In this episode of the Arts Management and Technology Podcast: Tech in the Arts, Cara Flanery and Alexann Sharp speak with Cheryl Platz, game developer, designer, and author of The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive, about what makes games meaningful, the motivators that drive play, and the evolving distinction between UX and UI design in the games industry. Drawing from her career at companies including Electronic Arts, Griptonite Games, Amazon, and Riot Games, Cheryl discusses how self-expression became a central motivator of play, the collaborative challenges unique to game development, and the discipline instilled by working within the hardware constraints of early handheld consoles. She also reflects on her experience as a voice actor and performer, the importance of building community before a crisis hits, and the advice she offers students and aspiring developers navigating a volatile and fast-changing games industry.
Interactive Arts: Interview with Yuri Suzuki
In this episode, Alyssa phones in with Yuri Suzuki, a sound artist, designer, and electronic musician. Together, they discuss the concepts of Yuri’s interactive pieces, how audiences react to them, and how museum and exhibition spaces can host interactive artworks.
Museum on the Moon: An Interview with the MoonArk Team
In this episode, Alyssa interviews Matt Zywica, Dylan Vitone, and Mark Baskinger of MoonArk, the time capsule and micro museum that is scheduled to go to the moon in 2021. Together, they discuss the organizational process of collaborating with up to 300 artists, the challenges of the ten-year-long project, and the final product that will make its way to space.
Experimental Research with Future Tenant
In this mini-episode, Alyssa sits down with Sarika Sanyal, the Program Director of Future Tenant, to talk a little bit about some of the experimental research they have done this semester to inform future programming. They discuss Future Tenant’s partnerships with CMU School of Art, the Pittsburgh Airport, and MuseumLab at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.
Karen Kornblum Berntsen and User Interface Design
Karen Kornblum Berntsen is a professional designer and an Associate Teaching Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. She has taught classes in interaction design, typography and the visual display of complex information. She has received numerous national and international design awards for her work, some of which was included in the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
Recently, AMT-Lab Contributor Kate Martin caught up with Berntsen to talk about how technology informs her work.




