Andrew McNutt

2.1 Lenses, Not Boxes I wondered whether this section was necessary, but games discourse seems to repeatedly find itself adrift in questions of whether _ counts as a _. We have seen the question repeatedly: Do games count as art? Do games without goals count as games? Is The Sims a game? Are hypertexts interactive fiction? Are Twine pieces literature? In fairness to the researchers cited here, all of whom I respect immensely, many of these sources pose or imply the question rhetorically. Still, the necessity of such a framing frustrates me. "Is _ a _?" is, in my opinion, a fruitless question. The question can never be answered to anyone's satisfaction, and it often serves as either a provocation to espouse politics or as a cover to institute gatekeeping. Its agenda is usually opaque to onlookers and bewildering to those trying to advance the field from across disciplines. We should be thinking in lenses, not boxes. It is always more interesting to ask "If we think of _ through the lens of _, what do we learn?" We know it is more interesting to ask "What do we learn by considering Tom Stoppard through the lens of poststructuralism?" than to ask "Is Stoppard's work poststructuralist?" And while some works may be more or less fruitful when examined through different lenses, sometimes the most unlikely pairings of lenses and objects are the most rewarding. Certainly any of the questions above would be much better served by reframing them in this way.

Wow we’re having “games are art” discourse again! Just gonna leave this here.

From my dissertation:

A black-and-white generative artwork composed of concentric arcs made from repeated rectangular dashes, radiating from the top right corner. The marks form a warped grid that creates a strong sense of optical vibration and spatial distortion.

Optical Rhythm
Ink on Paper 18x18"
#p5 #NextDraw #opArt

The Mask of Sorrow is a monument located on a hill above Magadan, Russia, commemorating the many prisoners who suffered and died in the Gulag prison camps in the Kolyma region of the Soviet Union during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

none as far as i know, this post about a survey of the community is the last i'd heard

bsky.app/profile/desi...

If you've been working hard on an alt.vis25 submission, then good news!!

The alt.vis deadline is extended! It is now on AoE August 6. We look forward to seeing what you've been up to! Keep up the alt.work!!

alt.VIS A half-day workshop at IEEE VIS 2025

altvis.github.io link for the lazy!

If you've been working hard on an alt.vis25 submission, then good news!!

The alt.vis deadline is extended! It is now on AoE August 6. We look forward to seeing what you've been up to! Keep up the alt.work!!

maybe this is obvious and everyone else has been doing this forever, but the freedom to be dumb and try stuff without the burdens of configuration has been revelatory

for a bit Id been wanting to be able to quickly jump into a nb and hack (ala docs.new for docs), and had been blocked by how slow setting up a python env felt

Recently I realized I can have a "scratch-nbs" folder with all my shit set up and its been eye opening; so many dumb ideas explored quickly

the special issue is out! please read it and join the discussion — what do YOU think is critical his? have we missed a perspective? how can we grow, learn, and build together?

it’s an excellent set of submissions in two parts

posting this as discussions about canvas forcibly inducing AI features are arising to highlight: you don't have to be shackled to canvas. you can pick tools in your class that aren't awful and aren't that much more work than the default

a thanks to all the authors who submitted, to all the reviewers who reviewed for this issue, and to my co-editors (Georgia Panagiotidou, Nicole Hengesbach, @gotdairyya.bsky.social, and Miriah Meyer). it was great working with all of you <3

last semester i ran a class entirely outside of canvas. I used google sheets for grades, forms for stuff submission, mail-merge based emails for grade reports, and a markdown page for scheduling/syllabi. It took some effort, but it wasn't actively terrible the way all interactions with canvas are

Delighted to see so much enthusiasm & insightful thinking about these *ahem* critical topics. (Also pretty excited how many of the papers are open access :chefkiss:)

Our two part CG&A issue on critical visualization has been published!! Critical vis considers the context of data and visualization; asking Qs about the way we use and understand data+vis (who is it for? who benefits?). A stellar group of article ime

www.computer.org/csdl/magazin...

ah gotcha. love the care for your readers expressed in that

that's a very good tip, i wish there was some way to integrate this directly into the browser

yea that's true but also i've found myself needing to navigate email+pdfs a lot than i'd have liked

unless your paper realllllly needs super high quality graphics, imo it's good etiquette to make sure your pdf is <25mb so that it can be sent over email

BTW: I'm slowly assembling a LIVE Primer to help folk submitting to LIVE (& others) get the lay of the land. Please take a look and let me know what's missing, what sucks, what's rad, etc.

live-workshop.github.io/primer/

A few years ago I wrote to Libby asking them to add an opt-in feature: take my CC# and every time I borrow a book, auto-donate whatever Amazon charges for it to my local library. They replied quickly but declined. Wish they would reconsider.

And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill

Striking example showing that stacked area charts can be tricky to read.

Does alt.chi have a future? – Design Research Works Survey results and a discussion on why we should preserve alt.chi

Blogged about the survey I ran regarding the future of alt.chi within the #chi conference: designresearch.works/blog/future-...

We're hiring for a senior engineer on the Power BI Core Visuals team! Please apply if you're interested, or let me know if you have any clarifying questions :)

jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/jo...

no, for sure, just go ahead and get rid of everything that makes me give a damn about this country

Well, I was too lazy to get the pre-print up, but the full paper is now up on the ACM DL (open access!): dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

And if you or your pals are at PLDI ‘25, come to the talk on Thursday (10:30am in Orchid) and say hi!

src: www.wilderness.org/sites/defaul...