Professor of Games and Tactical Media kicks-off new lecture series

Professor of Games and Tactical Media kicks-off new lecture series

The internationally-renowned Professor of Games and Tactical Media, Joseph DeLappe, presented the first of a diverse new series of Professorial Lectures at Abertay University.

Prof DeLappe's Valentine's day talk, Resistance, Play and Memory, kicked-off the fresh programme of lectures to be followed by Professors Karen Renaud, Nicholas Grier, Ruth Falconer, David Lavallee, Costas Stathopoulos and Khalid Hafeez.

Having worked with electronic and new media since 1983, Prof DeLappe told the audience how he has has been involved with online gaming performance, sculpture and electromechanical installation throughout the world.

Previously awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, he works at the intersection of art, technology, social engagement/activism and interventionist strategies exploring our geo-political contexts.

He has developed works for venues such as Eyebeam in New York, The Guangdong Museum of Art, China and Transition MX, Mexico City, among others.

Creative works and actions have been featured widely in scholarly journals, books and in the popular media.

In 2006, Prof DeLappe began the project, Dead in Iraq, to consecutively type all names of US military casualties from the war in Iraq into the America's Army first person shooter online recruiting game.

He also directs the iraqimemorial.org project, an ongoing web-based exhibition and open call for proposed memorials to the many thousands of civilian casualties from the war.

In 2013, Prof DeLappe rode a specially equipped bicycle to draw a 460-mile-long chalk line around the Nellis Air Force Range to surround an area that would be large enough to create a solar farm that could power the entire United States.

More recently he collaborated with the Dundee-based Biome Collection to develop the computer game, Killbox, a two-person shooter which explores the complexities and consequences of drone warfare.

Prof DeLappe has been heavily involved in the city’s digital and cultural sector, exhibiting his Mouse Mandala installation at NEoN Festival and speaking at PechaKucha and Dundee Arts Café events.

This visual lecture described a history of works that creatively engage new technologies, art and political activism.

These included “The Salt Satyagraha Online: Gandhi’s March to Dandi in Second Life” (2008), for which he created a “mixed-reality” durational performance utilising a converted exercise treadmill to re-enact Mahatma Gandhi’s 1930 Salt March in a virtual community.

Prof DeLappe also presented a number of new projects under development, exploring aspects of computer gaming, augmented reality and virtual reality at the intersection of art, activism, performance and play.