Katie Salen
Encyclopedia
Katie Salen is a game design
er, animator
, and design educator. She is a professor in the DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media. She has taught at Parsons The New School for Design
the University of Texas at Austin
, New York University
, and the Rhode Island School of Design
. She has an MFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Salen is one of the co-authors of Rules of Play
, a textbook on game design
, and the co-editor of the The Game Design Reader, a Rules of Play Anthology. She is the former Director of Graduate Students for the Design and Technology Program at Parsons The New School for Design
, as well as the former Director of the Center for Transformative Media, a research center focused on emerging trends in design and media. She is the Executive Director of Institute of Play
, which promotes game design as a non-traditional educational tool. In 2009, she helped launch Quest to Learn (Q2L), a new public school in Manhattan
, New York City
, for which she is the Executive Director of Design.
in 1990 with a B.A. in Fine Arts. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design
from the Rhode Island School of Design
. At RISD she studied semiotics with Tom Ockerse, who focuses on the work of Charles Sanders Peirce. She also worked with designers Jan van Toorn of the Netherlands, Michael Rock, and Sharon Poggenpohl. She has an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Bank Street College of Education.
In 2001, Salen started to work at Gamelab, where she still serves as a member of the advisory board as of 2010. In 2002, Creative Time
in New York hired Salen to develop the curriculum and workshops for the Blur Conference. From 2002-2003, she was a writer and animator for music videos for the band Zero7, which had extended play on MYV, MTV
and VH1
. Also from 2002–2003, Salen was asked to design the Big Urban Game (BUG), a citywide multiplayer game which was to be played by the residents of Minneapolis and St.Paul in Minnesota
as part of the Twin Cities Design Celebration.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
engaged Salen to co-curate with Graham Leggatt, the director of the society, "Game Engine", an evening of programming for the New York Video Festival in 2003. In that same year, Salen started writing for RES Magazine, which focuses on film, design, culture, art and music; She continued as a contributor until 2006.
Also in 2003, Salen worked as part of a research team to create and design an interactive, animated storytelling experience that was to be distributed through Xbox Live!
2004–2006
In 2004, the Hewlett Foundation took on Salen as the co-director for the Games to Learn Symposium. She was also a consultant for the Digital Kids initiative through the MacArthur Foundation
, and served as a game designer for a large motion capture game called Squidball that was developed with the Media Research Lab at New York University
. In 2004, the Comtech Group (COGO) hired Salen as a consultant for a mobile phone game, and for their online world. The MSN
division of Microsoft
engaged Salen as a consultant for the redesign of the website in 2004. ATTAP, a group devoted to new web technologies, used Salen as an interactive game designer for their new tools. Salen was also involved in 2005 as a game design consultant with The Rapunzel
Project to teach girls computer code. The Buckminster Fuller Institute
partnered with the Game Culture & Technology Lab at the University of California, Irvine
to create a spaceship earth game, which Salen also worked on in 2005.
From 2004-2006, Mememe Productions in Melbourne, Australia, had Salen design a came for a children’s television show and for their online community site, while from 2005-2006 she worked on the ISEA2006 Symposium in San Jose, California
. This was presented by CADRE Interactive City residency. From 2003 until the present, Salen has been the Director of Graduate Students for the Design and Technology Program at Parsons The New School for Design
.
Salen worked on this project alongside Nancy Nowacek and Marina Zurkow in August 2006. The project transformed an ice cream truck into a mobile karaoke
unit which roamed the streets of San Jose, California
, inviting people towards it with free popsicles. Everyone and anyone was invited to participate in a live karaoke session which would be recorded to be played over loudspeakers later. The songs that were available to sing included "Hey Ya!" by Outkast
, "These Boots are Made for Walking" by Nancy Sinatra
, and "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." by Aretha Franklin
.
Big Urban Game
Along with Frank Lantz and Nick Fortungo, Salen was asked to help design this large-scale urban game for part of the Twin Cities Design Celebration. All residents were encouraged to participate in the race, the goal of which was to move a 25-foot high inflatable game piece through a route throughout the Twin Cities, hitting several "checkpoints." Salen created this game to engage a large community with culture and with each other, in an effort to make the residents more aware of urban design.
Waking Life
Salen worked as an animator for this critically acclaimed feature film, directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores topics such as free will
, determinism
, dream
s and the nature of reality.
