The Year of the New

Posted on Apr 22, 2013 in News

There has been lots of new happening around PETLab this academic year—a new space, three new projects, several new websites (including this one), a new co-director, a slew of new grad assistants.

First, we have a new space. We’re in room 1201 of 6 E 16th St between 5th Avenue and Union Square West. The room is stuffed full of boardgames, prototyping supplies and dry erase accoutrements. And a table-based air hockey kit we have yet to figure out how to operate.

After working with PETLab on Activate! and Game Tech as an external consultant, John Sharp has joined The New School via an appointment in Parsons’ School of Art Media and Technology. He has joined Colleen, PETLab’s founder, as a co-director.

John’s arrival has allowed PETLab to bring in new projects, including the Ms. Foundation Fellowships, Art Play and Data Toys. And with this, we have a number of new sites we’ve launched or will be launching for these projects.

Activate!, our curriculum for games, systems thinking, and iterative process, is getting a fancy upgrade with a new site. Our friends at Red Cloud (MFADT grads, you know) have done an amazing job with the site.

Fueling much of this year’s work has been a small army of MFADT and Trans-Disciplinary Design students. They have been creating prototypes for our Data Toys project, helping design the Art Play curriculum, and working on all the new websites.

So, yeah, a lot going on around PETLab this academic year!