Game labs for good

May 30, 2024 Elizabeth Seward

Associate producer Reagan Rudman. Editor Jae Shim. Assistant editor Levan Amiranashvili. Executive producer/camera Rob VanAlkemade / Medicinal Media.

Medicinal Media dropped in on two game labs — one at Columbia in New York City and another at USC in Los Angeles — to learn about a variety of compelling projects with a shared vision: making medicinal media.

The following bios are from the respective sites for the labs:

Through an understanding of play, the Columbia Games Research Lab, founded in 2004, seeks to gain knowledge of human cognition, collaboration, media effects, modern culture, and other factors within games that have implications for education. The lab focuses on helping faculty and students discover the richness of game-based play, with a particular emphasis on introducing non-gamers to games beyond the mainstream.

The Garden Lab at the USC Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center (CM&BHC), founded in 2010, is an organized research unit between the School of Cinematic Arts and the Keck School of Medicine. Following the success of the USC Games for Health Initiative, the Center is a unique incubator for innovation in the use of entertainment applications at the intersection of behavioral science, medicine, and public health. Its mission is to increase public awareness of critical issues in mental health and behavioral science and to provide hands-on, creativity-based educational opportunities for health researchers and practitioners.