What has the last decade looked like for digital learning in the Jewish education space? How has it been impacted by the pandemic? What are the possibilities for innovation in education or will radical affordances get co-opted by the existing system? Flipped learning. Gaming. Microcredentials. A.I. We addressed the broad picture in dialogue, in this new episode from The Jewish Learning Project’s Adapting Podcast. I had a lot of fun chatting with David and I hope you enjoy listening to it.
Below is the promotional material they developed for the episode:
It is both an exciting and perhaps terrifying era for Jewish educators when digital technology is empowering learners in their own learning. Rather than being seen as a fountain of knowledge that learners turn to for information, 21st century educators must adopt a different set of skills – including flipping their classrooms, utilizing principles of gaming, and enabling people to learn in ways that work best for them. On the latest episode of Adapting, David Bryfman discusses with Barry Joseph how digital technology can help model what these cutting-edge, engaging methods look like.
With 25+ years of experience in digital learning and design, Barry brings a fresh perspective to the field and an optimistic future, as he discusses the value of implementing digital technology both inside and outside the classroom, and why we should not be afraid to explore it with our learners.
To listen to it, go here or download Season 3, Episode 10 from where ever you go for your podcasts.
At BJC, we do more than just provide inspiring services in digital experience design and strategic planning. We also write books! I spend at least one hour a day in my writing nook. (In fact, I am currently working on my fourth book.) So as you look for gifts for the upcoming holidays, I wanted to both remind you of my recent offerings as well as promote some awesome options from authors I admire. (I’ll then end with some holiday cards created for you through MidJourney, the image-generating machine learning tool, starting with the one below).
From the prompt: an experience designer showers multiracial friends with books in an enthusiastic display of affection for the holidays, as directed by Steven Spielberg
1. Seltzertopia: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Drink This is my first book, which took over 14 years to produce. Since it came out in 2018, I have presented it at dozens of locations around North America to (as of September) 2000 people. It’s a light, fun, surprising cultural history of seltzer water and the amazing people – historic and present – who keep the fizz flowing. And yes, there is an entire chapter on The Egg Cream (and why it has neither eggs nor cream…). There are parts of it that still make me cry at readings. Learn more about it here or buy a copy.
2. The Rules We Break, by Eric Zimmerman The Rules We Break is a design book that asks you to play. It is not a book of information to learn or facts to absorb. It is a handbook for doing. And it written by a colleague who sits in the upper echelon of those I admire in the fields of both game design and ludology (the study of games). Eric’s book just came out and is a brilliant, readable, practical, thoughtful book about game design, inspired by both Bernie De Koven and the classic New Games books he helped write. I can’t recommend it enough, nor put it down. Learn more about it, and get your own copy today, from here.
3. Friday is Tomorrow, or The Dayenu Year: Chronicles from the NYC Covid-19 Oral History, Narrative and Memory Archive This is my second book, a true story of learning to grieve and thrive during the first year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. As the blurb reads, “Through the support of his family, friends, and community, Friday is Tomorrow tells the uplifting story of how one man learns to maintain traditions in a time of uncertainty while reaching for his dreams.” I self-published this book to connect with people during that intense period of social isolation and, for once it felt safe enough, to help readers reflect on their own experience while reading about my own. You can read more about it here or Buy a Copy.
4. Ornithographies, by Xavi Bou This fall I visited the temporary gallery space at NYC’s Musuem of Math and instantly fell in love with the mesmerizing photography of Xavi Bou. Bou films birds in motion then uses a computer to create one still image, capturing not a bird in flight but a bird ACROSS it’s flight. It’s a process of visualizing a system and the hidden natural patterns around us. As soon as I left the gallery I went right to the museum store – but alas, he had produced no books. Then, last week, he announced, after seven years, he finally produced one. Hurrah! Check it out – it will blow your mind. Make sure to watch some of the videos here or Buy a Copy.
5. Making Dinosaurs Dance: A Toolkit for Digital Design in Museums What is it like working at the American Museum of Natural History? What techniques were used to create cutting-edge digital experiences for visitors? How can one learn to apply those lessons to their own design projects? Find out in my third book, coming out in February (but available now for pre-order), based on my half-dozen years as Associate Director for Digital Learning at AMNH. I am so proud of this book and can’t wait for it to get into your hands. You can read more about it here. (Oh, and if you write be back, and give me your own book recommendation, I’ll be happy to share a code for a 30% discount). (Pre-order Your Copy).
