Professional game artists:an investigation into the primary considerations that impact upon their work, and the effects upon their creative practice

This article represents the author’s preliminary research into an area of creative practice that he pursued for some 20 years, namely that of a full time professional computer game artist. Initially collaborating with academics as a part time lecturer and industrial consultant, for the past eight years his roles within academia have focused on developing pedagogical models of professional practice within games education. Through his interaction with students, employers and graduates, the author began to identify an area of keen personal interest – namely, the actual realities of being a professional game artist, and the potential consequences on creative practice. In identifying the constraints and influences that direct such an artist’s work, it is the intention that a broader discussion may then follow, exploring how such artists can protect their creative muse, when the evidence would suggest that many aspects of the games industry are an absolute anathema to individual expression. In addition to his own experiences and research, the author has drawn on interviews with other professionals from games development, as well as artists who work in other areas of professional artistic practice (such as Fine Art, Illustration, and Comics). In this way his intention is to identify the areas of practice common to other areas of art, while highlighting any of the more unique elements present specifically within games development itself. While there is a large body or research into game design principles and technologies, there is very little discussion that focuses on the very people that make them. It is the author’s hope that this article plays some small part in starting to redress this balance, and may help the reader to appreciate the challenges such artists face

Sharing our Blessings with Those in Need

Each year, National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week asks us to think about our most challenged neighbors during the days before Thanksgiving. As we consider our own reasons to be thankful, let us ask ourselves how we may share our blessings with those around us in need of food and shelter. [excerpt

Entertaining Angels: Homelessness and the Hospitality of Faith in Adams County

I first volunteered at a soup kitchen in the frigid depths of winter in very late 1981 or very early 1982, in the heart of the Rust Belt in the midst of a terrible recession. I should emphasize right from the onset that I didn’t want to be there: I was next to useless and very intimidated, forced to be there by the tradition of service at my all-boys Catholic high school. Still, the experience made quite an impression on me, and I tell that story to my students so that they will understand that I know what’s like to be afraid of homeless people. When I looked at the people in line I saw a hungry mass clamoring for food—a collective threat—rather than a great number of struggling individuals in need—my brothers and sisters I was called to love—and that was my mistake. It’s a common enough error, however, and if there is one great irony about the fear in American society of the stereotypical homeless person, it’s that very many people who find themselves suddenly homeless are, themselves, terrified of homeless people; they’ve been conditioned to be so, and finding themselves in the midst of other homeless folks can seem like descending into a nightmare. [excerpt

Student-Centered, Interactive Teaching of the Anglo-Saxon Cult of the Cross

Although most Anglo-Saxonists deal with Old English texts and contexts as a matter of course in our research agendas, many of us teach relatively few specialized courses focused on our areas of expertise to highly-trained students; thus, many Old English texts and objects which are commonplace in our research lives can seem arcane and esoteric to a great many of our students. This article proposes to confront this gap, to suggest some ways of teaching a few potentially obscure texts and artifacts to undergrads, to offer some guidance about uses of technology in this endeavor, and to help fellow teachers of undergraduate Old English to develop ways to impart some transferable skills and modes of critical thinking to unsuspecting students. [excerpt

State Funding Unfair to Traditional Schools

The present budget crisis in Pennsylvania has brought many lingering tensions to bear as school districts scramble to pay their bills without any support from the state. Notably, there has been a lot of talk about holding back payments to charter schools, which naturally sparks controversy. In order to make sense of the situation - and in order to understand the passionate debate which surrounds it - it\u27s worthwhile to know something about the history, theory, and funding of charter schools. [excerpt

These Kids Today

National Volunteer Week, an annual challenge and opportunity for all of us to engage with our communities, is April 6-12 this year, and recent data suggest that this could be a good opportunity to re-commit ourselves to rising to the many challenges these communities currently face. [excerpt

Speak Free or Lie: Academic Freedom & the Obligation to Speak Truth

In recent days a colleague in the Political Science Department at Gettysburg College has been pilloried in the local and national press for her stand on teaching the upcoming presidential election. It troubles me that much of the criticism levied against her seems disengaged from the text of her original column on the subject, or from the ample evidence of excellence in her long and well-respected career; it horrifies and disgusts me, however, that she has suffered through epithets and threats to her personal safety for simply voicing a thoughtful, heartfelt opinion, however provocative or controversial. I firmly believe we should protect and indeed celebrate respectful dissent and unpopular speech. [excerpt

Productive Destruction: Torture, Text, and the Body in the Old English \u27Andreas\u27

Writing in the Old English Andreas is at once both a productive and a destructive activity. We first become aware of the dangerous power of the written word quite early in the poem, when we learn that the Mermedonians have subverted the normally productive activity of writing into a tool for calculating the execution dates of their prisoners (134-37). Later, the words uttered by the devil to incite the Mermedonians against Andreas illuminate the lexical relationship between the destructive nature of writing and the productive nature of torture in the semiotic context of the poem. Finally, in a sort of double-subversion, these same Mermedonians are the agents by which the destructive practice of torture is itself transformed, as they write upon Andreas\u27s body his identity as a type of Christ. It is precisely this analogous relationship between production and destruction, between inscription and infliction, between the act of writing and that of torture and the transformative powers bound up in each practice which I will explore in this paper, focusing on how Andreas\u27s body ultimately serves as the page upon which this multivalent (and seemingly paradoxical) text is written. [excerpt

A Dereliction of Duty: Homeless Veterans in America

U.S. government efforts to help homeless veterans in America are not enough. When I first began grappling with homelessness issues in my local community quite a number of years ago, Dave, then-director of the local homeless shelter in our small town, told me a story that illustrates some of the special circumstances faced by homeless veterans in America. Dave said a community of homeless vets had based themselves in caves in the hills outside of town, and after one was stricken with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized, his ongoing recovery left health care providers with a thorny dilemma. Clearly, the man was ready to be released from the hospital, but they were loathe to send a recovering pneumonia patient to his home in the caves. [excerpt

Miniature spray-painting booth

Transparent spray booth provides method for quality painting and repair of surfaces in clean room or other specialized environments. Overspray and virtually all contaminating vapor and odor can be eliminated. Touch-up painting is achieved with spray gun