michael nitsche

Research

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My research combines craft and performance to look for novel interaction formats and to design digital media. The approach combines theory and practice and very often mixes both. The goal is to support human creativity in situations where the digital and the material blend into each other. Most of this work happens in my group, the Digital World and Image Group. Our past and present projects are also listed there.

I have been collaborating with a variety of academic and commercial partners on different research projects: Turner Broadcasting, Google, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Alcatel-Lucent, the Georgia Tech Broadband Institute,as well as game developers Funatics, and EA. Other work was or is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and various sources at Georgia Tech including IPaT, DILAC, the Serve-Learn-Sustain program, and SCoRE.

In the past, I used to run an irregular blog about machinima, Freepixel. It is available only as archive.

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Bio

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he/ him/ his
A (outdated yet oversized) CV is here.

I work as Professor at the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I teach courses mainly for the Digital Media Masters and PhDs, the HCI program as well as for the Computational Media undergrad programs. I am founder and Director of the Digital World and Image Group (DWIG). Since 2021 I also work as Associate Director for the DM side of the MS HCI degree. In 2024 I became the director of the Georgia Tech Berlin Program. Since 2015 I co-edit the Taylor&Francis journal Digital Creativity together with Julia Sussner.

I hold an MA in Drama and German language from the Freie Universitaet Berlin, a MPhil in Architecture and the Moving Image at the University of Cambridge and finished my PhD in 2004 also at the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). If not immersed in some digital adventure I am collecting screenplays. In a former lifetime, I gathered some experience in independent film production, scriptwriting, and even before that I worked as an Improv actor at the Fast Food Theater, Munich. More currently, I am fascinated by puppets and collaborations with the Center for Puppetry Arts.

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Teaching

Summer 2025

LMC 3262

LMC 3314

Spring 2025

LMC 6318

Learning for material practices, this course asks: What can we learn from esperts and their professional practices with materials to design novel interaction and media?

LMC 4813

Partnering with a local school, we will explore environmental issues through an Arduino Prototyping class. How can we design projects to support sustainability in our communities?
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Publications

Book Covers

Vital Media

How can media design balance our needs for self-expression and the material needs of the world we are part of? Published by MIT Press 2022.

The Machinima Reader

Co-edited with Henry Lowood. The first academic book about the machinima phenomenon with essays from Salen, Manovich, Bardzell and many more. Published by MIT Press 2011.

Video Game Spaces

A review on the design, mediation, and use of virtual spaces from the perspective of game levels and architecture. Published by MIT Press 2009.

A list of publications is here.

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Contact

Address

TSRB/ room 316B
85 Fifth Str. NW
Atlanta, GA 30308-1030

Office Hours

Tue 12-1 PM

Email

michael.nitsche[at]gatech.edu

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