I work as an Assistant Professor at the School of Literature, Communication & Culture (LCC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I teach courses mainly for the Digital Media Masters and PhDs, as well as for the Computational Media program. I am founder and Director of the Digital World & Image Group (DWIG), which is the home for all my current projects. Some of our work is done in the Experimental Game Lab of which I am the Associate Director. Within Georgia Tech, I am active member of a number of interdisciplinary centers and groups, these include the Graphics, Visualization & Usability Center (GVU), the Responsive Objects, Surfaces, and Spaces (ROSS) initiative, and the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology (GTCMT).

My main research interest are digital spaces. These include real-time 3-dimensional virtual environments as well as the physical locations where we engage with digital media. I approach these topics through a combination of technological and humanistic perspectives that include Architecture, Film Studies, HCI, and Performance Studies.

Together with some colleagues I co-run a blog, Freepixel, and I am Co-chair of the DiGRA Special Interest Group on 'Games and Film' (with Diane Carr). The SIG has a first home on this blog.

Until sommer 2004 I worked as Research Assistant in Paul Richens' group at the Digital Studios at the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. We worked on on real-time virtual 3D spaces that can be used for architectural planning and demonstrations as well as virtual and interactve spaces for education and communication.

I have been collaborating with a variety of academic and commercial partners on different research projects: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) in Cambridge, game developers Funatics, and EA's Tiburon. Currently my work is supported by the National Science Foundation, Turner Broadcasting, the GVU, Intel, and Alcatel-Lucent.

I hold an MA in Drama and German language from the Freie Universitaet Berlin. The final thesis was about writing screenplays for interactive environments. I did a MPhil in Architecture and the Moving Image at the University of Cambridge with a final thesis on 'The Architecture of Interactive Storytelling.' Finally, I finished my PhD in 2004 on 'Virtual Story Spaces' also at the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). You can find a one page summary of my thesis here. A completely re-worked version of the thesis was the basis of my first book 'Video Game Spaces. Imagery, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds' (MIT Press, spring 2009).

If not immersed in some digital adventure I am collecting screenplays. In a former lifetime, I gathered some experience in independent film production, scriptwriting, and even before that I worked as Improv actor for some years at the Fast Food Theater, Munich. I also co-wrote the script for the commercial computer game Zanzarah.

You can download my CV here.

The Acrobat Reader can be downloaded here.