This summer kicked off with ambitions. Beautiful, big ambitions. I would research and start building an amazing thesis.
I would write an elegant abstract for TEI such that I would be selected among the great unwashed graduate students as worthy to sun myself in intellectual engagement from the forefront of HCI and on Portugal’s beaches in January. (Full disclosure: I personally dislike going to the beach, it’ll be winter in January anyway and I am fairly sure that I’m probably the majority of that great unwashed… just kidding, my hygiene is superb even on days I don’t leave the house.)

Instead, I’m in a bit of a Pickle. It’s the 13th of July, six days from my unbirthday, thirteen from when I have commitments in Western Mass, and a little over a month from having to show something for this summer/ something to show for Intern Show. What a mess.

Where did it all go? I couldn’t really account for it all, bit and slips here and there. Some was sitting in a bus terminal, parts are in the subways, lots were spent learning a valuable skill in rapid cover letter writing and digging loose change out of couch cushions. More valuable time was spent brainstorming for game concepts and participating in InterActive Music New York.

Brainstorming game concepts sounds so far from what I would describe my work as being about. Game Design and Interactive Installation Design aren’t so unconnected as it might be perceived. I want to create a rule set for engaging in any of my works. I want a set of standards, behaviors, punishments for interacting with my work. Is not not like designing any interface or even a game? I have a world and mind set that I want you to be surrounded by. It’s the beginning of something beautiful. I think..

What now? My summer is half over and I have some scattered ideas for a game, some writing and a visual step sequencer. This alone does not a thesis make, or even a foray into a thesis inquiry. Or does it?