6. Termination Shock, by Neal Stephenson I love all of Stephenson’s novels, and this latest immediately became one of my favorites. It features an ensemble that rises above most all he has created, and explores the terrifying near-future wrought by extreme climate change and the drastic moves we might need to make to set things right. It is also a great adventure, funny, romantic, and really fun. I’ll never look at a wild pig the same again. Buy a Copy.
7. Matching Minds with Sondheim My fourth book, still early in development, is Matching Mind With Sondheim, a journey into the rich but largely unknown playful passions of Stephen Sondheim, one of the most influential contributors to American musical theater. I have never been more excited to research a book; the experience has been truly remarkable.
From his teenage years sending puzzles to the New York Times and board games to Milton Bradley until his final years designing treasure hunts and visiting escape rooms, Sondheim spent a long life pursuing his fascination with puzzle invention and game design.
For the first time, Matching Minds will introduce readers to what Sondheim described as his “puzzler’s mind” – through his cryptic crosswords, murder mysteries, treasure hunts, parlor games, and more – to better understand the man, his work, and (if they accept the challenge) themselves.
Read more about it here or check out my new Instagram feed. (And check out my concept art for the book cover below).
And Now For Something Completely Different After reading an article recently about image-generating machine learning tools, I began to explore MidJourney. That is how I created the Sondheim book cover above, in under 10 minutes! I also used it to generate holiday cards for this newsletter. I shared one at the top, and below were some runner’s up (the lot created in a total of 14 minutes). Enjoy!
Thank you for being a part of the BJC family in 2022. Wishing the best to you and yours in 2023!
Above from prompt: an experience designer showers friends with books in an enthusiastic display of affection for the holidays, in the style of surrealism
Above from the prompt: an experience designer showers friends with books in an enthusiastic display of affection for the holidays
Above from the prompt: an experience designer showers friends with books in an enthusiastic display of affection for the holidays, in the style of a New Yorker Cartoon
Above from the prompt: from an experience designer showers friends with books in an enthusiastic display of affection for the holidays, as directed by Steven Spielberg
Making Dinosaurs Dance: A Toolkit for Digital Design in Museums takes the reader behind the scenes to learn how the American Museum of Natural History innovates visitor digital engagement, highlighting design techniques used both there and at museums around the world. Based on my six years at the landmark institution that inspired the Night at the Museum franchise, the book introduces The Six Tools of Digital Design – user research, rapid prototyping, public piloting, iterative design, youth collaboration, and teaming up – then applies them through case studies across a range of topics:
Combining digital experience design with physical museum assets in a guided format, featuring Crime Scene Neanderthal (CSN), a youth co-designed and facilitated in-Hall experience that invited museum visitors to use a mobile app and other tools to investigate a science-based mystery.
Game-based learning, featuring three case: a tabletop games (Pterosaurs: The Card Game), mobile games (Playing with Dinos), and commercial off-the-shelf games (Minecraft).
Mobile augmented reality games, featuring MicroRangers, which used AR to invite visitors to shrink to microscopic size and explore the Museum to combat threats to global biodiversity.
XR experience design, featuring case studies about 360 videos on paleontology and virtual reality projects about ocean life.
Science visualizations, featuring Galactic Golf, an astro-visualization that addressed the topics of mass and gravity through a round of mixed reality Martian golf; interactive science visualizations that invited visitors to hold CT-scans of bat skulls in their hand; and Finding Flamingos, a youth program focused on how Conservation Biologists protect endangered flamingos through GIS mapping and predictions software.
In addition, the book explores related topics at institutions in Greece and France, and from Washington, D.C. to California.
This book will be an invaluable resource and a source of inspiration for museum professionals, designers, educators for years to come.
