Stefano Gualeni

Stefano Gualeni, Ph.D., is an Italian philosopher and game designer who created videogames such as Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths, Gua-Le-Ni; or, The Horrendous Parade, and Something Something Soup Something.[1][2][3][4]

Stefano Gualeni
Born (1978-04-30) April 30, 1978
Lovere, Italy
OccupationVideo game designer, Philosopher, Professor at the University of Malta, Visiting Professor at the Laguna College of Art and Design
Websitehttp://gua-le-ni.com

Gualeni is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Digital Games of the University of Malta, where he pursues academic research in the fields of philosophy of technology, game design, virtual worlds research, and existentialism.[5][6][7][8]

Since 2015, he is a Visiting Professor in Game design at the Laguna College of Art and Design[9] of Laguna Beach, California.

Background

Born in Lovere, Italy, in 1978, Gualeni graduated in 2004 in architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. His final thesis was developed in Mexico supported by ITESM (Tec de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de Mexico).[10]

Gualeni was awarded his Master of Arts in 2008 at the Utrecht School of the Arts. In his thesis, he proposed a model for digital aesthetics inspired by Martin Heidegger's existential phenomenology.

He obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy (existentialism and philosophy of technology) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2014. His dissertation, titled Augmented Ontologies, focuses on virtual worlds in their role as mediators: as interactive, artificial environments where philosophical ideas, world-views, and thought-experiments can be experienced, manipulated, and communicated experientially.[11]

Academic work

Gualeni's work takes place in the intersection between continental philosophy and the design of virtual worlds.[12] Given the practical and interdisciplinary focus of his research - and depending on the topics and the resources at hand - his output takes the form of academic texts and/or of interactive digital experiences.[13] In his articles and essays, he presents computers as instruments to prefigure and design ourselves and our worlds, and as gateways to experience alternative possibilities of being.[7][8][14]

In 2015, Gualeni released the book Virtual Worlds as Philosophical Tools: How to Philosophize with a Digital Hammer with Palgrave Macmillan. Inspired by post-phenomenology and by Martin Heidegger's philosophy of technology, the book attempts to answer questions such as: will experiencing worlds that are not 'actual' change our ways of structuring thought? Can virtual worlds open up new possibilities to philosophize?[7]

His 2020 book with Daniel Vella, Virtual Existentialism: Meaning and Subjectivity in Virtual Worlds, engages with the question of what it means to exist in virtual worlds. Drawing from the tradition of existentialism, it introduces the notion of 'virtual subjectivity' and discusses the experiential and existential mechanisms by which can move into, and out of, virtual subjectivities. It also includes chapters that specifically leverage the work of Helmuth Plessner, Peter W. Zapffe, Jean-Paul Sartre and Eugen Fink to think through the existential significance of the virtual.[8]

His contributions to the edited volumes Experience Machines: Philosophy in Virtual Worlds[15] and Towards a Philosophy of Digital Media[14] similarly focus on the experiential and existential effects and possibilities disclosed by virtual technologies.

One of the central themes of Gualeni's work revolves around the fact that the history of philosophy has, until recently, merely been the history of written thought. He argues that we are, however, witnessing a technological shift in how philosophy is pursued, valued, and communicated. In that respect, Gualeni advances the claim that digital media can constitute an alternative and a complement to our almost-exclusively linguistic approach to developing and communicating thought.[7][16] He considers virtual worlds to be philosophically viable and advantageous in contexts like thought experiments (where we can objectively test and evaluate possible courses of action and corresponding consequences), in the case of philosophical inquiries concerning non-actual state of affairs, and for research into non-human phenomenologies.[7][14]

Books

Monographic books
  • Gualeni, S. & Vella, D. 2020. Virtual Existentialism: Meaning and Subjectivity in Virtual Worlds. Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave Pivot.[8]
  • Gualeni, S. 2015. Virtual Worlds as Philosophical Tools: How to Philosophize with a Digital Hammer. Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave MacMillan.[7]

Book chapters
  • Gualeni, S. 2019. “Virtual World-Weariness: On Delaying the Experiential Erosion of Digital Environments”. In Gerber, A. and Goetz, U. (eds.) The Architectonics of Game Spaces: The Spatial Logic of the Virtual and its Meaning for the Real, 153–165. Bielefeld (Germany): Transcript.[17][18]
  • Gualeni, S. 2018. “A Philosophy of ‘DOING’ in the digital”. In Romele, A. and Terrone, E. (eds.), Towards a Philosophy of Digital Media. 225–255. Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave Macmillan.[19][20]
  • Gualeni, S. 2017. “VIRTUAL WELTSCHMERZ: Things to keep in mind while building experience machines and other tragic technologies”. In Silcox, M. (ed.), Experience Machines: The Philosophy of Virtual Worlds. 113–136. London (UK): Rowman and Littlefield International.[21][15]
  • Gualeni, S. 2015. “Playing with Puzzling Philosophical Problems”. In Zagalo, N. and Branco, P. (eds.). Creativity in the Digital Age. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. XIV. 59–74. London (UK): Springer-Verlag.[22][23]

Playable academic works

Stefano is a philosopher who designs games videogames and a game designer who is passionate about philosophy.[24] Although his academic work largely takes the form of texts, he designs virtual experiences that have the specific objective of disclosing thought experiments and ideas in ways that are interactive and negotiable (and perhaps even playful).[25][26]

The following are part of his ongoing 'playable philosophy' project:

  • "HERE" (2018): a mock-JRPG playfully invites to reflect on how many types of 'here' co-exist in a virtual world[27]
  • Something Something Soup Something (2017): a short first-person adventure videogame about analytical definitions and family resemblances[4][14]
  • NECESSARY EVIL (2013): a self-reflexive game about the centrality of player-experience in videogame design[26]

