LGIRA: Going Gonzo

Judd Ruggill & Ken McAllister will discuss the Learning Games Initiative Research Archive in conjunction with the We Used to Play Thatexhibit at the Museum of Texas Tech.

Video Game scholars Judd Ruggill and Ken McAllister will draw on their experience collaboratively building and managing the Learning Games Initiative Research Archive (LGIRA) to suggest how the silliness of the computer game archive not only offers but necessitates radical thinking about how society relates to its own digital detritus. Along the way, they'll sketch out how the act of play so important to games may be usefully designed into the process of archival preservation itself. 

Ken McAllister and Judd Ruggill co-founded and co-direct the Learning Games Initiative (LGI), a transdisciplinary, inter-institutional research group that studies, teaches with, and builds computer games. They have been archiving games since 1999, and the LGI Research Archive (LGIRA) currently holds roughly of 250,000 game-related artifacts. Ken and Judd also have day jobs at the University of Arizona: Ken is the College of Humanities' Associate Dean for Research & Program Innovation, and Judd is Head of the Department of Public and Applied Humanities. In their free time they play banjo and upright bass, respectively (and poorly).

Their talk will take place on Tuesday, April 23rd at 5:30 pm in the Traditions Room of the Student Union Building. The event is free and open to the public.