Nathalie Lawhead

Nathalie Lawhead
Known forindie games, net art
Notable workTetrageddon Games, Everything is Going to Be OK, A_DESKTOP_LOVE_STORY
AwardsNuovo 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.

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.

MoMA induction

Following the release of Lawhead's game 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.[7] 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.[7][8]

Works

  • Blue Suburbia (1999) - Interactive website, codeveloped with Milena Lawhead[2]
  • Tetrageddon Games (2016)
  • Everything is Going to Be OK (2017)[9]
  • A_DESKTOP_LOVE_STORY (2018)[10]
  • Electric File Monitor (2018) – A program that scans a user's computer and makes assessments on their files[11]
  • RUNONCE (remember_me) (2019) – A digital pet game that can only be played once per installation[12]
  • Mackerelmedia Fish (2020)
  • Electric Zine Maker (2021) – Open source zine making tool[13]
  • Blue Suburbia (2024) – A remake of the 1999 work[14]

Awards

Notes

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

References

  1. ^ Nathalie Lawhead on Bluesky
  2. ^ a b "'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. ^ a b c "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. ^ a b 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.
  8. ^ "Everything is Going to be OK, 2017". Museum of Modern Art. 2023.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ Tarason, Dominic (December 21, 2018). "Your files want to smooch in A Desktop Love Story". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  11. ^ Brinks, Melissa. "Protect Your Computer And Think About Ethics With 'Electric File Monitor'". Forbes. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "'Electric Zine Maker' Thrives as a Creative Open Source DIY Tool". Observer. March 2, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  14. ^ Couture, Joel (May 31, 2023). "'BlueSuburbia' Stirs Up a Deep, Solitary Fear". Indie Games Plus. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  15. ^ "2015 Independent Games Festival Winners". IGF. September 12, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  16. ^ Chan, Stephanie (October 9, 2017). "Everything Is Going to be OK wins IndieCade's 2017 Interaction Award". Venture Beat. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  17. ^ "Congratulation to the winners of the 6th A MAZE. Awards!". A MAZE. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
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