Utopian Entreprenuer and Other Readings

This week’s readings gave special attention to the idea of culture work and being a culture worker. Brenda Laurel explains this concept in her piece, “Utopian Entrepreneur.” I’ve become a fan of Laurel’s over the course of this class. She has a casual writing style, that is easy to read and to understand, but her advice and information is still very valid and useful. In the beginning of “Utopian Entrepreneur” Laurel discusses the notion of artist vs. culture worker. She notes the distinction between the two, claiming that an artist works in the realm of the art world, where as a culture worker works in the popular world. This idea goes back to one of our early discussions (when we were still discussing in the wiki) about the designer vs. the artist. What’s the distinction, if there is one? But all of these are labels that we clammer to, as unnecessary as we often find them to be. Laurel says that “culture work excites the will to action” (p. 11). I don’t think that concept is unique to culture workers, but can also be applied to artists and designers in general. But these definitions are not where I’d like to focus.

Laurel discusses throughout “Utopian Entrepreneur” her experiences with her company Purple-Moon, a company that focused on appealing the gaming world to girls. I’ll be honest, when she talked about the “death” of Rockett and the heartbreak of the girls who couldn’t say goodbye to their online friends when the website was abruptly shutdown, I felt tears forming. This was a surprise even to myself as I sat in the middle of a crowded Starbucks. Laurel, and the rest of her team, felt a passion for what they were doing. They were making an impact on young girls who had been overlooked in the gaming world. I think Laurel is right to call her self a culture worker.

Storytelling played a very important role within Purple-Moon and within the other designs mentioned in “Social Impact by Design” (Darion Rapza), “Researching America’s Army” (Margaret Davis), “A Virtual Walk on the Moon” (Bruce Damer), and “Mobium” (Jin Hyun Park). All of these essay explained designs that incorporated storytelling to impact the participant. Their executions varied, from single player gaming, to multiplayer installation, to museum exhibition, but the key component of them all was the art of storytelling. Through this, as Damer writes, they were able to create “a profound sense of contact and presence” (p. 282). That’s all culture workers, artists, and designers can really hope for.