I got the chance to interview Professor Mathew A. Powers and TA and Collection Coordinator Taylor DeHaven about their work for the MARLA museum effort. MARLA (or the Media Arts Research and Learning Arcade Lab) is a center for Media Arts students to access technology like consoles, tablets, and creative software, interact with gaming and animation material, and collaborate with other students. It is also in the process of achieving museum status, which we’ll be diving into today. Just how much work goes to into the preservation of such a diverse medium? Powers and DeHaven discuss.
Q: Can you explain the project for those uninformed?
Powers: Years ago, we had an open space up on the 4th floor, nobody used it, and we needed a dedicated gaming lab. So, I bothered the heck out of the deans, we got a grant, and we made MARLA. And that was our central place for 3D, gaming, animation, everything – it was wonderful. So, then what happened was we moved to the other side of the building, so MARLA doubled in size. With that came a whole new idea. We applied for another grant. We’re upgrading the computers, the space, the tables, things like that. As of right now, MARLA is being upgraded, and as she’s being upgraded, we thought, “why don’t we make her a museum collection?” and got to work. MARLA is getting physically, artistically, and technically upgraded with a new grant, and when all the dust is settled, MARLA will look and be the best lab on campus and she will also be the number one place for the preservation of not only our student’s games, but games in general.
DeHaven: To jump off of that, preservation is really the root of the project, and it’s absolutely vital, because a tremendous amount of IP and gameplay is lost over time, more so than any other creative field. The purpose of a museum is first, preservation, and second, study. That’s what I’m really trying to focus on quite a bit: getting us set up for the future where people can do really scholarly study on game design to be able to look every game with this genre, mechanic, etcetera, and actually be able to play them, study them, or write papers on them.
Q: What does this project mean personally to you?
Powers: It means a tremendous amount. How do I answer this? One of my central pillars of teaching is the preservation of what is taught and created. And gaming is the number one industry where things are not preserved. The thing is, you have film history, art history, museums for all of that – video games are forgotten. The ESA came out with a report this summer that shocked everybody saying that [87] % of all games are not playable nowadays since gaming started. And no genre and no decade has reached 20% preservation status. Can you imagine that? We’ve always been the campus’s best kept secret, and I want to keep changing that. It means a lot, it means everything.
DeHaven: What I’ll say is A. I have a wide content pool I draw from in my experience, my stepdad was born in the 40s, my mother had me when she was 30, and I have 5 older siblings, so I’ve got this deep pool of games and movies and cultural touchstones that I recognize a lot of people don’t at this point. And B. as an industry in game design, we have a problem of shared language, we don’t really have much of that. So, it’s difficult for us to communicate with each other – the ideas we have, the innovations we want to make – so having a shared basis of experience is the answer to that problem. To be able to say, “yes I played this game, I know the mechanics it operates, and I can point to that and someone else is going to know it.” Because you can’t really understand anything that goes on in game design if you’re not playing the game. There is no reality where you can show them a video or have someone watch you play; it just doesn’t work the same way.
Powers: Unification. Unification and bringing our industry and our creators together. That’s what this is all about.
Q: Is there an expected date of completion?
Powers: Things take some time. It’s university, that’s how it is. There have been some hiccups along the way, and we’ve been working those out, we’re all doing the best that we can. As of right now, we’ve had several meetings are things are supposed to be on their way. Right now, we are looking at the physical aspects being in at the end of the semester, but we have to get the inventory done, get the technology in, but all of that will hopefully be done at the end of the semester. Then the plan is we’ll work throughout January to get ready for the ribbon-cutting ceremony in February when MARLA is officially open and good to go. Once that is all done, then the real work starts. We’ll get our museum status approved hopefully by spring break.
DeHaven: From the perspective of someone who’s been in the academic community for a good long time now, it’s rare to see something get proposed and happen in the time of one student’s tenure.
Q: What have been the biggest challenges you have faced so far or are currently facing?
DeHaven: Me personally, I have a bad habit of over-scoping things. I tend to be very long-term in my views, I want to future proof things to be ready for future challenges. I have to hold myself back a bit because the goal right now is just to have everything ready for January. Nothing else matters on top of that right now.
Powers: The main thing right now is getting on top of inventory. We’re dealing with abandonware, vaporware, all these things, and poor Taylor [DeHaven] and Haven [Hamelin] are working so hard to get this all set up. I mean, tell them.
DeHaven: At this point, the major challenges for us are issues of space and there’s a limited amount of room to put stuff and we have a lot of stuff to put somewhere, the rate of work, because of how many TA hours you can put in a week towards it, and the school doesn’t have any room right now to make any alternative space for it. It’d be great if we could make someone the dedicated person for doing inventory, but odds are that’s not something we could even begin to get approved until it is officially a museum collection. Unfortunately, as well, one of the big issues with categorizing games is, “do we have the basic edition? Or the platinum hits edition? Or the best-of edition?”
Powers: “The collection re-do edition?” [laughs]
DeHaven: You might think that’s splitting hairs, but when it comes to the legality of the thing, we might get called out on if we can legally run the ROM for something if it’s the wrong edition. It’s important for preservation as well, every version of something is going to play a little differently.
Q: How can Luddy students support the effort?
Powers: We’re covered in terms of actual boots in the ground – see, I don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen, it’ll ruin the stew. But the way students can help is to spread the word about what we’re doing. They can read the article, talk about it, tell their friends, and can also help by donating any used or broken games or gaming equipment, or their own work they want to donate – we’ll take it!
If you’re interested in supporting MARLA’s collection by donating any games, equipment, projects, or even a piece of code you wrote, please email the MARLA team at marlalab@iu.edu.
You can contact Professor Mathew A. Powers at matapowe@iupui.edu if you have any questions.
There have been so many great contributions to the MARLA museum effort so far and any further contributions are welcome. DeHaven emphasized to consider donating any material, even if it is cracked all the way through. Be sure to visit MARLA next time you are in the Luddy building, 4th floor room 420. You may be one of the last students to see the lab before it becomes a full-fledged museum!