Assoc Prof Melanie Swalwell

Playing an original Christchurch-produced Taitronics (Taito) "Super Galaga" arcade machine.
Position/s:Associate Professor
Department of Screen and Media
Phone: +61 8 82012619
Email:
Location: Humanities (278)
Postal address: GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Biography

A scholar of digital media arts, cultures, and histories, Melanie is Project Leader of the ARC Linkage Project "Play It Again".  She has authored chapters and articles in both traditional and interactive formats, in such esteemed journals as Convergence, Vectors, and the Journal of Visual Culture.  Recent significant projects include the Australasian Heritage Software Database, and the online photographic exhibition "More Than A Craze" (see below).  Her anthology, The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on cultural history, theory and aesthetics was published in 2008.

Prior to joining Flinders, Melanie taught at Victoria University of Wellington (NZ).

She tweets occasionally as @melswal

Current projects:

  • "Play It Again: Creating a Playable History of Australasian Digital Games, for Industry, Community and Research Purposes", ARC Linkage, 2012-14. Like us on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/playitagainproject & Twitter @AgainPlay

Qualifications

BA (Hons), Mq; PhD, UTS.

Honours, awards and grants

Melanie was the 2009 Nancy Keesing Fellow, at the State Library of New South Wales. A podcast of a public lecture she gave at the Library is here.

Teaching

Topic Coordinator:

Topic Lecturer:

Research and supervision

Research interests

Melanie's research centres on newer media with particular attention to media arts and digital games, as well as the intersections of these. She is concerned with questions of aesthetic and affective experience and the implications of these for theories of audience reception, engagement and meaning making. Much of her research attends to experimental media uses, and the issues that are raised by the creations of media artists, modders, and independent game developers. She also undertakes research with different communities of practice (lanners, collectors, home coders).

Since 2004, she has been researching histories of digital games.  As well as current archival research into the production and reception of computer games in 1980s Australia, Melanie is finishing a suite of projects on digital games histories in New Zealand. Outcomes include traditional and interactive journal articles, a monograph (in preparation), an exhibition of historic photographs, an online, community database of early NZ software, as well as revived examples of such software.  In 2011, she launched the Australasian Heritage Software Database, one of several collaborative projects she has undertaken with Denise de Vries, in Computer Science at Flinders.

Melanie's PhD was entitled "Aesthetics and Hyper/aesthetics: Rethinking the senses in contemporary media contexts".

Many full text papers are available here, on academia.edu.

Supervisory interests

  • Aesthetics, politics, philosophy of technology
  • Digital cultural heritage
  • Digital game history
  • Digital media histories
  • History of educational software
  • Microcomputer history
  • Software history

RHD research supervision

Current

Principal supervisor: Digital game studies (2); Aesthetics and politics (1); Digital game history (1);

Publications

Book chapters
Swalwell, M.L. (2010). Hobbyist Computing in 1980s New Zealand: Games and the popular reception of microcomputers. In Janet Toland, ed. Return to Tomorrow: 50 years of computing in New Zealand. Wellington: New Zealand Computer Society, pp. 157-169.
Swalwell, M.L. (2009). Lan Gaming Groups: Snapshots from an Australasian case study, 1999-2008. In Larrisa Hjorth and Dean Chan, ed. Gaming cultures and place in Asia-Pacific. New York, Oxon, UK: Routledge, pp. 117-136. [online]. Available from: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/screen/staff/swalwell.php.
Swalwell, M.L. (2008). Movement and Kinaesthetic Responsiveness: A Neglected Pleasure. In Melanie Swalwell and Jason Wilson, ed. The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on Cultural History, Theory and Aesthetics. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, pp. 72-93.
Refereed journal articles
Swalwell, M.L. (2012). A Critique of the Hyper State: Aesthetics, technology and experience. Transformations:  Region, Culture and Society, (22). [online]. Available from: http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/issue_22/article_01.shtml.
Swalwell, M.L. (2012). Questions about the usefulness of microcomputers in 1980s Australia. Media International Australia, 143, pp.63-77.
Swalwell, M.L. (2009). Towards the Preservation of Local Computer Game Software: Challenges, strategies, reflections. Convergence: The Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 15(3), pp.263-279. [online]. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354856509105107.
Swalwell, M.L. (2007). The Remembering and the Forgetting of Early Digital Games: From novelty to detritus and back again. Journal of Visual Culture, 6(2), pp.255-273. [online]. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470412907078568.
Swalwell, M.L. (2006). Multi-Player Computer Gaming: "Better than playing (PC Games) with yourself". Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture, 6(1). [online]. Available from: http://reconstruction.eserver.org/061/swalwell.shtml.
Refereed conference papers
Swalwell, M.L. (2012). The Early Micro User: Games writing, hardware hacking, and the will to mod. In Proceedings of DiGRA Nordic 2012 Conference: Local and Global - Games in Culture and Society. DiGRA Nordic 2012 Conference: Local and Global -- Games in Culture and Society. [online]. Available from: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/12168.37411.pdf.
Other public research outputs
Swalwell, M.L. and De Vries, D. (2011). Australasian Heritage Software Database (Database).

