Design and Culture Thoughts of the Day

Both of the Facebook communities I’ve started have successfully connected people in their profession. Bay Area Womxn In Games is a place people turn to to find jobs and connect for collaborations. Bay Electronic Music Performers has been a place where people team up with other musicians to form a lineup at a show. I’ve learned so much from both and I’m now a master networker. Both groups are self sustaining and other people have kept it up of their own accord. There’s no business license or anything involved. It’s more of a social impact thing. I’m creating the future. The scenes that I want to see. Honestly now that I’ve made my bed in both groups, I sort of have to decide if I want to lay in them. Womxn in Games...  as proud of it as I am, may not be my permanent home. I’m no longer in games, I am sorry to say, and I feel it’s too idealistic to be in them again. Namely because I don’t usually find my kind of tribe, my kind of people in Games. It sucks. I’m interested in indie...

"Are you going to do it, or are you going to make me do it? Can I hand you this work and walk away and when I come back... can it magically be made perfect, just like I expected?" "I don't want to tell you what to do because I'm afraid it's bossing you around. And I have no idea how to ask nicely if you need help." "... You expected guidance? Why didn't you tell me? I can't read your mind!" None of us can. :p I can't believe it when I find myself still dealing with these kinds of communication breakdowns as a professional adult. It's just the same as deciding who is going to vacuum the house, and how often, back when I was living in the dorms freshmen year. Roles and role relationships need to be set in stone, pre-decided and discussed thoroughly. With visual diagrams on the overall pipeline. Otherwise all of this tug-of-war is just unsustainable. It causes hurt feelings and frustration. Why can't people just tell yo...

Over the years, I've grown a lot. I've been shell shocked by my first tech job, by my first game job, by finding myself in new places with new faces and even by being well known over the internet. And there's something to be said for knowing who you are, what you shine at and how to make money off of it. I find myself in new environments, but whatever I do, my process and my actions have to feel like me. I feel more brave about being myself than ever before. I'm not going to think to myself, "oh people don't want this talent. I'll try to be something else." It's a fine line. You market yourself a certain way, but you never quite act in a way that isn't part of your character. You can never be someone you're not. And that's good, because more importantly, you have to step into work where you feel like yourself, you can be yourself, and that work is going to be the most beautiful. It gets complex knowing what you do and what you do...

Some people seem to think that being a community organizer stifles your individuality. Or that being a woman of color, or a leader of a marginalized group takes you away from your creativity and your dreams. Don't worry- it doesn't. Maybe this is similar to being the matriarch of the family and the myth that good parents care about others more than they care about themselves. This is a falsehood that is used to demean jobs that consist of emotional labor or positions that are traditionally given to women. We all know that our personal experiences make us unique and our passion gives us the fire to create. Not only to create products but also to create the change you want to see in the social world. You have to believe in it and lead the way in order to see change. Of course there are some who won't be able to keep up with you. But, having a personality has very much to do with having a perspective, so the politics that you surround yourself with does make you who yo...

Whilst away from the game industry, I find myself teaching English at a private school. I'm still selling my UX skills to various VR companies whenever possible. Gameheads is over for me this year, as I struggle to find my footing in games and VR again. This Monday morning, I am on the schedule at said private school to observe a session with a teacher and student for training purposes. The student is known for some variety of behavior issues, so I am to sit in an observation room, an office room just nextdoor to the student's learning session. A laptop is placed in his room with the teacher, unbeknownst to him. He is a boy about 10 years old, with seemingly advanced spatial / visual abilities but little ability to sit still and focus. I am given a laptop with a headset, and I am connected with a Facetime session, where I can see the student and his teacher in the room next to me via their laptop camera. I can see the back of the kid's head as he faces his teacher. His ...

This is a talk that examines creativity and education that I wrote circa 2012. I was a teacher, song writer and design graduate student at the time. How authenticity can get lost when money is involved.  The artistic process How many of you who make things recognize the following familiar questions from people-- and if you're not creative I would like to argue that you just haven't discovered your creative talent yet. Those of you who make stuff, (song or movie or painting or artisan customized bicycle or whatever) Show of hands if people ask you– “where did you get the idea for that?” Show of hands if people ask you, “how long did that take to make?” OR EVEN “how did you do it?” And that's a big one isn't it? People want to know about the process. I know a bunch of artists and programmers and metal workers and they have a hard time keeping track of their process. How much time went by? What was the journey of the project like? For me, whe...

It seems that all industries are interested in paying their employees less. A fascinating speech by renowned author, Ursula K Le Guin. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/20/ursula-k-le-guin-national-book-awards-speech