Matt Parker is an Associate Professor of the Arts at the NYU Game Center, where he serves as the Area Head for Programming and is the Director of Special Projects. Professor Parker was the founder chair for IndieCade East and Chair for the festival and conference from 2013-2015. He was the lead Curator for the Game For Change conference in 2016 and 2018. In 2018 he co-founded the OpenAir Collective, a global volunteer network that empowers its members to fight climate change by advancing carbon emissions reduction and removal.
Matt is also a game designer and new media artist. His work has been displayed at the American Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Academy of Music, SIGGRAPH Asia, the NY Hall of Science, Museum of the Moving Image, FILE Games Rio, Sony Wonder Technology Lab, the New Zealand Festival, and many other venues. His game Lucid was a finalist in Android’s Developer Challenge 2 and his project Lumarca won the “Create the Future” prize at the World Maker Faire. He created the game Recurse for the inaugural No Quarter exhibition at the NYU Game Center. Recurse was a finalist for Indiecade 2010 and won the “Play This Now!” award at Come Out and Play 2012. In 2011 Matt was an Eyebeam Resident in 2011 and in 2018 he was selected to participate in the Princeton Atelier. He is currently serving as a Distinguished International Scholar at the University of Waterloo.
Abstract:
As
part
of
multiple
exhibitions
at
the
recent
COP26
UN
Climate
Conference
in
Glasgow,
the
OpenAir
Collective
developed
Carbon
Collector,
a
multiplayer
game
that
demonstrates
the
importance
of
carbon
removal
as
an
important
tool
in
an
overall
climate
change
solution
approach,
as
outlined
in
the
UN's
IPCC
report.
Developed
by
Professor
Matt
Parker
and
Professor
Chris
Chung,
Carbon
Collector
encourages
players
discuss
strategies
for
remaining
within
our
carbon
budget
to
stay
under
1.5C.
Using
their
phones
as
controllers,
they
vote
on
the
appropriate
allocation
of
resources,
then,
looking
at
the
game
itself
on
a
large
screen,
they
witness
the
results
of
their
collective
decisions.
This
informal
talk
will
discuss
Professor
Parker's
journey
as
an
artist
and
activist,
what
lead
him
to
co-founding
the
OpenAir
Collective,
and
why
games
are
an
effective
way
to
communicate
concepts
that
are
sometimes
difficult
to
grasp
through
non-interactive
media.
Attendees
will
also
get
an
opportunity
to
play
Carbon
Collector
and
provide
input
on
feedback.
Given
it's
success
at
COP26,
OpenAir
would
like
to
modify
Carbon
Collector
from
a
game
meant
for
a
conference
atmosphere
to
a
web
based
experience
and
would
love
the
audience
to
join
in
a
free
flowing
exchange
of
ideas
on
what
would
be
helpful
for
a
web-based
version
of
the
game.
Online event - please contact games.institute@uwaterloo.ca to request a link to the event.