Henry Lowood, curator at Stanford Libraries (Courtesy of Library of Congress Blogs)
The seventh edition of the Milan Machinima Festival features an international jury panel comprising four esteemed members, including Henry Lowood.
Henry Lowood is a distinguished curator and scholar at Stanford University, where he holds the positions of Harold C. Hohbach Curator for the History of Science & Technology Collections and Curator for Film & Media Collections in the Stanford University Libraries.
Since 2000, Lowood has been at the helm of the project How They Got Game: The History and Culture of Interactive Simulations and Videogames. Initially funded by the Stanford Humanities Laboratory and subsequently continued under the Libraries, this project delves into the history and preservation of digital games, virtual worlds, and interactive simulations. This initiative has birthed courses like the History of Computer Game Design and The Consumer as Creator in Contemporary Media, reflecting Lowood’s focus on these emerging new media forms.
Between 2008 and 2013, Lowood led the HTGG Stanford group in the Preserving Virtual Worlds project, sponsored initially by the U.S. Library of Congress. Collaborating with the University of Illinois, University of Maryland, Rochester Institute of Technology, Linden Lab, the Internet Archive, and others, this project represented a significant undertaking in the field.
As a scholar, Lowood has contributed significantly to the field of game studies and machinima studies, among others. Since the early 2000s, he has played a pivotal role in these areas, establishing himself as a leading figure in game studies. His latest book Replayed (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023) consolidates his major publications and research on the preservation and documentation of virtual worlds, digital games, and interactive simulations. The Machinima Reader, co-edited with Michael Nitsche in 2011 and published by MIT Press, is considered one of the foundational texts in machinima studies.
Henry Lowood has served as a distinguished juror for every edition of the Milan Machinima Festival, bringing his expertise and insights to the evaluation processor the submitted works.