“A wonderful guide to the kind of agile, experimental, responsive operational strategies needed in the museum of the future.” — Elizabeth Merritt, Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums, American Alliance of Museums
“Personal and engaging, this book reveals the opportunities and surprises of working directly with museum visitors in designing new digital experiences. Refreshingly honest and practical it offers even the smallest museum insights into how to design things that visitors – even teenagers – will enjoy.” — Seb Chan, Director & CEO, ACMI
“A delight! Joseph provides readers with a clearly articulated and robust framework. It has something for emerging professionals looking to equip themselves with digital design tools while offering those already-emerged a great example of the benefits of reflecting on their practice.” — Ed Rodley, Co-Founder & Principal, The Experience Alchemists
“Making Dinosaurs Dance gives readers an incredible behind-the-scenes view into the pathways and processes that have driven many innovative, digital projects in museums. Each case study – showing what the Six Tools for Digital Design look like in action – provides readers with relatable scenarios and a more realistic view of what it means to effectively use these tools to advance your own digital design projects.” — Madlyn Larson, Associate Director of Education Initiatives, Natural History Museum of Utah
“This book feels like a baton that is being passed, a baton that will open up possibility spaces for the next round of innovation.” — Hannah Jaris, program manager of adult education, New York Botanical Garden
“An impassioned look into the many ways Joseph has used digital design to transform museums and visitor experiences. Joseph describes his pioneering work through vivid case studies and insightful interviews, offering a framework and tools for utilizing his uniquely qualified approach.” — Margaret Wallace, CEO & Co-Founder, Playmatics
“This book is relatable and accessible, offering an honest look at working in a museum. Based on real genuine experience, reading it was like having a charming conversation with the author. And this isn’t just me being a nice Canadian!” — France Therrien, Learning Specialist, Canadian Museum of History and Canadian War Museum
“Barry Joseph is one of the foremost experts on digital design, youth learning, and innovation. If you’re interested in these spaces there is no better place to look.” — Jeremy Kenisky, CTO @ XALTER
“Barry Joseph is a force of nature. Few can match the impact that he has had in pulling digital museum education into the 21st century.” — Grace Collins, CEO, Snowbright Studio
“The publication is an important record for digital design at an important moment in museology.” — Neal Stimler, President of Stimler Advantage
As I posted here last March, Mayor Eric Adams has announced, in his economic recovery plan for New York City “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvest,” that increasing the video gaming industries contribution to the city’s economy is a high priority for his administration, particularly the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MoME) and the Department of Education. The Mayor’s plan will increase diversity and equity in the growing digital gaming industry and related fields workforce, making New York City a principal hub for digital gaming development.
What I can now share is that the City College of New York (CCNY), with whom I work, will play an important role in expanding the digital gaming industry in NYC. Our new Gaming Pathways program will create and fund a CCNY bachelor’s degree program in Game Design, the first public opportunity of its kind in New York City, developing the curriculum for a Bachelor’s degree program. When classes opened this fall they filled up almost immediately. The $2 million investment in this Pathways, which will be funded by MOME, is planned to reach over 1,000 students over the next three years.
It was exciting to attend the press conference at CCNY and sit in the front row as the Mayor announced the funding. Personally, I think watching the whole press conference is a good idea – as it is full of fascinating bits – but if you only want to watch the mayor of New York City declare his intention to make his city #1 in gaming in the country, you can start right from here:
CCNY is working with Urban Arts Partnership and Harlem Gallery of Science, preparing high school age youth from Title I schools for careers in the tech field, thereby creating a pathway from high school to City College to the digital gaming industry in NYC. The program is also working closely with the new NYC Digital Games Industry Council and is partnering with educators to create pathways from classrooms to careers in digital game design.
As you might recall I co-produced public events in the lead up this announcement last spring – for both high school and college students – and am currently working on a journal, in collaboration with ETC Press, that will share some of the great ideas and fascinating experiences introduced to our students. It will be available for free, and I will share more about it here once it is available. A new slate of public programming is currently in the works. To learn more, please go to the web site here.
[Late addition] The day after I posted the above the NYC office of media released this great video promoting the Pathway. You can check it out here.
Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s on Long Island as a Jewish kid, I was not alone traveling to Sullivan County (an hour or so northwest of NYC) to vacation at the grand resorts – Kutsher’s Country Club, the Nevelle (Ulster County, I know…), the Concord (if those names don’t ring a bell, do a Google Image search).
