I am pleased to say that we applied to Carleton University’s internal Multidisciplinary Research Catalyst Fund for funding to lay the groundwork to transfrom the X-Lab from ‘virtual’ into something much more real - and we got it!!
Who are the ‘we’ in this? There’s myself and Jen Evans from History; Laura Banducci from Greek and Roman Studies; Stephen Fai, Mario Santana-Quintero, Johan Voordouw from Architecture; Monica Patterson from the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies; Alan Tsang, Ahmed El-Roby from Computer Science; Carmen Robertson from Indigenous and Canadian Studies; Tracey Lauriault and Sandra Robinson from Journalism and Communications; and Erik Anonby from Linguistics and Language Studies.
Phew This year has been challenging, to say the least. At the same time, a virtual lab should be well positioned to handle the challenges of working remotely, right?
Nevertheless, many of our projects moved to the back burner, while our undergraduate members dealt with the transition to fully online education and taking care of themselves and their families. Other things that had been in the process of becoming for some time finally saw the light of day.
Programs and Problems The next step in my research would include attempting to mod Minecraft to suite my needs. While I was doing research on different texture pacts and different worlds that can be added to Minecraft I learned that the edition I had does not allow the kind of modification I am attempting to perform. According to a few online sources that I found Minecraft Education Edition can have different worlds, but only a small specific amount, and the texture packs were the same.
The challenge of adapting the open-source SimCity port, Micropolis, to a historic setting is that it’s a semi-realist game taking place in a generic modern setting; its purpose as a game is to model the behaviours and construction patterns of present day cities. My current work has been focused on playing the game, and through this conceptualizing the “surface level” mechanics into variants plausible for ancient Rome during its time as an empire.
Games situated in Ancient Rome tend be concentrated in the turn-based battle strategy game genre, but what if instead the game focused on the urbanity of this ancient Metropolis?
As a student studying computer science, I have many friends interested in various forums of current tech, which of course includes video games. Perhaps it’s the complexity of historical strategy and technology, or the fact that history is so different from what they usually study, but the overlap between computer scientists and a passion for history has been one of my most surprising discoveries in university.
First Experiences and Experiments As someone who is very interested on alternative pedagogies I was very excited to start on the SimRomanCity project. However, I am new to coding, so I find that I am focusing on the adaptability of videogames and the ease of use rather than the actual coding. Video games and digital learning has changed and evolved. There are programs that allow for a certain freedom where an average student who may not want to code, but still enjoys alternative learning styles, can participate without needing to know complicated coding.
Dr. Graham is pleased to announce that the Inaugural X-Lab Fellowships have been awarded to two outstanding History students, Vanessa Finney and Lauren Rollit. Vanessa is a fourth year history student with a minor in archaeology, interested in the perceptions of the body throughout history and application of technological advancements as teaching tools for history. She hopes to use this fellowship to gain skills and knowledge in online and digital media that will aid with future research into digital pedagogy.
ἐποίησεν (epoiesen)- made - is a journal for exploring creative engagement with the past, especially through digital means. It publishes primarily what might be thought of as ‘paradata’ or artist’s statements that accompany playful and unfamiliar forms of singing the past into existence.
An Idea It occurred to me that there are many student and faculty digital history projects going on around the History Department, but we do not actually speak to one another formally about this work. There are haphazard meetings in hallways and corridors going to and from class, but no real place where people could talk about their work, share resources, hints, tips, kvetch or otherwise collaborate. I thought then I might try to create a virtual space for that to happen; this is the result.