Show all publications

Book chapters
Swalwell, M.L. (2010). Hobbyist Computing in 1980s New Zealand: Games and the popular reception of microcomputers. In Janet Toland, ed. Return to Tomorrow: 50 years of computing in New Zealand. Wellington: New Zealand Computer Society, pp. 157-169.
Swalwell, M.L. (2009). Lan Gaming Groups: Snapshots from an Australasian case study, 1999-2008. In Larrisa Hjorth and Dean Chan, ed. Gaming cultures and place in Asia-Pacific. New York, Oxon, UK: Routledge, pp. 117-136. [online]. Available from: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/screen/staff/swalwell.php.
Swalwell, M.L. and Wilson, J. (2008). Introduction. In Melanie Swalwell and Jason Wilson, ed. The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on Cultural History, Theory and Aesthetics. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, pp. 1-12.
Swalwell, M.L. (2008). Movement and Kinaesthetic Responsiveness: A Neglected Pleasure. In Melanie Swalwell and Jason Wilson, ed. The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on Cultural History, Theory and Aesthetics. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, pp. 72-93.
Swalwell, M.L. (2008). 1980s Home Coding: the art of amateur programming. In Stella Brennan and Su Ballard, ed. Aotearoa Digital Arts Reader. Auckland: Aotearoa Digital Arts and Clouds, pp. 193-201. [online]. Available from: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/screen/staff/swalwell.php.
Refereed journal articles
Swalwell, M.L. (2012). A Critique of the Hyper State: Aesthetics, technology and experience. Transformations:  Region, Culture and Society, (22). [online]. Available from: http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/issue_22/article_01.shtml.
Swalwell, M.L. (2012). Questions about the usefulness of microcomputers in 1980s Australia. Media International Australia, 143, pp.63-77.
Swalwell, M.L. (2009). Towards the Preservation of Local Computer Game Software: Challenges, strategies, reflections. Convergence: The Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 15(3), pp.263-279. [online]. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354856509105107.
Swalwell, M.L. (2007). The Remembering and the Forgetting of Early Digital Games: From novelty to detritus and back again. Journal of Visual Culture, 6(2), pp.255-273. [online]. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470412907078568.
Swalwell, M.L. (2006). Multi-Player Computer Gaming: "Better than playing (PC Games) with yourself". Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture, 6(1). [online]. Available from: http://reconstruction.eserver.org/061/swalwell.shtml.
Swalwell, M.L. (2005). Contact Zones: Edge in "Portable Cities" and "FragMental Storm". New Zealand Journal of Media Studies, 9(1). [online]. Available from: http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Sch091JMS-t1-g1-t6.html.
Swalwell, M.L. (2003). Multi-Player Computer Gaming: "Better than playing (PC Games) with yourself". Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture, 3(4). [online]. Available from: http://reconstruction.eserver.org/034/swalwell.htm.
Swalwell, M.L. (2002). New/Inter/Media. Convergence: The Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 8(4), pp.46-56.
Refereed conference papers
Swalwell, M.L. (2012). The Early Micro User: Games writing, hardware hacking, and the will to mod. In Proceedings of DiGRA Nordic 2012 Conference: Local and Global - Games in Culture and Society. DiGRA Nordic 2012 Conference: Local and Global -- Games in Culture and Society. [online]. Available from: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/12168.37411.pdf.
Swalwell, M.L. (2011). More Than A Craze: Photographs of New Zealand's early digital games scene. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2011 Conference: Think Design Play. Think Design Play - 5th International DiGRA Conference. [online]. Available from: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/11325.49526.pdf.