Last summer I enjoyed revisiting this long lost era (memorialized in films like Dirty Dancing and television shows like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as part of a project to create a new museum dedicated to preserving the legacy and values of the Catskill resort era for future generations.
Since my grandfather worked at Kutsher’s, I especially enjoyed taking part in returning the famous neon sign that welcomed guests to the region, from a dedicated fan who sought to protect it when the entire resort went out of business and everything was sold at auction.
Here is the sign back in the day:
Here is was in storage, electricity still working, just this summer:
On the subject of founding a new museum, I started working this fall with Alex Gomberg, of the Brooklyn Seltzer Boys (who recently reached their 10 year anniversary). If his name sound familiar, it might be because you read about him as the youngest seltzer man in the country in the epilogue to my book Seltzertopia: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Drink. Or perhaps you recognize him from his incomparable egg cream station at my youngest’s B’Nai Mitzvah celebration from earlier in the year.
Sorry, where was I? I got distracted by the egg creams. Oh yeah! We’ve founding a new museum, tentatively called The Brooklyn Seltzer Museum and Factory Tour. Earlier this year Alex moved his seltzer works into a totally new facility in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. It’s magnificent. And together we are beginning to explore how it can tell the story to visitors about the history of sparkling water, and of his family’s three generations in the business.
Check out this 360 photo I made to get a sense of the Works and watch this video to get a sense of it in action.
To get things started, we are working with graduate students from NYU’s Digital Media Design for Learning Program. I look forward to sharing more about this exciting project as it advances.
Psychomachia, or conflict of the soul, is the title of a Latin poem from the early fifth century, a sort of literary Super Smash Bros. of personified virtues and vices. I used the concept as a metaphor to explore the player experience of push your luck games like Can’t Stop, in order to discuss play at its ethical boundaries.
A sceenshot of the boardgame Can’t Stop on the web site Board Game Arena
I was inspired to take this on by the call from The Well Played Journal, a forum for in-depth close readings of video games that parse out the various meanings to be found in the experience of playing a game. Last winter they announced a special issue exploring ethics and videogames and what it means for a game to have been “well played.” From successfully cheating, to winning at all costs, to playing casually, to being a good sport, playing well can seem to have different connotations. This special call asked us to consider an ethical instance to highlight issues about players and their values and who they are, or aspire to be as people.
I decided to dig deep into how, during the first year of the pandemic, I choose to aggressively play a digitized version of an old board game called Can’t Stop. I aimed to explore how I used it first to maintain engagement at work and then later to produce a state of psychomachia in order to work. These two uses combined to showcase examples of playing when one is only supposed to be working, and working when one is only supposed to be playing. My piece was designed to answer the following question: When the two are combined – the ludological and the non-ludological – in a manner not transparent to others, is this behavior unethical?
While I submitted the piece to be peer-reviewed by the Journal, I also submitted it to the Well Played lecture series at the returned Games, Learning, and Society conference. To my delighted, it was accepted by both!
My session presenting it at GLS this past June was deeply meaningful for me. I have been attending Well Played sessions at both GLS and Games For Changes for years, usually coming away transformed by experiencing new ways to approach game design, and learning about games that would go on to be played by both myself and my family. It was here, for example, that I first learned of The World of Goo, Gorogoa, and Thomas Was Alone – games which inspired and moved me. Now that I had a chance to present my own Well Played, it felt, in a sense, that I had leveled up. It was an honor.
While there is no video of the presentation, the deck can be viewed here.
And this month the Journal itself was published. The ETC Press is an academic and open-source publishing imprint that distributes its work in print, electronic and digital form, an “experiment and an evolution in publishing, bridging virtual and physical media to redefine the future of publication.” What does that mean for you? It means you can download the entire issue, including my chapter, for free, right now, from their web site. It also means, for under $10, you can order a print-on-demand version as well.
If you read the article, please let me know what it makes you think about regarding the various ways you play games.
Here is a sample, from the opening section:
Introduction
The following story should not be taken as fact. It comes from an undocumented, unverifiable memory nearly two decades old. Perhaps best to treat as allegory.
