I thought Henry liked me. The man’s my mentor, my fearless leader, my department head and my thesis advisor. He’s also currently the bane of my existence.
Anyone who says, “You know, you really should read Roland Barthes” as input on one’s THESIS clearly has it in for you.
I didn’t like Barthes when all I’d read of his was his “Death of the Author” essay. After reading as much of S/Z as I can stomach, I really don’t like him now. Anybody who belittles the entirety of literature before him instantly qualifies in my bag as a ++Toolboxâ„¢.
Roland Barthes. The original prententious bastard.
(On the upside, the piece by Marsha Kinder he pointed me to, and the old favorites of Janet Murray and Umberto Eco, are all very good, relevant and – most of all – readerly. Barthes. Toolbox.)
Storyteller, scholar, consultant. Loving son, husband and father. Kindhearted mischief-maker.
I'm the Director of the Games and Simulation program at Miami University in Ohio, where I am also an Assistant Professor in the College of Creative Arts' Emerging Technology in Business and Design department. I'm also the director of Miami's Worldbuilding and Narrative Design Research Laboratory (WNDRLab). I have a Master's in Comparative Media Studies from MIT and a PhD in Media Arts and Practices from the University of Southern California.
In past lives I've been the lead Narrative Producer for Microsoft Studios and cofounder of its Narrative Design team, working on projects like Hololens, Quantum Break and new IP incubation; in a "future of media" think tank for Microsoft's CXO/CTO and its Chief Software Architect; the Creative Director for the University of Southern California's World Building Media Lab and the Technical Director, Creative Director and a Research Fellow for USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab; a Visiting Assistant Professor at Whittier College and director of its Whittier Other Worlds Laboratory (WOWLab); the Communications Director and a researcher for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab; a founding member of the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT (now The Futures of Entertainment); a magazine editor; and a award-winning short film producer. more »
The opinions put forward in this blog are mine alone, and do not reflect the opinions of my employers.
