Projects, Research, and Collaborations
The following are some of the projects that I am currently undertaking:
Academia [ongoing]
How They Got Game 2 (Stanford University)
'How They Got Game' is a research project at the Stanford Humanities Lab dedicated to the historical investigation of computer games and other related technologies of leisure. It focuses on the history and cultural impact of interactive simulations and video games. Evolution of computer and video game design from its beginnings to the present: storytelling, strategy, simulation, sports, 3D first-person games. Cultural, business, and technical perspectives. Insights into design, production, marketing, and socio-cultural impacts of interactive entertainment and communication. Click here for the main website and here for the blog.
Digital Game Canon (Stanford University)
The Digital Game Canon is a project undertaken by University of Stanford University and University of Illinois that aims at preserving videogames as historical, cultural, and technical artifacts. The creation of the Digital Game Canon recognizes the importance of digital game culture. The Canon provides a starting-point for the difficult task of preserving this history inspired by the role of that the U.S. National Film Registry has played for film culture and history. It has an international scope. For more information, click here and here. I am working on this project with Henry Lowood at Stanford University, lead project manager. This is part of a a project called Preserving America, a White House initiative in cooperation with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
videoludica.game culture (Milan)
Edited by Matteo Bittanti, videoludica. game culture is a series of books about critically acclaimed and much-loved videogames of the past 40 years. By turns passionate, creative, and always informed, the thought-provoking books in this series demonstrate many different styles of writing about videogames. What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors - academics, scholars, critics, gamers, and writers - are the cultures that these games spawned after their releases. Each meditation revels in the distinct nature of the chosen game - or game series, or even game genre - providing insightful commentary to an overlooked practice. Available in three formats (Monographs, Readers, and Illustrated), these volumes discuss video games from a broad academic and critical perspective, setting characteristics, themes and techniques in context and exploring the game's significance. Official website.
Ludologica. videogames d'autore (IULM University, Milan)
Launched in 2003 by Edizioni Unicopli, Ludologica. Videogames d’autore is a series of academic books that honour the most significant video games of the last 40 years. Available in two formats (Monographs and Readers), these volumes focus on one game on one series rather than an entire genre, dispensing with the standard historical background that players know already, and cut to the heart of the game. Edited by Matteo Bittanti and Gianni Canova, the series includes monographs on such titles as The Sims, SimCity, Ico, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid and more. Official website.
Academia [recent]
IULM GamesLab (IULM University, Milan)
Created in 2006 as part of the IULM Humanities Lab, the GamesLab, currently directed by Valentina Paggiarin and Claudio Ortolina, investigates videogames as site of technological, cultural, and artistic experimentation. This group of researchers, students, and practitioners is actively building the field of game studies in Italy, organizing events, seminars, and workshops. Click here for more information (Italian only).
DIGITAL YOUTH RESEARCH: Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media (University of California Berkeley)
'Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures' is a three year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Carried out by researchers at University of Southern California and University of California, Berkeley, the digital youth project explores how kids use digital media in their everyday lives. Read more
Critical Studies in New Media (Stanford University)
I took part in the Critical Studies in New Media workshop and seminar series organized by Michael Shanks, Fred Turner, and Sebastian De Vivo at Stanford University. The main goal is to examine and debate cutting edge thinking around this topic of the politics of presence. This multidisciplinary group is radically crossing the conventional boundaries between different approaches to media. It combines media practice, perspectives from media industries and institutions, and socio-political critique. Intellectual edge and cutting across conventional fields of understanding and practice - this is what distinguishes our workshop from other courses and seminars in media at Stanford and makes it unique. Click here for more information.
Non-Academia
iMille is a communication agency located in Milan, Italy which provides integrated business to consumer and business to business communication with a strategic, technological and creative approach, facing the new reality which is being proposed and imposed on our markets by both the media and digitalization. Visual design, multimedia production, digital marketing, languages, semantics and innovative communication strategies, are our starting points for facing what iMille calls RevolutionMedia. I work as a Strategic Consultant for new media and game-related solutions.
Writing [non-academic]
Monthly contributions: Wired Italy, Rolling Stone Italia, EDGE Italia (GAME Pro), PC Gamer Italia (Giochi per il Mio Computer), duellanti (New Media editor), Cineforum.
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