I am in New York City in a long, thin second floor office in Chinatown. The walls are decorated with the boxes of classic tabletop games, nostalgic inspiration for the young indie game designers around me. This is the office of GameLab, founded just a few years earlier by game designers Eric Zimmerman and Peter Seung-Taek Lee, in the years leading up to their release of both Diner Dash and Gamestar Mechanic. Eric is at the whiteboard, brainstorming early design concepts for what would eventually be launched as Ayiti: The Cost of Life, the first video game I ever produced (a worker-placement game about access to health care and education for a poor rural family in Haiti).
At the time, I worked at Global Kids, a youth development organization. Next to me is my supervisor, Evie, the Deputy Director, who came to youth work from a training in children’s theater. Across from us sits Cornelia Brunnner, Deputy Director of the Center for Children and Technology, the organization hired to embed some “stealth assessments” within the game, to learn if player attitudes changed after playing the game.
While Eric was at the board, and all eyes focused on his illustrations, one set was elsewhere, on their device, playing a game. In my memory Cornelia was looking at her iPhone, but that can’t be, as Ayiti was launched before Apple’s invention. But in any case, Cornelia was playing a mobile game throughout. She may have mentioned she was testing a game under development. The game designers had no problem with this, incorporating her feedback when the topic would shift to Cornelia’s area of expertise, but I could tell staff from Global Kids were put off. They wouldn’t say anything about it, at least not until we exited, but I could tell by their expressions this behavior was seen as less than professional.
We were supposed to all be working. Why did Cornelia think she could also be playing? Personally, I found it fascinating, like a child seeing an adult getting away with acting in a way they didn’t know was allowed.
This was the first time I recall seeing this occur, someone playing when they were at the same time working. A few years later, in 2008, I had the opportunity to do it myself. I was in Madison, Wisconsin at the Games, Learning and Society Conference. The GLS always offered an amazing arcade, full of fantastic games to be played between sessions. I was supervising one of my students who I had accompanied to present and who, now free, was spending hours effortlessly killing it at Dance Dance Revolution. She was done working. She was just playing.
I, however, was still at work. I finished my round of Guitar Hero, a game I’d just discovered, but now I was late to a session on my schedule. Too late, it turned out; the room was full. Luckily, headsets were available for those wishing to listen remotely. I donned a set and, listening to the lecture, wandered back into the arcade, watching others play Guitar Hero (even though I could not hear). A guitar was offered. At first I declined then, recalling Cornelia, thought: Why not? I removed one side of the headset, allowing the music from the game to fill that side of my ear while the lecture continued in my other.
Strumming to Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” while listening to a panel on games and learning, I was finally doing it: working and playing at the same time.
Last month I shared I would be producing events to support the new Public Pathways project at the City College of New York, designed to create academic and career opportunities for an emerging gaming community for teens living in Harlem, Upper Manhattan, and the South Bronx.
First of all, I can now share the link to the new web site, at GamingPathways.org. Please check it out, scroll to the bottom, and enter your contact info to stay in the loop.
While you are there, you can also go to the events calendar to get more information about the first four public events, the first launching this week. If you work with NYC high school youth, or know anyone within the CUNY system (faculty or students), please help spread the word.
Here is a video we commissioned to kick off the events, from the phenomenal educator and rapper Mega Ran.
This week, in person and streamed, will be our first public esports competition, in which CCNY’s E-sports Club students – talented at both academics and gaming – go head-to-head before a live audience. While competing for cash prizes, students will also share how participating in e-sports advances their academic studies and career plans. Come cheer them on, pick up free swag, and try for a chance to compete from the stage in one of the rounds. You can sign-up to attend here and the event will be streamed here. This month will focus on Valorant.
Next week, again in person and streamed, will be our first Well Played lecture series, a highly interactive opportunity for students to hear from people who think hard about games, to understand them in a new way. Each event brings together NYC gaming professionals, a game studies professor or journalist, and a CCNY student, all addressing a similar topic from a different angle. This spring the topic is esports and speakers will include staff from Epic Games and a student speaking on the impact game fans have on esports athletes. You can sign-up to attend hereand the event will be streamed here.
We have been working closely with CCNY students in the production of both events, including the amazing student-designed flyers (Thank you Lila!). Check them out below.
