A Humanities Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute from Fall 2011 to Spring 2013, GreaterThanGames has been focused on building game platforms that bring together virtual and real world components, are adaptable over a range of networked and programmable devices including desktop computers as well as iPhones, iPads, etc., and develop rich narrative content that emerges interactively with player collaborations and choices. The goal is to use the combined allure of game play, virtual architecture and design, and digital storytelling to intervene constructively in real world problems. Three teams have closely collaborated to achieve this goal drawing upon faculty from Literature, English, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, ISIS, Classics, and Computer Science. In addition, our project have incorporated research from undergraduate courses and independent studies as well as work by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, providing a model of vertical integration and collaborative teamwork.
The GreaterThanGames Lab is co-directed by N. Katherine Hayles (Literature), Tim Lenoir (Jenkins Chair for New Technologies in Society), Victoria Szabo (Art, Art History & Visual Studies / ISIS).
The core commitment of the Humanities Labs is to engage undergraduates in advanced research alongside faculty and graduate student mentors/collaborators. Organized around a central theme, each Lab brings together faculty and students from the humanities and other disciplines in interdisciplinary, “vertically integrated” research projects. Lab participants work in physical spaces at the Franklin Humanities Institute that are designed to foster both formal collaboration and informal exchange. Shared technological resources enable the Labs to experiment with new research methods, new lines of inquiry, and new ways of engaging with public audiences at Duke and beyond.
Made possible by Humanities Writ Large, a major grant from the Mellon Foundation, GreaterThanGames was a Humanities Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute from 2011-13