emerging practices

I’m not kidding. Something about the month of November at this latitude resonates with me — the bright leaves have more or less fallen from the trees and everything is wrapping itself up for a long winter. I’m a rust belt native, so the move from the greater Detroit area to Buffalo wasn’t that much of a jump, weatherwise. Today is a perfect example of what I love about this time of year — the sun is out, and it’s crisp, but not cold. I stayed the night at Jordan’s apartment last night after eating some great late night apple pie (thanks, Katy!), and I rode my bike back this morning feeling invigorated. This blog is my job for the heady month of November. Like Jordan I’m also a first year, but our interest differ.

I’m not a typical game scholar, but then, who is? While I play — and think about — my fair share of video games, I’m really interested in the places where game environments intersect with the real world, whether this takes the form of augmented reality play environments or alternate reality future forecasting. For someone who’s seen a lot of friendships pulled apart by well-designed realities like World of Warcraft, these kinds of engaging play environments are a perfect response.

I also think that play is one of the most audacious acts we can partake of in our current political climate. Play is earnest, innocent, exuberant, fun, and intellectually demanding. As a tool for education, organization, and community building, play is a great answer to the cynicism and disengagement I’ve been frustrated by in my history of activist work. The kinds of tools that are available to us now have the potential to make play localized but scalable, and allows us to share our play with people near and remote. (Think globally, play locally?)

I also like to think of myself as a practitioner of radical pedagogy — which, to me, means the validation of different ways of knowing and experiences of privilege and oppression. I cut my teeth with the Program on Intergroup Relations, where I facilitated dialogues on topics such as race and religion, and developed curriculum for the gender dialogue. “Education,” wrote Paulo Friere, “is an act of love, and thus, an act of courage.” I think that the public education system has enormous potential but has failed a generation of students. I’m interested in what we do as a response — edupunk, maker culture, hacker spaces, the Public School — and how to bring my experience and expertise to the table to make education more available, equitable, and conscientious.

I hope I can share some interesting ideas and projects this month, so keep an eye on this blog. Also, get out and play — Scrabble, tag, Mass Effect, Cryptozoo, or whatever. If you need a partner, opponent or collaborator, I’m always game!