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Parsons and Games for Change to Launch PETLab
Posted by phoebe on 12-12-07First-of-its-Kind Initiative Will Prototype Digital Games Addressing Social Issues;
To Partner with Microsoft and MTV in First Year
Parsons The New School for Design, in collaboration with the non-profit organization Games for Change, has announced the launch of PETLab, the first public-interest game design and research laboratory for interactive media. The initiative was made possible by a $450,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as part of the foundation’s digital media and learning initiative established in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.
In its first year, PETLab will work with Microsoft’s Xbox development platform and MTV’s Think.MTV.com youth-focused online activist community on the development of both learning tools and digital games that explore social issues. “PETLab marks a new level of interaction with the growing number of companies and nonprofit organizations who are interested in developing games that serve as a catalyst for learning and civic engagement,” said Colleen Macklin, Parsons chair of Communication Design and Technology and director of PETLab. “While in the past we have designed games that address issues in the public interest, ranging from global warming to the electoral process, PETLab will give us the capacity to extend the reach of our efforts to new audiences and collaborators. Our goal is to create inventive intersections between the fields of game design, social issues and learning.” Petlab Press Release>>