Playing for Keeps
Are computer games fantasy or reality, culture, or technology?
UCLA Game Lab Director Eddo Stern tells UCLA Magazine about the potential of games and the future of the Game Lab.
"You're trying to steer your child safely through a measles-infected theme park. You’re defending American athletes against terrorists. You’re searching for your iPhone after attending the Oscars. Or you’re simply a woman trying to be as perfect as possible.
Real or imagined? Actual or virtual? These scenarios and dozens more are plots at the center of computer games created at UCLA. The games inhabit a disputed territory between fantasy and reality, between physical existence and electronic simulation, between art and technology.
Along these blurred borders is where Eddo Stern, director of the UCLA Game Lab, spends his days. The Design Media Arts professor’s lab differs from more traditional game-development contexts in its focus on conceptual risk-taking and development of new modes of expression through gaming. The lab’s projects emphasize the gaming artist’s self-reliance and personal expression."— Bekah Wright, July 1, 2016
Read the full article at the UCLA Magazine website.