Breaking free from video game nostalgia – With developer & designer Rachel Weil

In recent years, the aesthetics and mechanics of retro games have been a major source of inspiration for game devs. But has nostalgia become a crutch for some indie game creators? For our June event, we're thrilled to feature local developer and designer Rachel Simone Weil. She'll discuss her passion for using obsolete games and software to provoke meaningful conversation about computing history, nostalgia, memory, and the intent of the designer.

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Rachel has deep experience as an artist, programmer, historian, and educator. For years, she has created interactive, glitch-based visual art and games for the NES under the alias "Party Time! Hexcellent! (http://www.partytimehexcellent.com/selectedworks)" Her custom software, written in 6502 assembly language, is inspired by Japanese and American animation and comics, demoscene culture, and '90s video games. She employs ultra-feminine visual elements in her work while evoking feelings of nostalgia and friendship with blocky, colorful animations. Her art and video installations have appeared internationally at venues such as Blip Festival (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blip_Festival), the Dallas Museum of Art (https://www.dma.org/), the Platform Centre (http://platformgallery.org/), the V&A Museum (http://www.vam.ac.uk/), and IndieCade (http://www.indiecade.com/).

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In 2012, Rachel founded the FEMICOM Museum (http://www.femicom.org/), an experimental digital and physical archive dedicated to the preservation and reimagination of twentieth-century video games, computing, and electronic toys marketed to girls. She also co-organizes Juegos Rancheros (http://juegosrancheros.com/), Austin's indie games collective. In December 2015, she joined Microsoft as a technical evangelist. A full list of Rachel's recent projects and writing can be found at her website, No Bad Memories (http://nobadmemories.com/projects/), or on her excellent Twitter account (https://twitter.com/partytimeHXLNT).

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For her talk, Rachel will discuss her most recent project, a twitter client and WiFi peripheral for the NES, in the context of writing code to rewrite history. She will offer insights on the need for indie developers to place a thoughtful and critical lens on nostalgia within their own practice. Join us as we consider the role of history and memory in contemporary game and software design.

Schedule for this event:
• 6:30pm - Arrival and socializing
• 7:00pm - Intro and announcements
• 7:10pm - Rachel Weil talk
• 8:00pm - Q&A
• 8:30pm - More socializing