I work as an Associate Professor at the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) 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 undergrad 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 connection with the Experimental Game Lab.

I am active member of a number of interdisciplinary centers and groups, these include the Graphics, Visualization & Usability Center (GVU), the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology (GTCMT), and in the past, the Responsive Objects, Surfaces, and Spaces (ROSS) initiative.

My main research interest are interactions in hybrid spaces. These include real-time 3-dimensional virtual environments as well as the physical locations where we engage with digital media. In my group, we use approaches from crafts and performance studies to reclaim these spaces for their inhabitants.

I run an irregular blog about machinima, Freepixel and together with my students we run our studio blog. More recently, I have kicked off the CoLab teaching experiment, which has its own blog.

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, Alcatel-Lucent, the Georgia Tech Broadband Institute,as well as game developers Funatics, and EA's Tiburon. This work was or is supported by the National Science Foundation, the GVU, Google, and Turner Broadcasting

I hold an MA in Drama and German language from the Freie Universitaet Berlin, a MPhil in Architecture and the Moving Image at the University of Cambridge and finished my PhD in 2004 on 'Virtual Story Spaces' also at the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). 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, 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. More currently, I am getting more and more fascinated by puppets and crafts.

You can download my CV here.