Heather Kelley joins ETC Faculty

We’re excited to announce that Heather Kelley is joining the ETC faculty as an Assistant Teaching Professor. She is an internationally renowned veteran game designer, digital artist, and media curator, who brings a wealth of diverse creative expertise in experimental game design, artistic interactive installations and playful aesthetic experiences. In 2013, Inc. magazine named Heather as one of the five most powerful women in gaming by, and in 2011, Fast Company listed her as one of the most influential women in technology.

Heather has worked in both AAA and Indie game design, served as co-chair of the IGDA’s Women in Game Development Special Interest Group for seven years, co-founded the Kokoromi experimental game collective, and produced the GAMMA event promoting experimental games as creative expression in social contexts. But like the ETC, her interests are much broader than that. In her work, she focuses on experimentation, interfaces, senses, emotions, and community. She’s excited to work with students who want to learn how to integrate play into other areas of interactive entertainment beyond just games; creating events, exhibitions and experiences that have transformational impact on the users, players and guests.

We believe she’ll help us strengthen our collaborations with other departments at CMU as well as other groups around Pittsburgh and the world. In 2008, as the Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, and an Adjunct Faculty at the ETC, she organized The Art of Play symposium and art game arcade, which attracted international attention. With her interest in developing supportive communities, we see her becoming an integral part of why Pittsburgh is attracting a lot of smart, creative people to the region.

Heather will be wrapping up some commitments in Europe, so she will join us full-time starting in January 2015. For more on Heather and her work, visit: http://www.perfectplum.com

That said, we fully expect Heather to enhance and expand the work being done at the ETC, encouraging and inspiring our students, and advancing the fields in which we learn, work and play.

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