Dr. Heidi Boisvert’s Profile
Game Design & Interactive Media, VR, AR, Biomedia, Performance, Social Justice, Pop Culture
Dr. Heidi Boisvert is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Technologies, specializing in Game & Interactive Media Design, in the Entertainment Technology Department at CUNY City Tech in Brooklyn.
Dr. Boisvert is new media artist, experience designer, creative technologist, researcher and writer who creates groundbreaking games, web interactive, augmented reality and transmedia storytelling experiences for social change, as well as large-scale networked performances in dance and theatre using bio-expressive technology. She designed the first 3D social change, as well as co-created the XTH Sense, a biocreative instrument.
Dr. Boisvert holds a Ph.D. in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her research interrogates the socio-cultural and neurobiological impacts of media employing intelligent technology, and the role the body, affect and the senses play in social change processes. Dr. Boisvert earned an MFA in Integrated Media Arts at Hunter College, an MA from Middlebury College, Breadloaf School of English and a BA from Boston College.
Dr. Boisvert was named a Harvestworks Creativity + Technology = Enterprise Fellow with support by the Rockefeller Foundation and a Media Impact Fellow at the Harmony Institute. She is currently a research affiliate at MIT Open Doc Lab and was recently selected as a Media Impact Project Fellow at USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center.
My Courses
MTEC 3140 – Topics & Perspectives in Emerging Technology
This course is about understanding our role in both the propagation and dismantling of societal values through media production and consumption. It is also about recognizing the power and responsibility we each have as creators and consumers of media and technology to make sure we are building the future that aligns with the world we want to see.
MTEC 3175, Experimental Game Design & Development, Fall 2019
This hands-on studio course will focus on the creation of innovative workable prototypes exploring expressive forms of gameplay using a variety of multi-media approaches, methodologies and materials. The aesthetics of game design, including asset and character development, level design, game play experience and delivery systems will be covered. Supplemental readings on the complex interplay between story and game will be explored to analyze effective narrative devices and game mechanics. The class will involve lectures on game theory, design exercises and in-depth analysis of works across commercial, art & social change sectors.
MTEC 3125, Section D337 , Non-Linear Narrative, FA2019
Through the examination of the earliest gestures of cave drawings to sophisticated multimedia narratives, students study the ingredients and structures necessary for compelling digital storytelling. Through hands-on projects, students produce visual, auditory, written, physical and integrated sequences using video, sound, music, text, animation, web, mobile, games and the internet of things.
MTEC1101-D318 Emerging Media, FA2019
This course is an introduction to emerging, interactive multi-media technology with a focus on interdisciplinary, project-based, cooperative learning. Students will be immersed in the protocols and processes of emerging and interactive media design, including: idea development, research, documentation, presentation, prototyping, and production, which will serve them in the face of rapid changes in technology. Students will explore basic theoretical and applied concepts of audio, visual, haptic, immersive, sensory and interaction design through creative group projects, visiting professionals, field trips and online documentation of their work.
This course is a hands-on introduction to the best practices for production techniques used in games, interactive and tangible media product development. Students will acquire a deep understanding of content generation, technology pipeline and delivery systems for creating web, mobile, games, virtual & augmented reality, interactive installation and museum display, wearables and physical computing. Students will learn the roles and responsibilities, build the skills for each role, as well as apply the design and development processes for each medium. They will be introduced to design thinking and rapid prototyping techniques, as well the green light process essential to bringing a product to market. The structure of this course emphasizes an integrated and multi-modal approach to game design, interactive media and physical computing with modeled instruction and practice in the technical aspects of production.
My Projects
City Tech’s Source for Academic Affairs Information
ID Book Chapter Workshops
MAPPING BROOKLYN: GIS AND THE HUMANITIES
Project site for 2018 CUNY IT Conference Roundtable participants and NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant
My Clubs
Dr. Heidi Boisvert hasn't created or joined any clubs yet.