About
I’m a fourth-year Computational Media PhD candidate in the Expressive Intelligence Studio at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying how computers can better support human creativity. My work focuses on the design and development of approachable mixed-initiative creative tools powered by artificial intelligence and generative methods. I aspire to create technology that is both reflective and liberatory.
Broadly speaking, my research interests include artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, interactive narrative, generative methods, computational creativity, and games. For a complete list of my publications, talks, and other academic output, see my CV.
Publications
Talks
Selected projects
Note: These are only a few of my projects! See my GitHub and itch.io pages for more.
A mixed-initiative casual creator for rhetorical game design, built on the Gemini game generator. Generates games based on a user-provided design intent, then provides users with support in exploring the resulting design space and refining their intent based on the generated games. Designed and developed in collaboration with frequent co-conspirator Melanie Dickinson.
An AI-augmented collaborative storytelling game. Two players write a story in a pastiche of the cozy mystery genre, with support from a simulation-based AI system that suggests what might happen next and operationalizes character subjectivity through story sifting. Designed and developed in collaboration with frequent co-conspirator Melanie Dickinson.
A simple story sifting and simulation engine for emergent narrative play experiences. Provides narrative system developers with tools for defining story sifting patterns that match narratively potent sequences of events, and for building simulations in which characters make use of story sifting to reason about the world. Designed and developed in collaboration with frequent co-conspirator Melanie Dickinson.
A rules modification for the wordgame Scrabble that forbids players from using actual English dictionary words. Instead, players may only use nonsense words that sound like English to an AI trained on the dictionary. Code available here.
An interactive narrative system that assembles choice-based stories on the fly from a library of author-provided story fragments, using planning to ensure that every story it produces meets a set of author-specified requirements. I joined this project partway through development and worked with fellow EIS PhD student Jacob Garbe to bring it up to readiness for public release.
An ongoing series of investigations into the creation of procedural blackout poetry. Includes a browser bookmarklet that can turn any arbitrary webpage into blackout poetry and a mixed-initiative tool that lets you work together with an AI to create blackout poetry of your own. Code available here.
A procedural narrative game set in a completely procedurally generated galaxy. Uses parametrized storylets to achieve a greater level of dynamism than is possible with typical branching narrative structures. Code available here.
A procedural narrative idlegame about existential risks and the death of civilizations, made for the Fermi Paradox Jam in September 2016. My first attempt to create a gardening game: a game that uses procedural content generation to position the player as the caretaker of a living world, which will keep growing and changing even in the player's absence. Code available here.