The metal thimble has a very particular Depression-era provenance.
This week, Hasbro announced the results of an online vote on the future of tokens in the board game Monopoly. The results are startling: the boot, wheelbarrow, and thimble have been expunged from the iconic game, replaced by a Tyrannosaurus rex, rubber ducky, and penguin. Voters passed up over 60 other contenders, among them an emoji and a hashtag. It’s… read more
How self-driving vehicles took off
After attending the 1964 World’s Fair, the science-fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote an essay in The New York Times imagining a visit to the World’s Fair 50 years in the future, in 2014. Among his predictions: “Much effort will be put into the designing of vehicles with ‘robot-brains’—vehicles that can be set for particular destinations and that will then proceed there without interference by… read more
1989 Any particle physicist can have a website! 1993 Any researcher can have a website! 1995 Anybody at a university can have a website! 1996 Any company can have a website! 1997 Anybody can have a crappy website! 2001 Anybody can have a decent website if it’s a blog! 2003 Tech companies can help anybody have a blog! 2005 Big… read more
Videos of the Art History of Games talks are now available on YouTube. They’re a bit easier to watch this way, not to mention easier to embed. The whole event was so superb, it’s tough for me to pick favorites. But if I had to, I’d probably settle on talks by Frank Lantz and Brenda Brathwaite, which you can find… read more
Go watch the awesome talks
Back in February, Georgia Tech Digital Media and SCAD Atlanta held the Art History of Games conference, which I organized along with Michael Nitsche and John Sharp. We had an amazing group of speakers as well as an opening for three commissioned games. It was unbelievably amazing in every way (here’s a summary), but until now only the attendees knew… read more
Day 2 and Exhibition Opening
We’re already into the third and final day of the Art History of Games symposium, and as an organizer I haven’t even tried to blog the talks. You’re best bet is to check out coverage online (Gamasutra covered part, but not all, of yesterday’s sessions), or to review the Twitter stream on hashtag #AHoG. Last night’s exhibition opening was great;… read more
Day One
This evening we began the Art History of Games symposium here in Atlanta, organized by Savannah College of Art and Design – Atlanta and Georgia Tech. After introductions, myself and my co-organizers John Sharp and Michael Nitsche presented a discussion of the concept of an art history of games. Then John Romero presented his keynote “Masters among Us,” about learning… read more
From the BBC and the British Museum
Yet another high-profile slate of objects to report. The BBC and the British Museum are collaborating on a set of radio programs detailing a history of the world in 100 objects. The objects are drawn from the collection of the British Museum, and the radio program begins tomorrow (18 January). The BBC has also produced a multimedia explorer that allows… read more
A Symposium, hosted by Georgia Tech and SCAD
The Art History of Games is a three-day public symposium in which members of the fields of game studies, art history and related areas of cultural studies gather to investigate games as an art form. Speakers include me, Brenda Brathwaite, Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, Henry Lowood, Christiane Paul, John Romero, and more. Also featured in the conference is the premiere… read more
The Atari in the Boston Globe
The Boston Globe today features an interview with Nick Montfort, my Racing the Beam co-author, about the Atari VCS and our new book. My favorite part of the interview is reproduced below: IDEAS: People … are still creating 2600 cartridges? MONTFORT: At this point, it’s sort of more like zines as opposed to commercial book publishing. It’s on a different… read more