Salen is the Executive Director of Institute of Play, an organization that embraces game design as a learning tool for the 21st century. Institute of Play aims to use games as a non-traditional tool in areas such as academia, the government, science, technology and the arts. Some of the goals that the Institute of Play works toward include providing a space to experiment and exchange one's ideas through different channels and creating collaboration among students, educators and professionals. They also aim to connect the so-called digital natives – those born into a tech-savvy culture – to the digital immigrants – those who must learn to adapt to the tech-savvy culture in their adult years. Some projects the Institute of Play has produced include Quest to Learn, Situated Multimedia Art Learning Lab, Summer Teaching Institute, and Gamestar Mechanic Strategy Guide.
Quest to Learn (Q2L)
Salen is the Executive Director of Design of Quest to Learn, a newly developed public school in Manhattan
, New York City
created out of a collaboration between Institute of Play and the New York City Department of Education
, with backing from the MacArthur Foundation
and support from New Visions for Public Schools. The school began in the 2009-2010 school year with one sixth grade class, and will add a new sixth grade every year until 2015, when it will be a fully functioning combined middle and high school encompassing grades 6-12. It is located in the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex in the Chelsea
neighborhood of Manhattan
.
Q2L is based on a collaborative systems thinking
approach, with game design being the central organizing focus. The school uses digital media and game design as the primary means for accomplishing educational goals, with video games and other technologies at the center of all classes and learning experiences. Not only are games played, but game design itself is used as a teaching tool as well.
Game design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
er, animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
, and design educator. She is a professor in the DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media. She has taught at Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School For Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is the art and design college of The New School university. It is located in New York City's Greenwich Village, and has produced artists and designers such as Marc Jacobs, Dean and Dan Caten, Norman Rockwell, Donna Karan, Jane...
the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
. She has an MFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Salen is one of the co-authors of Rules of Play
Rules of Play
Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals is a book on game design by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, published by MIT Press.-Structure:The book is divided into four units, first introducing core concepts, then expanding on these with a detailed discussion of rules, play and culture.-Unit 1: Core...
, a textbook on game design
Game design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
, and the co-editor of the The Game Design Reader, a Rules of Play Anthology. She is the former Director of Graduate Students for the Design and Technology Program at Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School For Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is the art and design college of The New School university. It is located in New York City's Greenwich Village, and has produced artists and designers such as Marc Jacobs, Dean and Dan Caten, Norman Rockwell, Donna Karan, Jane...
, as well as the former Director of the Center for Transformative Media, a research center focused on emerging trends in design and media. She is the Executive Director of Institute of Play
Institute of Play
The Institute of Play is a 501 corporation founded in 2007. Based out of New York City, the Institute’s mission is to promote game design, games and gaming as a model tool to enhance personal and social development, in particular learning in secondary school students...
, which promotes game design as a non-traditional educational tool. In 2009, she helped launch Quest to Learn (Q2L), a new public school in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, for which she is the Executive Director of Design.
Education
Salen graduated from the University of TexasUniversity of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
in 1990 with a B.A. in Fine Arts. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
from the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
. At RISD she studied semiotics with Tom Ockerse, who focuses on the work of Charles Sanders Peirce. She also worked with designers Jan van Toorn of the Netherlands, Michael Rock, and Sharon Poggenpohl. She has an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Bank Street College of Education.
Early career
2001–2003In 2001, Salen started to work at Gamelab, where she still serves as a member of the advisory board as of 2010. In 2002, Creative Time
Creative Time
Creative Time is a New York-based nonprofit arts organization. It was founded in 1973 to support the creation of innovative, site-specific, socially engaged works in the public realm, especially in vacant spaces of historical and architectural interest...
in New York hired Salen to develop the curriculum and workshops for the Blur Conference. From 2002-2003, she was a writer and animator for music videos for the band Zero7, which had extended play on MYV, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
. Also from 2002–2003, Salen was asked to design the Big Urban Game (BUG), a citywide multiplayer game which was to be played by the residents of Minneapolis and St.Paul in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
as part of the Twin Cities Design Celebration.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Film Society of Lincoln Center based in New York City, United States, is one of the world's most prominent film presentation organizations. Founded in 1969 by three Lincoln Center executives - William F. May, Martin E. Segal and Schuyler G...
engaged Salen to co-curate with Graham Leggatt, the director of the society, "Game Engine", an evening of programming for the New York Video Festival in 2003. In that same year, Salen started writing for RES Magazine, which focuses on film, design, culture, art and music; She continued as a contributor until 2006.
Also in 2003, Salen worked as part of a research team to create and design an interactive, animated storytelling experience that was to be distributed through Xbox Live!
