Public Speaking
Live Conversation, "Nothing Old, Nothing New” with Bilna'es, 2021 | Hosted at the Columbia Center for Palestinian Studies with LIFTA
Nothing Old, Nothing New is a collection of experimental videogames, drawings, text, and objects developed over the course of six years. The project plays on the relationship between capitalism, colonialism, depictions of landscapes, real estate development, and folklore.
As an extension of Haitham Ennasr's project with Bilna'es, he was in conversation with Elias Wakeem, moderator Ruanne Abou-Rahme, and me, discussing how their practices correlate and intersect revolutionary cultural practices at large.
Talk, "Making Games at a Time of Global Cataclysm"
as part of the Lightning Fast Game Design micro-talks at the Game Developers Conference, SF, 2019
Games are a poetic speculation of the world around us. They are inspired by data, but aren’t data visualizations, they are a subjective understanding of real world systems, a different way to record and recount experiences. The Games we build can be any speculation of the world we live in. Why is our vision so limited?
Panel, "Towards an Organized Tech Industry–1"
Left Forum 2018: Towards a New Strategy for the Left |
Hosted by The Left Forum at CUNY John Jay College, NY, 2018
Sharing the unique challenges Game Workers Unite has faced while advocating for an industry-wide Game union, and creating a model for solidarity based advocacy groups in the workplace that work with the independent game studio model.
✍︎ TRANSCRIPT
Talk, "Player Centered Design: Reframing the World Through Play"
Games for Change Festival, 2017 | Hosted at The New School, NY
If User Centered Design refocuses designers back to users, what are we missing while designing for rapidly evolving tech augmented interactive spaces? Our methodology Player Centered Design has some answers. Hint: Embrace Agency
Talk, “Playing News: Using Play to Understand the Participatory Future of News”
Distribution, 2017 | Hosted by the Reynolds Institute of Journalism, Missouri
Should NEWS media be looking at Games to understand how to use agency to increase user engagement via interaction
Talk, "Interactive Chasms: How New Mediums Schism Story from Narrative "
Books in Browsers, San Fransisco, 2016
Artifacts of digital mediums fail to connect with their audiences by focussing too much on controlling, instead of telling the story.
Talk, “Clone Wars: Censorship in a Time of Collective Making”
Different Games, 2016 | Hosted at New York University, NYC
What is the difference between a game clone and a game "inspired" by another? Could cultural bias play a role in what we find acceptable and what we think of as plagiarism?
Talk, “Flexible Times Need Flexible Game Design”
Different Games, 2015 | Hosted at New York University, NYC
Mindful Play as an alternative game design methodology for making inclusive game experiences
Debate, “The Great Game Design Debate”
Indiecade East, 2015 | Hosted by the Museum of the Moving Image, NY
Can games be weaponized into objects of cultural imperialism? What role do rational concepts like "logic" and "narrative structure" play in normalizing this aggressive discourse in games?
〰️DEBATE
Panel, “The Presence of Absence – Observing the Political in Play”
Indiecade, 2014 | Los Angeles, CA
Games have a Peter Pan complex where nothing serious can belong. But are games hyper political in their denial of politics? What impact does the underdeveloped politics of games play in radicalization of players?
❏ SLIDES
Presentation, “Mindful Play & The Politics of Designing for the Other”
Queerness & Games Conference, 2014 | Hosted at University of California, Berkley
Design helps us make sense of the world, but we design for different people in exactly the same way. How can we use co-design to embrace our differences & build resilient solutions together?
Presentation, “Mindful Play: Why We Need to be Less Serious About Our Games”
Different Games, 2014 | Hosted by New York University, Brooklyn, NY
Serious doesn't always mean good. Are we making bad games in development, using Serious as an excuse? I present my framework for Mindful Play as a functional alternative to Serious Games.
Workshops
Reverse Voting
Syracuse University, NY 2018
We developed a game to bring together Biologists and Artists in Syracuse University's first cross discipline social mixer.
Designing Playful Interactions
SVA, NY 2017
A day-long workshop introducing service and interaction design students to designing playful systems.
Facilitator, Game Design is for Everyone
Play/Ground. Hosted by New York University - Integrated Digital Media Program
Modular game design activities to help anyone use game design tools.
Facilitator, Human Centered Design Workshop
Collaboration with TinkerLabs to bring Design Thinking techniques to MBA candidates at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management in Indore, India 2015
How to design for client and constituent facing goals using the best techniques from HCD and design thinking rituals.
Game presented, “Bottleneck”
Indiecade East | Hosted by the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, NY 2014
A road safety game about traffic jams, car crashes and dinner parties
Game presented, “Bottleneck”
Come Out and Play: After Dark | Hosted by the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, NY 2013
A road safety game about traffic jams, car crashes and dinner parties
Game presented, “Accused!”
Different Games, Hosted by New York University, Brooklyn, NY 2013
A game about beating a police system that has mastered extracting false confessions
Facilitator, Bitten!
United Nations Convention for Climate Change COP18 | Hosted in Doha, Qatar 2012
Co-designed and facilitated a conference-wide game with over 1000 participants about the impact of climate change on at-risk humans and malarial vectors such as mosquitoes
Workshop, “Effective Games for Outreach & Education”
Allied Media Conference | Hosted at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 2013
Game design strategies for grassroots level activists using games and play
Facilitator, Workshop series
Climate-Smart Community Resilience Project, with Partners For Resilience, July 2012 - August 2013
Our climate is changing, can games help us make the shift? Over 3 years, I tested & strategized different play-based programs in Kenya, Indonesia & Philippines with support from grants by CDKN & the Red Cross Climate Center. My goal was to understand how to use non-traditional learning methods to communicate climate change information to urgently at-risk user bases new to games, design and formal education.
Facilitator, “Humans Vs Mosquitoes”
Come Out and Play Festival. New York, NY 2012
A game about vector acceleration using data on the rise of Dengue fever due to climate change
Facilitator, "Stakehold'em!"
Games for Change Festival. Hosted at New York University, New York, NY 2011
Co-designed and facilitated a game about fostering collaborations outside of conference cliques
Facilitator, "Bulls of Wall Street"
Come Out and Play Festival. New York, NY 2011
Helped facilitate designer Nicholas Fortugno’s game Bulls of Wall Street
