Iterations

Documentary filmmaker and Drexel professor Ben Kalina links filmmaking with climate concerns and his short Higher Ground - an exploration of chronic flooding and environmental injustice in the Eastwick neighborhood of Philadelphia. Kalina’s film Plan C for Civilization examines solar geoengineering and its ethical dilemmas, urging critical public reasoning and collective agency. Music professor James McKinney discusses using music and multimedia to build empathy, including producing Max Gallagher’s song “The Flood” into a VR experience using Unreal Engine, spatial audio, interactive storytelling, and real flood-risk data.

 A sociology class about health and disease probably doesn't sound like the obvious setting for an exhibition of experimental photography. But over the course of a term at Drexel, students started translating medical systems, chronic illness, disability, anxiety, care, and survival into images.In this episode of Iterations, we hear about the development of visual literacy - a lifelong practice - and its application in fields as disparate as fine art, health care, and sociology. My guest is Kylie Wright, master printer, photographer, and professor at Drexel University.Music from Epidemic Sound

In this episode of Drexel’s “Iterations,” we explore housing, creative placemaking, and design with architect and social scientist D.S. Nicholas, founding director of Drexel’s master’s program in Design. Dee describes how her practice has shifted toward health-supportive, human-centered design, culminating in a collaboration called Second Story Collective. Originating in Drexel's Writer's Room, Second Story Collective is an intergenerational housing and arts-based model that helps older adults age in place by pairing them with students, providing mutual support and home retrofits to enhance quality of life - while also addressing gentrification and displacement. We also discuss iterative, community-engaged evaluation, biophilia, and climate preparedness as contributors to human-centered design innovation.Music/sound FX from EpidemicSound

We all play. We all like to play - but why? What is it about games that brings us closer together, empowers us, and sparks joy?In this episode we meet Erin Truesdell and professor Frank Lee - researchers and practitioners in the field of game design - about taking play seriously as a tool for education, social connection, and healthcare. They discuss interdisciplinary games research and the application of VR and gaming technology in healthcare settings. They also describe the Skyscraper Games Project, which turns Philadelphia’s Cira Centre into a massive public game display (including a Guinness-recognized Pong installation), and outreach efforts to make game development, STEM, and computing careers more accessible to all communities.Iterations is produced in partnership with Drexel University's Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.Learn more about Digital Media at Drexel: https://digm.drexel.eduLearn more about STAR Scholars: https://drexel.edu/pennoni/urep/undergraduate-research/STAR-scholars/Learn more about Skyscraper Games: https://drexel.edu/news/archive/2025/October/Video-Game-Design-Reaches-New-Heights-in-Skyscaper-Games00:00 Introduction 01:31 Meet the Researchers 04:32 VR for Healthcare07:38 Skyscraper Games14:41 Designing for Wellbeing19:37 Homework & ClosingMusic/Sound FX from EpidemicSound

In this episode of Iterations, we meet Patricia “Pattie” Moore, whose work and research have dramatically changed the design world. In the late 1970s, she partnered with makeup artist Barbara Kelly to disguise herself as an 85-year-old. Pattie traveled for nearly four years across the US and Canada, gaining fascinating insights about our age-phobic culture. Her research informed influential products and systems, including OXO Good Grips tools, Depend undergarments, and contributions to the Americans with Disabilities Act. She has inspired teaching models like Drexel’s aging-simulation coursework. Pattie also discusses language barriers around “disability,” solo aging and aging in place, home health technologies, and medical-design innovations such as mobile mammography and patient-centered imaging environments.Music from Epidemic Sound