Category: Games

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Talking Ibn Firnas + videogames with historian Dan Jones

Last month I had the pleasure of speaking about Ibn Firnas and my new book with bestselling historian Dan Jones. If you’re not familiar with Dan Jones, you can learn about his books and other work, including his new book on Henry V, here.

I appreciated the chance to chat about Ibn Firnas’ career, and the broader context of medieval Islamic civilization that shaped Ibn Firnas’ life, on a series that’s otherwise focused on the Plantagenets and medieval European history.

Dan is a very knowledgeable historian who manages that tricky balance between keeping history accessible and entertaining for wide audiences. This is such a difficult balance to strike!

Long before Leonardo Da Vinci was born, there was a genius poet and astronomer who dreamed of human flight. Dan is joined by the University of Edinburgh’s Glaire Anderson, historical advisor to the latest Assassin’s Creed game, to talk about the strange experiments and obscene poetry of Abbas Ibn Firnas.

Jones, Dan. “In Conversation | Time Travelling with Video Games – with Glaire Anderson.” This Is History: PLUS. Accessed November 17, 2024. https://open.spotify.com/show/2OwTnxm4YpB6mH0tLVYc2s.

We also talked about my work in videogames:

Dan and Glaire return to geek out about their favourite historical buildings and their love of gaming.  Glaire explains how she was tasked with the difficult job of bringing Medieval Baghdad to life, without any archeological remains, in the latest Assassin’s Creed game.

Jones, Dan. “In Conversation | Time Travelling with Video Games – with Glaire Anderson.” This Is History: PLUS. Accessed November 17, 2024. https://open.spotify.com/show/2OwTnxm4YpB6mH0tLVYc2s.


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October Update: what’s new

October has been a busy month with teaching and the new term – I’ve had a ton of guest lectures on top of teaching Art in the Age of the Great Caliphs.

In other news, yesterday I was recording an interview for an upcoming History-focused podcast, which I’ll be writing more about soon.

However the main project that I want to update you on and that is occupying my time is the Digital Lab, including new developments in my longstanding Digital Munya research. Maxime Durand, a longtime historian on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, is my collaborator on this project as well. We started working with the student game dev team back in May (having been planning for even longer) and as of our last meeting this month the project is moving forward in an exciting way.

What are we doing?

We’re co-creating the concept for a new video game set in 10th century Córdoba, this time focusing on stories and characters associated with munyas (villas), to bring this art and history to wider audiences.

We’re working on this alongside my Digital Lab team leads Dara, Sarah, and Deniz, who worked with us on Assassin’s Creed Mirage, AND a new group of students that we selected especially for this project.

Check out the Digital Lab’s post about Digital Munya 3 on LinkedIn for more details…

And if you want to hear more from me, including about my work in the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections, I invite you to join my free community list via the form at the bottom of the page.

I don’t send tons of emails – my messages to my lists have been quite infrequent this year because frankly, after these last years of working very hard to get my new book out, while simultaneously working on Assassin’s Creed Mirage and all the other video games, learning experiences, and projects we’ve had going on in the Digital Lab – and keeping up with a full time academic job – friends, I am TIRED – and I’m re-learning how to prioritise my health and rest.

So if you’re feeling like that too – let me say that you’re not alone! Let’s hang in there…

If I’m going to continue to do the work that I’m trying to do in the world I’m realising rest is key, and I’m actively pulling back, slowing down, and taking time off/away as necessary.

So here’s the thought I’d like to leave you with this month. Let’s slow down, take time we need to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and what’s really important … whatever that may be for you.

Fuel for a busy October day in Edinburgh!

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Announcing a new collaboration – online Arabic calligraphy workshop with Hatem Arafa (15 September – 2 October)

Collaborating with talented people in the creative industries is something I most enjoy about working across Islamic art history and video games. So I’m particularly excited for a new collaboration between talented calligrapher and designer Hatem Arafa, and the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections, starting September 15th through October 2, 2024.

This collaboration arises in the same spirit as our work on Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage (myself as an historian and art historian, and Arafa as the designer of the iconic crest and the in-game calligraphy used for the game’s skill trees). Although we each worked with Ubisoft independently and only became acquainted after the game was finished, our mutual desire to bring knowledge of Islamic art and history to wider audiences is very much aligned. In fact, I’ll be interviewing Hatem for the Digital Lab later this month, so stay tuned for more on that in due course.

