People

Eric Gordon, PhD, Director, studies civic media, mediated cities and playful engagement. He is a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and he is an associate professor in the department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College where he focuses on the design and research of digital games and social software that foster local civic engagement. He is the co-author of a new book about location-based media called Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (Blackwell Publishing, 2011) and the author of The Urban Spectator: American Concept Cities From Kodak to Google (Dartmouth, 2010). Download latest CV here. Visit him at placeofsocialmedia.com. Contact: eric_gordon [at] emerson.edu | Twitter

Jessica Baldwin-Philippi, PhD, Researcher & Visiting Assistant Professor in Emerson College’s Department of Visual and Media Arts, studies civic engagement, citizenship, and digital media. Jesse’s work is fundamentally concerned with how engagement with new technologies can restructure forms of political participation and ideas about citizenship, and has covered a variety of topics from political campaigns to video games. She holds an MA and PhD in Communication Studies from Northwestern University. Her CV can be found here, and her work can be found at jessebp.com

Stephen Walter, Managing Director, studies and makes media for enhancing the understanding and use of complex systems, intersectionality, and playful experience for civic and community advocacy.  He’s led the design and development of media for civic engagement nationally and abroad, including the games Community PlanIt, Civic Seed, and Nyami Nyami. He’s worked with the International Red Cross, the U.S. State Department, the MAPC, the Cape Cod Commission, Tufts University, the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, and Detroit, and the Knight, Pearson, and MacArthur Foundations. Contact: stephen_walter [at] emerson.edu | chrono-synclastic-infundibulum.com

Russell Goldenberg, Hacker in Chief & Technology Coordinator, is a creative coder.  He became a Master of Fine Arts in Interactive Media at Emerson College in Boston. When not coding, he is likely found cooking or playing basketball. His creative work primarily uses computer programming to create art.  He has a longstanding relationship with Processing, but lately has been flirting with Node and real-time web apps.  He investigates ideas in a variety of media: data visualizations, games, interactive installations, and generative animations.

Kristin Breivik, Designer, recently graduated from School of Visual Arts in NYC with an MFA in Interaction Design. She strives to create concepts and designs that are meaningful, delightful, and that bring out the good in people. Kristin is fascinated by the power of crowds and how feeling connected to one another can inspire trust, optimism and positive actions. Kristin thinks the world will be a happier place when more people start riding their bicycles for transportation. Through the project SPOKED she has already converted a few skeptics.

Sam Liberty, Gamemaster and Content Developer, studied Literature and Theater at Emerson College, and has been one half of the  Spoiled Flush Games design studio since 2003. His designs took top prize at Game Chef 2011, as well as at the 2010 Rio Grande game design competition. Games include Forsooth, Gladiators (Rio Grande), and Cosmic Pizza (Cambridge Games Factory).  Sam has been featured on ABC’s Chronicle, and in the Ideas section of the Boston Globe (“Inside the Board Game Renaissance“), and spoke on the topic of board game design at TEDxBoston 2012. Copywriting clients include L.L.Bean, Keurig, Harvard University, Wyndham Hotels, and the State of Massachusetts. Contact: samuel.a.liberty [at] gmail.com

Philip Kalinsky, Back-End Developer, is an experienced Web coder that has been programming Web applications that matter for industries as diverse as real estate investment banking to online video streaming. Philip is an avid linux enthusiast and brings the freedom and benefits of the Python programming language and the Django framework wherever he goes. Whenever he is not hitting deep notes on his keyboard you can find him at a local pub nursing a mug of proper beer. Contact: philip.kalinsky [at] eloquentbits.com

J Chia, Animator, Jen spent several years as a gallerina, art installer, video editor, artist assistant, and historical renovator in NYC before arriving at Emerson to pursue Animation. Contact: jennifer_chia [at] emerson.edu

Jon Dutko, The Intern, is a junior at Tufts University, pursuing a double major in computer science and English. As a computer scientist, he has worked as a researcher in intelligent systems at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology. As a game developer, Jon has worked on projects in the industry as well as on those of both a personal and an educational nature. He hopes to bring both of these sets of skills to the table for the Civic Seed project. Originally from Chevy Chase, MD, Jon is now living full time just outside of Boston.

EGL Alums

Golden Arrows, Graphic Design, aim to work for people who do audacious and inspired work in their communities. In their third year, Golden Arrows recently helped start a creative co-working space in Boston’s South End, where they are now based, and where they host micro-granting supper Feast Mass, among other community events. They are Nerissa Cooney and Alexander Hage.

Stephen Hewitt, Media Production, is a graduate student at Emerson College working towards an M.F.A. in visual and media arts. He is a documentary filmmaker and photographer with an interest in crowd-sourced, interactive projects fueled by new media. His mission is to shape and create unique ways of experiencing the world through documentary. Stephen is an ’09 alumnus of The University of Rhode Island where he was one of the first graduates of the school’s Film Media program. Contact: shewitt22 [at] gmail.com

Brittney Oswald,  Social Media Assistant, is an undergraduate student at Emerson College. She is working toward a degree in Communication Studies, with minors in Leadership & Management as well as Psychology. She finds joy in community service, and loves joining the efforts of people working toward a good cause. With a musician’s mind, she is drawn to placing creative emphasis on the world around us in order to find inspiration and make real change. And if none of her desired career paths work out, she’s pretty good at juggling. Contact: brittney_oswald [at] emerson.edu

Steven Schirra, MA, Researcher, studies games and civic engagement. He recently worked as a researcher and content developer for the Participatory Chinatown project, which had its community debut in May 2010. He is currently a graduate student in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program. He is interested in new media literacies, game studies, and the role that new media and games play in community/civic engagement processes. Contact: steven_schirra [at] emerson.edu | Twitter

Nathaniel Hansen is an award-winning story-teller and producer. His directed film works include nationally broadcast commercials, short and feature length documentaries, short narrative films, episodic television, web based media, and ethnographic film. His strong visual style has attracted commercial clients like Johnson & Johnson, Covidien and Estee Lauder as well as small, no-budget non-profit organizations. His ethnographic footage has been retained by the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. His latest transmedia documentary The Elders has received praise both online and off for its matched aesthetic quality and provocative content. As an independent maker, Nathaniel’s recent work has been financially supported entirely through social media and crowdfunding. In 2010, his innovative efforts have raised over $200,000 for films he is directing or producing. Twitter: @nathanielhansen | www.nathanielhansen.com

Evan Leek is a Boston-based digital artist specializing in Gaming, Virtual Worlds and UI/UX Design. His work ranges from constructing three-dimensional interactive spaces, to creating augmented reality experiences. Exploring how we attribute significance to the places around us is a common theme throughout his work. Evan works in pen-and-ink, digital and web-based art, three-dimensional environments and Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Most recently, Evan has been part of a team building iPhone and iPad applications aimed at aggregating social networking feeds to tell one’s life story. Through his work with the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology (OEIT) at MIT, he examined the benefits of augmented reality experiences and distance collaboration in a variety of interactive environments. Working with Hub2, a Boston-based organization centered around utilizing interactive environments to foster more meaningful discussions on public spaces, he was able to see first hand the benefits of interactive gaming centered on socially conscious topics.

Jamie Spetner, Research Assistant, is a senior screenwriting major at Emerson College, currently participating in the Writer’s Guild of America East mentorship program. In the last year, he’s intensively studied how digital media is shaping culture, and written analyses of authority on Wikipedia, and the social science behind internet memes. He’s interested in the concept of virility, and how an idea can accidentally propagate itself to the masses. You can also check out some of his film and video production work athttp://vimeo.com/jamiespetner.