About the Panel
Videogames give us places to experience and explore. Stories offer us escape and example. The advantages and appeal of spending time in the many worlds or stories on offer through videogames has never been more clear, but the spaces where we spend our time shape us, even as they are shaped by us. Videogames are more than portals to other situations; they are places. At least, that is (part of) how these artists see them. Join videogame developers Nathalie Lawhead, Jord Farrell, Zoyander Street, and Claris Cyarron as they discuss the structural, material, and experiential aspects of their artforms.
Panelists
Claris Cyarron, Zoyander Street, Nathalie Lawhead, Jord Farrell
Claris Cyarron
Claris Cyarron is an architecturally-trained storyteller, multidisciplinary designer, queer artist, and ever-aspiring adventurer. Claris is committed to crafting narratives, encounters, and worlds as intentionally as an architect designs a building. While guiding creative projects, she carefully hones their meaning, and aims to make them more thematically resonant. As a narrative designer and consultant, she has had the pleasure of working on incredible games like Timespinner, Celeste, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Wandersong, and more. In her spare time, she sails ships, rides bikes, and plays music with her pet synthesizers.
Zoyander Street
Artist-researcher and critic working at the fringes of indie videogames for a decade. My practice focuses on videogames, but also involves other forms of media art and (mis)uses of technology. Led by ethnographic and historical research, I create lo-fi glitchy games and custom hardware for festivals, galleries, and museums, using interaction design to harness the expressive potential of audience participation. After becoming increasingly sensitive to the limitations of linear text, I began exploring interactive and tactile mediums of communication, in order to surface ambiguity and allow mess to stay messy. I like to work with toxic garbage, be that through recycling old computers that were destined for landfill, or through recontextualising trauma.
Nathalie Lawhead
Nathalie Lawhead is a net-artist and award winning game designer that has been creating experimental digital art since the late 90's. Past works include titles such as the IGF winning Tetrageddon Games, "Everything is going to be OK", and the Electric Zine Maker.
Jord Farrell
Jord Farrell is a multidisciplinary artist who's released over 100 games and publishes new art every single day. He also is a local community leader, organizing and running various events.