Interesting statistic. If I’d kept up the numbering schematic from way back in the day, Inkblots would be up to #17 by now. We did seven print issues, and since then we’ve done ten online editions. Not a lot numerically, I suppose, but it’s still a lot of work and a lot of fun.
I’m hoping to put out #18 this summer, with a dedicated focus on making it fun again. Lately Inkblots has gotten really really serious, which has sort of mixed results. We’ve been printing some interesting editorial pieces, some great critiques of classics, and some really terrific fiction, poetry and artwork, but a bunch of the levity that we had back in the single digits has sort of evaporated. I think part of that was a side effect of being in Washington, D.C. There was a part of me that never felt comfortable in Washington, which is taking to Chicago like a fish to water. Seriously. I’ve been here for, what? Two weeks? And already I’ve found myself saying that I’m never going to leave. Which could be tricky, since the grad program I want to do is in Boston, but maybe I’ll take a two-year sabbatical to Boston and then come back. Lord, it feels good to be back in the Midwest again.
Anyway, the point of that was to say that Chicago is rebooting my creative instinct here. Things are percolating, and things are looking up. If you’d like to join me in relaunching the zine, let me know! I’d love to have you aboard.
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.
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