Nathalie Lawhead

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Nathalie Lawhead
Nathalie Lawhead headshot.jpg
Known for indie games, net art
Notable work Tetrageddon Games, Everything is Going to Be OK, A_DESKTOP_LOVE_STORY
Awards Nuovo Award 2015, A MAZE. Digital Moment Award 2016, Indiecade Interaction Award 2017

Nathalie Lawhead is an independent net artist and video game designer residing in Irvine, California.

Contents

Career

Lawhead's career started in the mid-to-late nineties, with various pieces of net-art and poetry, culminating in the release of Blue Suburbia in 1999, a project created in collaboration with their [a] mother, Milena Lawhead. [2] Their work often existed in a middleground, adopting various elements from trends in circles that used Adobe Flash, whilst still retaining an HTML focus common with many net-artists, eventually having their work described colloquially as 'games' by critics online. [3] Lawhead's other early work has mostly been lost, due to issues with inaccessibility and changing technologies, such as removal of support for Flash. [3] This history of ephemeral projects has continued to inspire their current body of work, which often adopts motifs of digital graveyards, anarchic technology, and the fleeting nature of artistic existence on the internet. [3] [4]

In 2019, Lawhead accused video game composer Jeremy Soule of rape. [5] [6] No formal charges were filed in connection with the allegations.

Harassment

Lawhead was subjected to online and offline abuse and harassment following their discussion of their game Everything is Going to Be OK at Double Fine's Day of the Devs event. This increased after they published an article, "YouTube Culture is Turning Kids Against Art Games", on Venture Beat, where they discussed experiences with harassment. [7] [8] [9] As a result, Lawhead further revised and expanded Everything is Going to Be OK to include these experiences and comment on how gaming culture, and culture in general, enables abusers. [8]

MoMA induction

Following the release of Everything is Going to Be OK , the title was included in the Museum of Modern Art's 2022 exhibition Never Alone: Video Games as Interactive Design, an exhibit that included a series of 35 different works spanning the development of video games as an art form, and exploring their validity as works of design art. [10] Lawhead's work was eventually inducted into the museum's permanent collection following the exhibition, making the MoMA the first major artistic institution to include Lawhead's game in their catalogue. [10] [11]

Works

Awards

Notes

  1. ↑ Lawhead is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. [1]

References

  1. ↑ Nathalie Lawhead on Bluesky
  2. 1 2 "'Welcome to BlueSuburbia' - poetry from Get Underground Brandon Backhaus". Archived from the original on October 26, 2003. Retrieved December 8, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. 1 2 3 "Artist Profile: Nathalie Lawhead". Rhizome. February 1, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Tetrageddon Games". Communication Arts. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  5. ↑ Brendan Sinclair (August 28, 2019). "Tetrageddon Games developer warns women about Skyrim composer". Games Industry.biz. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  6. ↑ Andrew Gumbel (February 21, 2023). "The Hollywood crisis #MeToo missed: 'Every female composer has been through it'". Guardian. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  7. ↑ Lawhead, Nathalie (November 22, 2017). "YouTube culture is turning kids against art games". Venture Beat. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  8. 1 2 Hayes, Spencer. "Everything is Going to be OK: A conversation with Nathalie Lawhead". itch.io. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  9. ↑ Lawhead, Nathalie. "observations about my "Day of the Devs" article & thoughts after harassment over a post that's about harassment". itch.io. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  10. 1 2 Antonelli, Paola; Burckhardt, Anna; Galloway, Paul; Hall, Emily; The Museum of Modern Art, eds. (2022). Never alone: video games as interactive design. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. ISBN   978-1-63345-141-4.
  11. ↑ "Everything is Going to be OK, 2017". Museum of Modern Art. 2023.
  12. ↑ Joho, Jess (October 20, 2017). "Beautifully bizarre art game 'Everything is going to be OK' is about how not OK everything is". Mashable. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  13. ↑ Tarason, Dominic (December 21, 2018). "Your files want to smooch in A Desktop Love Story". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  14. ↑ Brinks, Melissa. "Protect Your Computer And Think About Ethics With 'Electric File Monitor'". Forbes. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  15. ↑ Sykes, Tom (March 4, 2019). "Free download RUNONCE gives you a digital pet to play with for one short lifespan". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  16. ↑ "'Electric Zine Maker' Thrives as a Creative Open Source DIY Tool". Observer. March 2, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  17. ↑ Couture, Joel (May 31, 2023). "'BlueSuburbia' Stirs Up a Deep, Solitary Fear". Indie Games Plus. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  18. ↑ "2015 Independent Games Festival Winners". IGF. September 12, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  19. ↑ Chan, Stephanie (October 9, 2017). "Everything Is Going to be OK wins IndieCade's 2017 Interaction Award". Venture Beat. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  20. ↑ "Congratulation to the winners of the 6th A MAZE. Awards!". A MAZE. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
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