Collecte, curate, transmediate

A series of short documentaries about games on the West Coast

In January-February of 2017 I took a journey down the West Coast of North America by Amtrak, going from as far north as Vancouver, Canada to as far south as San Diego. On the way, I made a series of documentary short videos about people engaging with games history across the fields of arts, culture, and academia. They were published by ZAM and First Person Scholar.

2025 update: ZAM shut its doors a couple of years after this project. Some of the original posts were archived, and some were not - I've provided archive links where available.

Vancouver, BC

Originally published on ZAM (archive link)
After making a viral splash on social media, the Geekenders' Portal 2 music adaptation has returned for a second run. This weekend, cabaret group the Geekenders performed their "remount" of Portal 2: The Musical in Vancouver, BC, Canada. We caught up with them during rehearsals to learn what inspires them to make musicals about videogames, and how inclusivity can benefit geek cultures in all genres. If you like what you see and hear and want to find out more, check out their Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/Geekenders) or even better, head to their Bandcamp, where you can listen to their studio recording of the musical numbers!
2025 update: The Geekenders are still going strong, and won a Georgia Straight Best of Vancouver award in 2024. Follow their work at geekenders.net.

Seattle, WA

Originally published on ZAM (archive link)
Curator Jacob McMurray talks about creating one of the world's first permanent museum exhibits devoted entirely to videogames large and small. Located in the heart of Seattle, the Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP) is a one-of-a-kind museum devoted to the media we interact with every day -- including video games. Its permanent exhibit on games seeks to educate visitors not just on the tremendous diversity of games but the people who make them as well. In the first of a new, exclusive series of documentary featurettes, director Zoyander Street takes us on a tour of the unique exhibit and chats with curator Jacob McMurray about the inspiration behind the selection of games on display and introducing games to a wider audience.

Portland, OR

Originally published on ZAM

2025 update: In 2020, Tim Hutchings released a solo game called Thousand Year Old Vampire, which makes extensive use of paper ephemera as part of its composition. It quickly found an audience hungry for playful experiences that they could experience when alone at home during lockdown, without the mediation of a screen, and won the 2020 IndieCade award for tabletop game design.

King City, OR

Originally published on ZAM

2025 update: In 2019 I returned to IMOGAP in a new location, and carried out research in their archives focused on portrayals of emotion in tabletop games. In 2022 the museum went into storage, after struggling to secure institutional support or philanthropic assistance to cover overhead costs.

San Francisco, CA

I published this one independently in 2019. It focuses on a pop-up exhibition of games that showed at SF MoMA back in 2017 at the same time as GDC.

2025 update: Sarah Brin developed a thriving practice as a creative producer and consultant in games and immersive media, and has been a very valuable consultant on my project Intrapology.

Irvine, CA

This video was made before Tess Tanenbaum transitioned, and uses her necronym.

2025 update: In 2021, Tess Tanenbaum's work advocating for policies to protect transgender authors of academic works was recognised with a Dynamic Womxn of UCI Award. Unfortunately, the Transformative Play Lab shut its doors in 2023.

San Diego, CA

Published on First Person Scholar.
“Games are the art of math”, argues Raph Koster. “They are teaching us the system of themselves.” Looking through his collection of ancient, abstract games, Koster brings to life these seemingly narrative-free objects in front of us with stories about the societies that created them – Ur is about life in a competitive society, Tafl is about the paradoxical vulnerability of the ruling class.

Read more on First Person Scholar