I dream of barns,
Great vast structures a century or so old,
Weathered boards painted a noble red or deep blue,
Trimmed in white edging and rough stones,
Lit from within by the warm, flickering glow
Of tableside lamps with stained-glass shades,
Coaxing me to linger a while on cracked leather couches,
Curled up with one of ten thousand escapes
Bound up in paper and bordered by clothboard.
I dream of trees,
Of wind whistling through wild Ohio woods,
Streams winding between their roots
And around mossy boulders, giants’ marbles
No sound of traffic or neighbors fighting,
Just the cracks and crumbles of squirrels and deer
Setting about their business
Of timeless, of natural, of life.
I dream of family,
Wife, two kids, a couple of cats,
Bickering over simplicities like homework and chores,
Football games and band concerts and trips to the grandparents’,
Celebrating tiny achievements in the local papers,
Remembering the places we used to go and live
When we were younger and still fighting
Tooth and claw, body and soul,
To gather the materials needed
To forge this, our little world.
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.