Here is my seasonal newsletter about my work across a wide range of fields. If you would like to receive these by email, please sign up here.
Winter 2022 BJC NEWSLETTER
KEEPING BUSY
Is it March already? Here in New York spring has sprung early, the ice-cream truck has returned to its perch downstairs, and mask mandates are receding with the cold weather. Meanwhile, I am as busy as ever with work for BJC and couldn’t be more thankful.
In December I announced that I would be producing new racial equity policy games with and for the RAND Corporation. At this point we have chosen a topic and development is well underway. I look forward to being able to share more, such as the topic of the game and its mechanics, in a few months.
I continue to support the Natural History Museum of Utah in the development of their digital engagement strategy for Research Quest, their online tool to develop critical thinking among middle schoolers. We are developing something new that will launch before the end of this year that will be of interest to educators around the country. Watch this space!
New work has begun with a century-old organization exploring how their services might transfer into the digital age while work continues to help the Utah Education Network better meet the needs of their users.
After moving in fits and starts over a number of years, work has progressed rapidly on a legacy board game I am developing about families and museums. We’re always looking for playtesters, so if you’re game for a session on Tabletop Simulator, please let me know! When we get closer to the Kickstarter campaign, I look forward to sharing much much more.
I’ll dig deeper below into other projects, but before I do I just want to acknowledge that all of this is made possible because of the support of people like you. Without your recommendations and support, none of this would be possible. My family and I thank you.
I’ll dig deeper below into other projects, but before I do I just want to acknowledge that all of this is made possible because of the support of people like you. Without your recommendations and support, none of this would be possible. My family and I thank you.
Launching a New Public Pathway to Gaming Careers (breaking news)
Last year I shared about my work developing a pathway for NYC youth in low-income communities to explore educational and career pathways into game-related fields. I shared links to our study on NYC youth and gaming here and a public event last summer (re: eSports Students Use Video Games for College Outreach) (all under the auspices of the City College of New York and Science and Arts Engagement New York).
All this – the research, the pilot programs – were exploratory activities to support a fundraising process.
The formal announcement will come in April, but, well, it’s happening!
NYC Mayor Adam’s just released his “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent: A Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery”. Under the topic “Further diversify the economy by investing in promising growth industries,” we find “Make New York City a leading hub for digital game development.” It lists ways the Mayor’s Office intends to advance the industry in NYC in four ways, one being “establishing a game development curriculum at CUNY to train New Yorkers for opportunities in this field.”
This program is just one piece of the pathway. There will be new after school programs for high school students, new industry opportunities for college students, new venues for NYC’s gaming industry (both AAA and indie) to connect with both sets of students, and new events to bring CUNY’s academic programs in a wide-range of disciplines into the mix.
This spring, for example, I will be producing events that bring ALL of these stakeholders together. Watch my #CCNY tagged blog posts for details, but for now I can share that:
In April there will be two public events, both for NYC high school students and for (and co-led by) CCNY college students. The first will be a public esports competition, in which CCNY esports Club will play in front of a live (and streamed audience), exploring such topics as countering toxicity in online gaming cultures and how participation in the league helps them advance their academic and career goals. A range of Club members are co-leading this project, their broad diversity of interests exemplified by a quick review of their majors: nursing, political science, architecture, english, civil engineering, and environmental engineering.
The second event will be part of a Well Played series, inspired by the talks and publications from ETC. With this season’s theme of esports, audiences will watch one game dissected by a collaboration among a gaming professional, a gaming scholar, and a CCNY esports competitor.
In May we will hold a second round of each, then culminate the season in a June day-long game jam.
Two decades ago I launched perhaps the first pro-social youth game design program in the country and co-founded Games For Change. Now, all these years later, I can hardly begin to explain how excited I am, both by the very existence of this new public pathway and for any role I am fortunate enough to play within it.
The New Book I Published
And in January I published a new book. I was not sure if I would mentioned it here – it is as personal as it gets – but I wrote it to get it out into the world, so here you go.
Friday is Tomorrow, or The Dayenu Yearis a true story of learning to grieve and thrive during the first year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Within the first month of the lock-down, I lost my father to the disease and then, soon after, my job.