Other playable academic works:

  • CURIO (2021): a free, playful toolkit for primary school students to be used in class, part of a 3-year research project funded by the Erasmus+ program[31]

Commercial titles released as game designer

Other game industry credits
  • Stefano is listed in the 'extra credits' of the 2013 Independent Games Festival (IGF) 'Student Showcase finalist' videogame ATUM for having acted as project supervisor and game design consultant.[32][33]
  • Stefano designed Necessary Evil, a small, critical videogame developed together with Dino Dini, Marcello Gòmez Maureira and Jimena Sànchez Sarquiz. The game was presented at the 2013 Digital Games Research Association conference in Atlanta as an example of the meta-reflexive and critical potential of the medium.[34]
  • Stefano is listed in the credits of the 2012 action-adventure videogame The Unfinished Swan (PlayStation 3, developed by Giant Sparrow) for having tested early versions of the game and having provided design-related feedback.[35]
  • Gualeni appears in the credits of Playlogic Entertainment's 2009 hack-and-slash videogame Fairytale Fights (for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) for having helped with quality assurance recruiting and training.[36]
  • Stefano is thanked in the credits of the videogame EXP for having helped with the structuring of the game concept and having acted as project supervisor.[37] EXP received honorable mention in the 2011 Independent Games Festival Student Showcase.[38]
  • Stefano is in the 'special thanks' section of the credits of the videogame Chewy! for having provided game design guidance.[39] Chewy! was honored with the 'Best Design' award ($25,000) at the 2011 Independent Propeller Awards at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas.[40]

Footnotes
  1. MobyGames Developer's Bio
  2. Stefano Gualeni at IMDb
  3. Stefano Gualeni's Adventuretreff Interview (18-06-2006)
  4. "Something Something Soup Something". soup.gua-le-ni.com. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  5. University of Malta, Dr. Stefano Gualeni profile at the University of Malta
  6. Dr. Stefano Gualeni profile on the website of the Institute of Digital Games
  7. Gualeni, Stefano (2015). Virtual worlds as philosophical tools : how to philosophize with a digital hammer. Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-137-52178-1. OCLC 911495163.
  8. Gualeni, Stefano (2020). Virtual Existentialism: Meaning and Subjectivity in Virtual Worlds. Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave Pivot. ISBN 978-3-030-38477-7. OCLC 1153071742.
  9. "Prof. Stefano Gualeni - Laguna College of Art and Design". LCAD official Website. June 19, 2018. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  10. Stefano Gualeni's CV
  11. RePub, Erasmus University Academic Repository (17-04-2012)
  12. Stefano Gualeni - Google Scholar Citations
  13. NECESSARY EVIL - a critical, self-reflexive videogame (29-10-2013)
  14. TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF DIGITAL MEDIA. Romele, Alberto., Terrone, Enrico, 1970-. [S.l.]: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PU. 2018. ISBN 9783319757599. OCLC 1036765359.CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. Experience machines : the philosophy of virtual worlds. Silcox, Mark. London. 2017. ISBN 9781786600677. OCLC 967202186.CS1 maint: others (link)
  16. Gualeni, Stefano (2016). "Self-reflexive videogames: observations and corollaries on virtual worlds as philosophical artifacts". G a M e - the Italian Journal of Game Studies. 1, 5.
  17. Gualeni, Stefano (2019). "Virtual World-Weariness: On Delaying the Experiential Erosion of Digital Environments" (PDF). Stefano Gualeni's Website.
  18. Gerber, Andri; Götz, Ulrich (2020). Architectonics of Game Spaces, The Spatial Logic of the Virtual and Its Meaning for the Real. transcript Verlag. ISBN 9783839448021.
  19. Gualeni, Stefano (2018). "A Philosophy of 'DOING' in the digital" (PDF). Stefano Gualeni's Website.
  20. TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF DIGITAL MEDIA. [S.l.]: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PU. 2018. ISBN 9783319757599. OCLC 1036765359.
  21. Gualeni, Stefano (2017). "VIRTUAL WELTSCHMERZ: Things to keep in mind while building experience machines and other tragic technologies" (PDF). Stefano Gualeni's Website.
  22. Gualeni, Stefano (2015). "Playing with Puzzling Philosophical Problems" (PDF). Stefano Gualeni's Website.
  23. Creativity in the Digital Age. Zagalo, Nelson,, Branco, Pedro. London. 2015-04-02. ISBN 9781447166818. OCLC 906575151.CS1 maint: others (link)
  24. Dr Stefano Gualeni's Profile at the University of Malta
  25. Why designing a videogame about soup?
  26. Self-reflexive videogames: observations and corollaries on virtual worlds as philosophical artifacts
  27. "HERE - The Video Game".
  28. "Construction BOOM!". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  29. Carabott, Sarah (May 28, 2020). "Malta-based game takes on the 'unrestrained, booming construction'". Times of Malta.
  30. Schellekens, Jasper. "Satirical Game Design: The Case of the Boardgame Construction BOOM!". ACM Digital Library.
  31. Stephanie, Buttigieg (11 Jan 2021). "Free educational toolkit for teachers to encourage learning through playful discovery". University of Malta Newspoint.
  32. ATUM credits list
  33. ATUM - Applying Multi-layer Game Design and Environmental Storytelling
  34. Gamasutra.com featured blogpost 'Self-reflexive Video Games as Playable Critical Thought' by Stefano Gualeni (29-10-2013)
  35. The Unfinished Swan complete credits list on MobyGames
  36. Fairytale Fights complete credits list on MobyGames
  37. EXP-game official website
  38. The 13th Annual Independent Games Festival Finalists
  39. Full credits for the game on the official webpage for Chewy!
  40. 2011 Independent Propeller Award winners announced Archived 2011-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
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