Stefano is both a philosopher who designs digital games and a game designer who is passionate about philosophy. Among his best-known playable works are the videogames ‘Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths’ (1997), ‘The Horrendous Parade’ (2012), and ‘Something Something Soup Something’ (2017).
He is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Digital Games (University of Malta) where he works in the intersections between continental philosophy and the design of virtual worlds. He uses virtual worlds as tools to practically experience and manipulate ideas, world-views, and thought-experiments.
A recent academic book of his, 'Virtual Worlds as Philosophical Tools' (Palgrave, 2015), identifies computers as gateways to experience alternative possibilities of being and as instruments to (re)design ourselves and our cultures. His contributions to the edited volumes 'Experience Machines: Philosophy in Virtual Worlds' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), 'Towards a Philosophy of Digital Media' (Palgrave, 2018), and 'The Architectonics of the Virtual' (Transcript - forthcoming, 2019) focus on the existential effects and possibilities disclosed by virtual technologies.
In summer, he is a Visiting Professor at the Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) in Laguna Beach, California.
GUALENI, S., 2018. A Philosophy of “Doing” in the Digital. In: A. ROMELE and E. TERRONE, eds, Towards a Philosophy of Digital Media. 1 edn. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 225-255.
GUALENI, S., VELLA, D. and HARRINGTON, J., 2017. De-Roling from Experiences and Identities in Virtual Worlds. Journal of Virtual World Research, 10(2), pp. 1-18.
GUALENI, S., 2016. The Experience Machine: Existential Reflections on Virtual Worlds. Journal of Virtual World Research, 9, n. 3.
GUALENI, S., 2016. Self-reflexive videogames: observations and corollaries on virtual worlds as philosophical artifacts. G|A|M|E – The Italian Journal of Game Studies, 5(1),.
GUALENI, S., 2015. Virtual Worlds as Philosophical Tools. 1 edn. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
WESTERLAKEN, M. and GUALENI, S., The Philosophy of Computer Games 2014. Felino: The Philosophical Practice of Making an Interspecies Video Game, The Philosophy of Computer Games. Bilgi University of Istanbul, Turkey, November 13-16, 2014. The Philosophy of Computer Games 2014.
