Elizabeth LaPensée explained

Elizabeth LaPensée
Birth Place:Anaheim, California
Nationality:American
Thesis Title:Survivance: An Indigenous Social Impact Game
Thesis Url:http://summit.sfu.ca/item/13984
Thesis Year:2014
Doctoral Advisor:Ron Wakkary
Workplaces:Michigan State University
Occupation:Professor, artist, game designer, writer, and researcher

Elizabeth LaPensée (born 1984)[1] is a game designer and games researcher. She is currently the Narrative Director at Twin Suns Corp, a Seattle-based AAA studio.[2] She has previously worked as an associate professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University.[3] She studies and creates video games, interactive digital media, animation, visual art, and comics to express Indigenous ways of knowing.[4]

Background

Elizabeth LaPensée was born in Anaheim, California,[5] in 1984.[1] She identifies as having Irish, Anishinaabe, and Métis ancestry.[3] [5] Her mother is Grace Dillon, a professor at Portland State University.

Education

LaPensée received her PhD from Simon Fraser University.[3] Her dissertation was on the benefits of playing Survivance, a social impact game that uplifts storytelling, art, and self-determination as a pathway to healing from Indigenous historical trauma.[6] [7]

Game design

LaPensée designs games around Indigenous ways of knowing. Active as a community organizer, she often collaborates with Indigenous community partners to create games. She argues that Indigenous practices and teachings can inspire innovative game mechanics.[8] Her games provide an interactive way of engaging with and continuing on Indigenous cultures and history. Her game Honour Water (2016) is a singing-game that teaches Anishinaabe water songs.[9] In 2014, LaPensée spoke out against a remake of Custer's Revenge, a controversial game that allows the player, as General Custer, to rape a Native American woman.[10]

LaPensée's game Invaders was featured in the 2015 ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto.[11] [12]

She organized the first Natives in Game Development Gathering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in May 2015.[13]

Indigenous futurism

LaPensée's research is often cited in connection with Indigenous Futurisms. She was an early research assistant with Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) and research affiliate with the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF).[14] Her mother, scholar Grace Dillon, describes LaPensée's sci-fi animations as a "must-see" example of how Indigenous storytelling can transform the way Indigenous futures are imagined.[15] Kristina Baudemann argues that LaPensée, despite being perceived as a white woman, retains an ability to draw on her ancestry to create new representations of Indigenous people.[16]

Awards

In 2017, LaPensée received the Serious Games Community Leadership Award from the Serious Games Special Interest Group of the International Game Developers Association and she was named one of Motherboard's Humans of the Year, a series of profiles recognizing people in science and technology who are building a better future for everyone.[17] [18] [19] [20] Her game Thunderbird Strike won the prize for Best Digital Media Work at the 2017 ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.[21]

In April 2018, LaPensée was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow in the fine arts category.[22] When Rivers Were Trails was awarded Best Adaptation at IndieCade 2019.

Works

Games

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Environmental Injustice Indigenous Peoples' Alternativves . Musée d'ethnographie de Genéve . 24 April 2023 . 3 . 2021.
  2. Web site: TEAM . 2023-10-21 . Twin Suns Corp . en.
  3. Web site: Elizabeth LaPensée . Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures . Michigan State University . 24 April 2023.
  4. Web site: Video Games Encourage Indigenous Cultural Expression . Conversation . March 15, 2019 .
  5. Web site: Sheyahshe . Michael . IPI #4 – Elizabeth LaPensee . aNm . 24 April 2023.
  6. Web site: Survivance . Survivance . en-US . October 19, 2017 .
  7. LaPensee. Elizabeth. Survivance: An Indigenous Social Impact Game. February 7, 2014. PhD. Simon Fraser University. V.
  8. News: The post-apocalyptic dimensional space of Native video game design . Ars Technica . October 5, 2017 .
  9. "We All Stand Side by Side": An Interview with Elizabeth LaPensée . Studies in American Indian Literatures . Joanna . Hearne . Elizabeth . LaPensée . University of Nebraska Press . 29 . 1 . Spring 2017 . 27–37 . 10.5250/studamerindilite.29.1.0027 . 164483954 . April 30, 2018.
  10. News: Offensive video game Custer's Revenge gets last stand online . CBC News . October 5, 2017 .
  11. News: imagineNATIVE Brings Indigenous Art and Media to Prominence . October 15, 2015 . CGMagazine . October 5, 2017 .
  12. News: imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival explores games made by and about Indigenous peoples . October 13, 2015 . Financial Post . October 5, 2017 .
  13. Web site: UC Santa Cruz to host Natives in Game Dev Gathering . Games and Playable Media . October 5, 2017 .
  14. Web site: Elizabeth LaPensee Michigan State University. comartsci.msu.edu. 2019-03-14.
  15. Dillon. Grace. Indigenous futurisms, bimaashi biidaas mose, flying and walking towards you. Extrapolation. 2016. 57. 1/2. 2. 10.3828/extr.2016.2.
  16. Baudemann. Kristina. Indigenous Futurisms in North American Indigenous Art. Extrapolation. January 2016. 57. 1–2. 117–150. 10.3828/extr.2016.8. free.
  17. Web site: Community Leadership Award. Michigan State University Communication Arts & Sciences. October 5, 2017.
  18. News: How a Michigan State professor won an award for serious games. October 5, 2017. Big Ten Network.
  19. Web site: This Game Developer Wants to Create Space for Indigenous Stories. Dubé. Jacob. Ferreira. Becky. 2017-12-05. Motherboard. en-US. 2019-02-07.
  20. Web site: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Elizabeth LaPensée. en-US. 2019-02-07.
  21. Web site: Festival 2017 Winners. imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival. October 30, 2017. January 9, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190109163829/http://www.imaginenative.org/2017-award-winners. dead.
  22. Web site: 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship Fellows. April 25, 2018. April 6, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180406041418/https://www.gf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Nominations-By-Field-US2018.pdf. dead.
  23. Web site: Weird West Developer WolfEye Is Putting Player Agency at the Center of Its Dark Immersive Sim. Damien. Lawardorn. The Escapist. July 30, 2021. October 30, 2021.
  24. Web site: When Rivers Were Trails by indianlandtenure. itch.io. en. 2019-02-27.
  25. Web site: About – Thunderbird Strike. Thunderbird Strike.
  26. Web site: CoyoteQuest. game.coyotescience.com. 2019-02-07.
  27. Web site: About. Honour Water. en-US. 2019-03-14.
  28. Web site: Invaders, 2015. survivance.org. 2019-03-14.
  29. Web site: Games. Elizabeth LaPensée. en-US. 2019-02-27.

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