Noah Wardrip-Fruin

This year brought a number of interesting opportunities to share thoughts with new communities. Most recently, the 17th issue of Vodaphone’s receiver just launched, including my article “Three play effects: Eliza, Tale-Spin, and SimCity.“ Before that, I contributed to the Tate’s e and eye project with a piece titled “e and eyeToy.” Also, while it’s not online, I contributed an entry on “Agent” (specifically, The Impermanence Agent) for the Encyclopedia Project’s stunning initial publication this fall: Encyclopedia volume 1: A-E. Yet earlier in the year, one of the final print issues of Speakeasy (Spring 2006) featured the text of Screen with commissioned illustrations by Allison Healy. Finally, I was pleased to be included in the 13th issue of a minima — including an overview of some of my writing/art work (in English and Spanish) as well as a reprint of my dichtung digital interview with Roberto Simanowski (which was also republished by artificial.dk at the beginning of the year).

Meanwhile, I’m told that Second Person should be shipping out from MITP’s warehouse in the next few weeks, and the new year promises a few other events I hope to note in a more timely manner.

I’ve just posted the current draft of my syllabus for the graduate seminar I’ll be leading at UCSD this fall: Computer Game Studies.

After being given the nod by Brown University’s Graduate Council, I was recently supported to do a non-departmental “Special Graduate Studies” PhD. I couldn’t have been happier with my committee — chaired by Andy van Dam, and including Wendy Chun, Robert Coover, David Durand, and George Landow. I’m particularly indebted to David, who engaged in a yearlong series of conversations with me, shared his research on related topics (especially Christopher Strachey), and also kept me thinking about making art occasionally. Now I’ve posted the results on my dissertation page and made a post on Grand Text Auto that could serve as a place for discussion among those interested…

I started a site called hyperfiction.org in 2002, with the goal of creating something like what our collaborative blog — Grand Text Auto — has become. So now, after long neglect, I’m returning to revamp my personal website, re-christened noahwf.com. There won’t be much active blogging here, but occasional news will be posted on the front page. The site will also host a growing collection of online writings and project documentation, as well as the archives of past efforts. In addition, with the move to WordPress, my personal site will finally allow comments. We’ll see how that goes…