Author Archive

Honoring Hilmes: Curious Mentoring

May 5, 2015
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Honoring Hilmes: Curious Mentoring

In the second post in our "Honoring Hilmes" series, Ben Aslinger praises Michele Hilmes for her intellectual curiosity and willingness to mentor a diverse array of students and projects.
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Posted in Columns, Honoring Hilmes | 1 Comment »

Report From the Association of Internet Researchers Conference

October 21, 2011
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Report From the Association of Internet Researchers Conference

Ben Aslinger, Sean Duncan, and Liz Ellcessor provide some thoughts on IR12, the 12th annual Association of Internet Researchers conference, which was held in Seattle, October 10-13.
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Posted in Columns, Report From... | 1 Comment »

All the Single Academics

October 5, 2011
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All the Single Academics

This piece attempts to challenge the stereotypes that single academics can write all the time (or any time we want), are free from family responsibility, and somehow have it “easier” than other academics.
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Posted in Columns, School/Work | 9 Comments »

MIT7 Media In Transition: unstable platforms

May 20, 2011
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MIT7 Media In Transition: unstable platforms

A look back at the highlights of last weekend's Media in Transition conference.
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Not Dancing in Central Square

November 19, 2010
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Not Dancing in Central Square

Last week, Viacom announced that it was planning to sell Harmonix and had already classified the Cambridge-based development studio as a “discontinued operation.”
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Posted in Current Events, Games | 2 Comments »

Report From: Flow 2010 (#2)

October 5, 2010
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Report From: Flow 2010 (#2)

Given that Erin so eloquently captured the buzz of the scholarly conversations this weekend, I’m going to focus on some of the roundtables that I found most intellectually stimulating.
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Posted in Columns, Report From... | 1 Comment »

Glee Club: Performing Recordings

April 29, 2010
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<em>Glee</em> Club: Performing Recordings

Some thoughts on the peculiar nature of Glee's soundtrack and why it both pulls me in and repels me from the program.
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Posted in Columns, Glee Club, Music, Perspectives, TV | 7 Comments »

Spelunking for Gayness in Glass Closets

April 8, 2010
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Spelunking for Gayness in Glass Closets

Ricky Martin’s decision to come out last week elicited collective yawns from many who had long suspected that the recording artist was gay, sparked rumors that Martin’s coming out was a publicity stunt designed to promote his book and jumpstart his musical career, and provoked some LGBT observers to say it was about time.
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Posted in Celebrity/Stardom, Perspectives | 4 Comments »

Adventures in Music Video

March 16, 2010
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Adventures in Music Video

On the heels of the popularity of the Rube Goldberg video for “This Too Shall Pass,” OK Go announced that it was leaving an already beleaguered EMI to establish its own label Paracadute Recordings. Quickly a story emerged treating OK Go as the musical David fighting the evil Goliath of EMI.
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Posted in Current Events, Industry, Internet, Music | 1 Comment »

Look at Your Hands: Computing, Embodiment, and the iPad

January 28, 2010
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Look at Your Hands: Computing, Embodiment, and the iPad

While much of yesterday’s Internet conversation centered on whether the iPad is a game changer for TV, gaming, publishing, and future of ebooks, I want to address the potentially unnerving aspects of how Apple constructed the user yesterday and point out that while Apple may be a global company, its users are definitely not.
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Posted in Current Events, Industry, Technology | 1 Comment »

Important Games of the 00s

January 18, 2010
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Important Games of the 00s

What makes a game important? Is it commercial sales, the ways a game showcases how skilled a designer or studio is at their craft, the visceral response a game gives you, the player communities spawned by a game, the ways designers construct character/story/space, or the ways that games open up new genres, new...
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Posted in Columns, Games, Perspectives, What Do You Think? | 9 Comments »