2004–2006
In 2004, the Hewlett Foundation took on Salen as the co-director for the Games to Learn Symposium. She was also a consultant for the Digital Kids initiative through the MacArthur Foundation
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
, and served as a game designer for a large motion capture game called Squidball that was developed with the Media Research Lab at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. In 2004, the Comtech Group (COGO) hired Salen as a consultant for a mobile phone game, and for their online world. The MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
division of Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
engaged Salen as a consultant for the redesign of the website in 2004. ATTAP, a group devoted to new web technologies, used Salen as an interactive game designer for their new tools. Salen was also involved in 2005 as a game design consultant with The Rapunzel
Rapunzel
"Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales. The Grimm Brothers' story is an adaptation of the fairy tale Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force originally published in 1698...
Project to teach girls computer code. The Buckminster Fuller Institute
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
partnered with the Game Culture & Technology Lab at the University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
to create a spaceship earth game, which Salen also worked on in 2005.
From 2004-2006, Mememe Productions in Melbourne, Australia, had Salen design a came for a children’s television show and for their online community site, while from 2005-2006 she worked on the ISEA2006 Symposium in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. This was presented by CADRE Interactive City residency. From 2003 until the present, Salen has been the Director of Graduate Students for the Design and Technology Program at Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School For Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is the art and design college of The New School university. It is located in New York City's Greenwich Village, and has produced artists and designers such as Marc Jacobs, Dean and Dan Caten, Norman Rockwell, Donna Karan, Jane...
.
Early projects
Karaoke IceSalen worked on this project alongside Nancy Nowacek and Marina Zurkow in August 2006. The project transformed an ice cream truck into a mobile karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
unit which roamed the streets of San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, inviting people towards it with free popsicles. Everyone and anyone was invited to participate in a live karaoke session which would be recorded to be played over loudspeakers later. The songs that were available to sing included "Hey Ya!" by Outkast
OutKast
Outkast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. They were originally known as Two Shades Deep but later changed the group's name to OutKast...
, "These Boots are Made for Walking" by Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
, and "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." by Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
.
Big Urban Game
Along with Frank Lantz and Nick Fortungo, Salen was asked to help design this large-scale urban game for part of the Twin Cities Design Celebration. All residents were encouraged to participate in the race, the goal of which was to move a 25-foot high inflatable game piece through a route throughout the Twin Cities, hitting several "checkpoints." Salen created this game to engage a large community with culture and with each other, in an effort to make the residents more aware of urban design.
Waking Life
Waking Life
Waking Life is an American animated film , directed by Richard Linklater and released in 2001. The entire film was shot using digital video and then a team of artists using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame.The film focuses on the nature of dreams, consciousness, and...
Salen worked as an animator for this critically acclaimed feature film, directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores topics such as free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
, determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
, dream
Dream
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...
s and the nature of reality.
Current projects
Institute of PlayInstitute of Play
The Institute of Play is a 501 corporation founded in 2007. Based out of New York City, the Institute’s mission is to promote game design, games and gaming as a model tool to enhance personal and social development, in particular learning in secondary school students...
Salen is the Executive Director of Institute of Play, an organization that embraces game design as a learning tool for the 21st century. Institute of Play aims to use games as a non-traditional tool in areas such as academia, the government, science, technology and the arts. Some of the goals that the Institute of Play works toward include providing a space to experiment and exchange one's ideas through different channels and creating collaboration among students, educators and professionals. They also aim to connect the so-called digital natives – those born into a tech-savvy culture – to the digital immigrants – those who must learn to adapt to the tech-savvy culture in their adult years. Some projects the Institute of Play has produced include Quest to Learn, Situated Multimedia Art Learning Lab, Summer Teaching Institute, and Gamestar Mechanic Strategy Guide.
Quest to Learn (Q2L)
Salen is the Executive Director of Design of Quest to Learn, a newly developed public school in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
created out of a collaboration between Institute of Play and the New York City Department of Education
New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. It is the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,700 separate schools...
, with backing from the MacArthur Foundation
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
and support from New Visions for Public Schools. The school began in the 2009-2010 school year with one sixth grade class, and will add a new sixth grade every year until 2015, when it will be a fully functioning combined middle and high school encompassing grades 6-12. It is located in the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex in the Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
neighborhood of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
Q2L is based on a collaborative systems thinking
Systems thinking
Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish...
approach, with game design being the central organizing focus. The school uses digital media and game design as the primary means for accomplishing educational goals, with video games and other technologies at the center of all classes and learning experiences. Not only are games played, but game design itself is used as a teaching tool as well.
External links
- Quest to Learn website
- Institute of Play website
- Gamers Mob website
- "Katie Salen" faculty page at the New School University website