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Updated 2015 school shootings map

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For our midterm project, KC and I worked more on the map project. Conveniently my ICM assignment was to work with data sets this week, so we cleaned up the sketch as well as worked on the physical device by hooking up an actual button instead of a wonky switch of wires. It’s still pretty wonky but definitely in better shape than it was. I had a lot of interesting discussions on the topic which made me look deeper into the data, and it’s interesting that only a handful of these shootings were big massacres and many were cases of suicides, or murder-suicides, or other such incidents. I still think it highlights a problem, but some people thought it weakened the project.

This past Friday I also talked to Benedetta for an hour or so and asked how we can make projects that are socially conscious but at the same time engaging and effective, and one of the points she stressed was that you need to do your research because you have to expect your ideas will be confronted harshly, so it was somewhat amusing seeing that play out the day after we had that conversation. In other conversations I questioned whether an interactive piece like this can lend itself to intelligent discourse on complicated issues, and I found a few people highlighting the idea that a lack of information in a piece will not allow it to have a nuanced discussion. I’m not sure I agree but I admit I’ve been struggling to find a way around it. A large wall of text is an obvious solution, but I’m not sure that is the best option.

In addition, the class Performing Participation has me questioning the need or effectiveness of something so confrontational. I wonder if a more abstract and positive method would be better, something akin to Antichamber, Plug and Play, Mountain, or other games that lend themselves to philosophical rumination rather than direct social action. And when I do think about games with an explicit social component I think of games like Dumb Ways to Die and This War of Mine, which are notable successes that bring about issues in a more nuanced manner.

I’m happy with what we made but I think going forward that nuance is something I would like to explore, to work toward a balance between the fun and engaging aspect of a work as well as its social implications. Though I’m open to hearing other solutions, so I hope to continue these discussions.


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