At the end of the month MuseumNext will host the Museums, Games & PlaySummit (28 February – 2 March 2022). The goal of this all-online, highly curated affair is to share inspiring ideas and case studies looking at games and play in museums. Personally, I am excited there is so much activity to fill three days of programming and to be able to contribute during two different sessions.
First, I have partnered with my frequent collaborator Neal Stimler, to present: Thirteen (or so) Ways of Looking at Gaming in Museums. As promoted in the program, this session will:
… explore the horizons of games in museums to encourage their adoption into regular programs, products, and operations. It will solve for the equation Museums + Games = ? across a variety of lenses: accessibility; diversity, equity, and inclusion; digitization; intellectual property and licensing; the metaverse; partnerships; youth making games, staff making games; visitors playing games; producing games for the general public; eSports; educational games; games in exhibits, and more. This pair of presenters have together over a quarter-century of experience bringing digital experience design, including games, to two of the largest museums in the world: NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and The American Museum of History Museum.
The title is a riff on Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” as each lens will be introduced by an original poem, such as:
Intellectual Property and Licensing
Proud, the Museum
Instagramed the art.
Chagrined, the Museum
Read the cease and desist.
To hear the rest, come to our talk!
Second, I have partnered with my frequent collaborator, Kellian Adams Pletcher (of FableVision Studios), along with Erica Gangsei (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and Lawrence Moore (LARPing in Color) to present: Failing Forward: 10 favorite Museum game Fails and what we learned from them. As promoted in the program, this session will offer:
…four different Game Designers from the Museums and Culture space talking about games that failed to do what they intended to– and taught us all a lot about games in the process! We’ll choose ten of our favorite “unsuccessful” games and how the lessons from those games made museum game design better for all of us.
I always love sessions like this – they recognize the iterative nature of the design process and promote transparency – and was delighted when Kellian asked me to contribute. I will be sharing such crucial insights as “Don’t lead with the flatulent buffalo” and more!
Hope to see you there!
