Raiford Guins: Atari Modern. A Design History of Atari’s Coin-Op Machines, 1972 – 1979

Welcome to the first K3 seminar of the season. It will be held by Raiford Guins, professor in Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University. It will be held on Monday, September 4, at 14.45-16.00 in Room NIC 0541 in Niagara (the K3 Open Studio).

The title of the talk is: Atari Modern: A Design History of Atari’s Coin-Op Machines, 1972 – 1979

 Raiford Guins is Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in The Media School, Indiana University. He edits MIT University Press’s “Game Histories” book series with Henry Lowood and is in the early stages of developing a new journal devoted to the critical historical study of games entitled ROMchip: A Journal of Game History. He is the author of Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife (MIT Press, 2014).

Abstract for the talk:

What is the research process behind the publication of an academic book? Where does one’s research questions come from? How does one decide on a particular method? Where does actual research occur? To address questions such as these, I will share my process of writing my next book, Atari Modern: A Design History of Atari’s Coin-Ops, 1972 – 1979.  

This “behind the scenes”, informal talk, will present the visualization of my historical actors and research terrain as well as demonstrate the strategic use of “problem revealing things” to craft the book’s introduction. The aim of the talk is to materialize a process that is usually obscured in the final product of a published book.

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