Swalwell, M.L. (2010). Exhibition: "More than a Craze: Photographs of New Zealand's early digital games scene". In 7th Australian conference on Interactive Entertainment. 7th Australian conference on Interactive Entertainment. pp. 60-62.
Swalwell, M.L. (2005). Early games production in New Zealand. In Changing Views: Worlds in Play. Changing Views: Worlds in Play. [online]. Available from: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06278.19100.pdf.
Swalwell, M.L. (2004). The History and Development of Lan Groups: an Australasian case study. In Miguel Sicart and Jonas Heide Smith, ed. Other Players. Other Players: a conference on multiplayer phenomena.
Swalwell, M.L. (2003). Ethics and aesthetics: defamiliarization and the virtual. In Consciousness Reframed: non-local, non-linear, non-ordinary. Consciousness Reframed: non-local, non-linear, non-ordinary (Fourth International CAiiA-STAR Research Conference).
Swalwell, M.L. (2003). "This isn't a computer game you know!": revisiting the computer games / televised war analogy. In Marinka Copier and Joost Raessens, ed. Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference. Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference. [online]. Available from: http://www.digra.org/dl/db/05150.18371.pdf.
Journal articles
Swalwell, M.L. (2010). A Living Collection: Computer games. SL Magazine, 3(3), pp.30-31.
Swalwell, M.L. (2010). The Case for Local Software Preservation. KEEP Newsletter, (2), pp.6-8. [online]. Available from: http://www.keep-project.eu, http://crossczech.cz/download/KEEP_Newsletter_March10.pdf.
Swalwell, M.L. (2006). NZ's Videogaming Past and the Question of its Future. SCRIPT, 64, pp.14-16. [online]. Available from: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/film/NAME/script/files/SCRIPT64.pdf.
Other public research outputs
Swalwell, M.L. and De Vries, D. (2011). Australasian Heritage Software Database (Database).
Swalwell, M.L. and Bayly, J. (2010). "More than a Craze: Photographs of New Zealand's early digital games scene" (Digitally scanned photographs).
Swalwell, M.L. (2010). More than a Craze: Photographs of New Zealand's early digital games scene (Exhibition catalogue essay). [online]. Available from: http://www.maharagallery.org.nz/MoreThanACraze/essay.php.
Swalwell, M.L. (2007). Early New Zealand Software Database (Computer database). [online]. Available from: http://nztronix.org.nz/main.php.
Swalwell, M.L. and Loyer, E. (2006). Castoffs from the Golden Age. Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular, 3. [online]. Available from: http://vectorsjournal.org/projects/index.php?project=66 [AND] http://www.vectorsjournal.org.

Show selected publications

Professional and community engagement

Melanie sits on the editorial boards of Convergence: The journal of research into new media technologies (Sage), and Reconstruction: An interdisciplinary cultural studies community.  She is an Associate Member of the Centre for Media Arts and Innovation (CMAI, UTS) and an invited Honorary Associate, Centre for Media History (Macquarie).

Expertise for media contact

  • Digital games
  • Digital preservation Software history, early personal computing, obsolescence, preservation
  • Digital media arts
  • Digital cultures
  • Digital histories

Subject/s

  • Aesthetics
  • Media
  • Technology

Further information

Supervisory interests:

  • social and cultural aspects of digital media technologies
  • the senses and aesthetics
  • audience experience, reception, and engagement
  • cultures of use / productive users
  • computer games and gaming cultures
  • digital media art, including game art
  • Walter Benjamin as a theorist of media and technology
  • histories of technology / the digital as cultural heritage



inspiring achievement