulator, Faith Fighter).