About Zoyander Street

Artist-researcher and critic working at the fringes of indie videogames for over a decade.

I am a neurodivergent, genderqueer trans person (they/them preferred, he/him accepted) living in South Yorkshire, in the country currently known as the United Kingdom.

• PhD Student, Sociology, Lancaster University
• Board of Directors, Typeset Rotherham
• Board of Trustees, NEoN Digital Arts
• Board of Directors, Critical Distance

🚶 Overview

I work with interactive and tactile mediums of communication, because I want to surface ambiguity and allow mess to stay messy. 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.

🏺 Research

My internships at Chiba City Folk Museum and Chiba City Museum of Art in 2008-2009, and training in History of Design and Material Culture Studies at the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2010-2012, taught me to position historical and anthropological research within the context of arts and culture organisations and the objects and social spaces that they produce. I learned to produce research that would be communicated to a broad audience not just through text, but also through images and objects themselves.

🕹 ️Games in art spaces

My art practice in games engages with social issues and philosophies that connect the individual with the collective. My major project at the moment aims to demonstrate the challenges facing the trans community in the UK as well as the transformative potential of trans liberation. Since returning to South Yorkshire in late 2015, I have worked with multiple local arts organisations, putting art in a variety of public spaces, including places that are more accessible to people who have been culturally excluded from traditional arts venues.

👥 Consulting and support

I work with creators working at many different scales to make sense of how their work is received and understood. Whether it's game developers navigating cultural issues at major companies, or independent artists planning project proposals, I help people to make sense of criticism, navigate risks such as rejection, understand their responsibilities towards audiences, identify their values, devise plans that reflect those values, and craft a compelling narrative about their work.