Chandler Jennings
Artist-in-Residence, Exhibiting Artist
Chandler is a teacher, games-maker, and academic researcher whose work takes an exploratory and quizzical look at the concepts that underwrite political thinking and acting in the United States—concepts such as justice, freedom, truth, choice, and belief. His personal love of board games has led him to increasingly integrate games into his research and teaching.
In his academic research on games, Chandler explores the unique and surprising features of games as art. What ways of thinking, acting, and choosing do games make possible? How do games work differently from other media or art forms? And how can in-game experiences shape the ways that we think and act outside of a game's proverbial "magic circle"? These questions have led Chandler to his work on games that address serious topics, including real-world systems of oppression and historical tragedies. These games have informed his understanding of the possibilities and limitations of political play, and they have also been instrumental in informing the design of his game prototype, Conxensus: a game of storytelling & political imagination, on display in the gallery.
He has also integrated games into his teaching, developing a first-year writing course at UVA called "Tabletop Games, Culture, and Community." This course asked students to play board games, reflect on the social experience of learning a game, and analyze how the game's rules shape their actions and choices. By the end of the semester, students took these ideas beyond the table, looking for games and game-like elements in their lives at UVA (such as winning and losing, competition and cooperation, points as an incentive system, and rules).
Chandler holds a BA in English from Pomona College (2014) and a MA in English from the University of Virginia (2023). In fall of 2024, he will begin a PhD program in Religious Studies at Brown University. His favorite games include Ark Nova, Terraforming Mars, Decrypto, and Scout.
Chandler is the Spring 2024 Artist-in-Residence.