Through the support of my family, friends, and community, Friday is Tomorrow tells the uplifting story of how one man learns to maintain traditions in a time of uncertainty while reaching for his dreams.
At times moving, at times humorous, the ups and downs of this New Yorker were originally penned (quite literally, with a physical pen) for Columbia University’s NYC Covid-19 Oral History, Narrative and Memory Archive. Edited together for the first time, Friday is Tomorrow is more than just an opportunity to read one person’s struggle with the world wrought by the recent pandemic.
It is an invitation for the reader to take the time and space they need to consider and better understand their own story.
“It is a story of loss and gain, sadness and happiness, connection through separation, and most of all of resilience… It shows how we can help pull each other through hard times. His family’s story is my story too, and elements of it will be your story as well.”
“So many of us have experienced loss during this pandemic – loss of the life we knew, loss of a loved one… This book reminded me how important it is for all of us to spend time with the people in our lives – our family, friends and community so that we become resilient and move forward together.”
This new permanent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is not just a novel way to reckon with the Museum’s association with the 1857 erasure of Seneca Village (a vibrant Black community that was destroyed in part by racist smear campaigns in order to clear space for Central Park, where the Met now sits). The exhibit is also a radical and brilliant reframing of how museums can grapple with the artifice within our tools without losing their power to influence and inspire.
In short, the Met – which is full of “period rooms” – exposed the fiction within those constructs by leaning into the process of its creation. In this case, we experience a room belonging to a Seneca Village resident – as if the community remained to this day, as if through the power of afrofuturism they had a device to transport items from across space and time to decorate their abode.
Waiting online to enter the museum (it took an hour) I asked the older Black woman in front of me what brought her to the museum that day. She said, it turned out, to see this very exhibit, which she described as being “about the community that Robert Moses destroyed, when those in power took land from…” and then she paused, unsure how to end her sentence. “Those without power,” I suggested.
She corrected me, saying, “I don’t like to say ‘without power’. That can make us feel helpless. I like to say we have different power.”
“Without political power,” I amended, and to that she agreed.
In Before Yesterday We Could Fly, that “different power” is on full display. The next time you have the time in NYC, I recommend you stop by for a visit.
I have two things to re-post, both shared a few days ago. There’s a theme connecting them together (and no, my involvement, while real, and with more to be shared soon, is not it). Want to hazard a guess?
Mayor Adam’s just released his “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent: A Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery”. You can download it here. Under the topic “Further diversify the economy by investing in promising growth industries,” we find “Make New York City a leading hub for digital game development“.
As background, they first share that: The global digital games industry is projected to record revenues of $180 billion in global sales, making it larger than the global film and North American sports industries combined. Specifically, New York City’s game development industry supports more than $2 billion in economic output and $762 million in wages.
The Mayor’s Office intends to advance the industry in NYC in four ways:
creating an Industry Council to advise the City’s policies and programs in the game development sector;
providing marketing support for New York City-made games and local game creators;
establishing a game development curriculum at CUNY to train New Yorkers for opportunities in this field;
and working with NYC & Company to attract esports events to the five boroughs.
In my previous post I shared video and poems from my first presentation this week at MuseumNext’s conference on games and museums. This post is about how we closed out the event with Failing Forward: 10 favorite Museum game Fails and what we learned from them.
Watch below to learn why I make the insightful comment: “Don’t lead with the flatulent buffalo”:
…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 particularly enjoyed adapting content from my upcoming book on digital design in museums for the sessions format, including lessons learned from both MicroRangers (the AR mobile app game) and Escape the Planet (the escape room which never… took off).
After the video we had a robust Q&A, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and for some reason, at the end, as Jim thanked us for contributing and then closed out the entire 3-day long conference, I once again fell (failed) off my seat.
I am formerly the VP of Digital Experience at the Girl Scouts of the USA and Associate Director For Digital Learning at the American Museum of Natural History.
When I began at the Museum I used this blog to talk about my adventures, exploring issues related to digital media and museum-based learning. I featured original interviews, thought pieces, and highlights from my work and those of my colleagues at the AMNH.
Starting in 2020, with the launch of Barry Joseph Consultancy, LLC, I turned this blog into a place to explore digital engagement writ large.