If you’re interested in Arabic calligraphy, don’t miss this opportunity to take the workshop with this gifted artist and designer!

It’s hosted by the Digital Lab on Zoom, which I hope will allow more people to participate than if we’d held the workshop in person in Edinburgh.

Details and registration for the workshop are available here.

If you’d like to hear more from me, including about my work in the Digital Lab, get on my community list below:

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Entertainment to Change the World, London: Video from the OKRE Summit 2024

How are younger generations engaging with media and entertainment, from video games to TikTok and Spotify?

I had a chance to discuss this with some inspiring women in London at the Entertainment to Change the World event. This was the second OKRE Summit – if you don’t know the organisation, they’re connected to the Wellcome Trust and serve as ‘a catalyst for entertainment content challenging misleading perceptions.’

I spoke on the ‘Think digitally, think generationally, think differently’ panel with these very inspiring women: cultural historian, producer and writer Sofia Akel, Lorraine Ní Annracháin, Global Campaigns and Programmes Lead at Spotify, and Marcia Brophy, Global Mental Health and Innovation Specialist at UNICEF.

Watch the video online here!

Huge thanks to OKRE and my fellow panelists for the chance to talk about these important issues.

OKRE SUMMIT 2024
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April update: taking my video games work to Madrid and Córdoba!

This month has been so busy with travel, and I’ve had a wonderful time speaking with old and new friends in Spain.

At Casa Árabe in Madrid and Córdoba. I’ve admired their work for many years so it was a real pleasure to be invited to share my Digital Lab ongoing work with colleagues, students, and the public there.

If you follow me on social media you’ll find links to more, including a link to the radio interview featuring me and Dr. Blanco …

Photo with Rafael Blanco of Universidad de Córdoba and Javier Rosón of Casa Árabe

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Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) 2024

I’m super excited to be speaking about my Digital Lab collaboration with Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed Mirage at GDC 2024! And, I’m bringing two of the Digital Lab team with me!

If you’re not familiar with this event, here’s why it’s so significant for me and the DLIVCC team to have this opportunity, here’s a quick introduction to it:

‘GDC is the game industry’s premier professional event, championing game developers and the advancement of their craft.

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) brings the game development community together to exchange ideas, solve problems, and shape the future of the industry across five days of education, inspiration, and networking. Attendees include programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, and business leaders.’

All the details of my talk are here.

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History Respawned interview

I was the interviewee for the 10th Anniversary Episode of History Respawned! I had a great chat with host Bob Whitaker about working with Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s History of Baghdad Codex feature.

Bob does a walkthrough of the Mirage game environment (no violence, so handy for classrooms and showing to general audiences) and the educational feature with the museum objects we chose for the Codex.

Check it out!

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Collaborating on Assassin’s Creed Mirage!

The news is officially out!

If you’ve been following me or the Digital Lab you’ll know about this project, thanks to the announcement earlier this year by The Barakat Trust.

The official announcement, released this week by Ubisoft, has all the details on the feature I and my Digital Lab research assistants, Sarah Slingluff and Deniz Vural, helped to create: The History of Baghdad, a historical codex similar to the Database that appeared in earlier games.

This project means a lot to me, personally as well as professionally (as you’ll no doubt notice from the way it’s being reported in the UK news! )

Anyway, I’m very happy to finally be able to share information about the project, and I hope it will fulfill its aim, of making information about the art, architecture, and history of the caliphal period available to a wide global audience.

Check it out!

To subscribe to my email list and receive updates on my work, including in the Digital Lab, sign up below.

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Digital Munya 2 app is available

Curious to explore a Córdoban munya (villa) in an immersive Unity game environment, complete with period artefacts and Arabic primary source texts?

After a year of development I’m happy to say the Digital Munya 2 app is now available for download.

Please do let me know if you play it – I welcome feedback that will help us improve future versions.

A big thank you to our funders the Barakat Trust, UK ESRC, Creative Informatics, Edinburgh College of Art, and University of Edinburgh History of Art for generous support for my work to make Islamic art and history accessible to all through video games and digital immersive experiences.

Digital Munya 2 was developed by the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections (DLIVCC) at the University of Edinburgh:

Glaire Anderson

Dara Etefaghi

Sarah Slingluff

Deniz Vural