anna anthropy

Cover art for The MommyFesto, illustrated by Annie Mok. 

brian-brooks:

In The Living Room the newest daily style comic strip, ever!!

Jim Lambie likes tape.

via

Mario Paint Unicorn, drawn in Mario Paint

brotherbrain:

Chillin’ Like a Villian.

Air Bike Cop.

Just some reminders that you are good and capable, and you can make it~

If you need help, ask for it, there’s no shame in needing some assistance or seeing a doctor. If you can help people, do your best. Keep trying, keep growing.

December is the month of the top ten lists, reflections on the past 12 months, and critical assessments of the year and its goings on. There are even top-ten lists that curate the top ten best top ten lists.

Then January comes. We recover from our exertions over the holiday season, return to our schedules, perhaps with a resolution in tow or some loose intention about being better this year, or doing more, or doing less. But now, it’s almost February and what of our intentions? What of our hopes for this year?

In an effort to say things out loud, live with hope and work with intention, I thought I might invert the model of the top ten list of awesome things and write, instead, a list of aspirations for the year ahead.  Because my life’s work is within movements, on-the-ground and online, this list skews political, as I do. So, now that 2014’s gotten its feet wet, here are a few (of many) things I hope it brings.

1. Solidarity from white feminists, in the face of racism. 2013 was, by most accounts, dramatically painful for feminists of color. Not because of the predictable aggressions of misogyny and effects of hetero-normative patriarchal institutions, but because of the actions of those from whom we (rightly or wrongly) wanted or expected solidarity. Solidarity, importantly, is not only reactive. Sometimes, solidarity means acting BEFORE being called out, without being asked, without asking feminists of color to “tell you how.” Inevitably, 2014 will bring hard lessons on race and gender.  Here’s to proactive solidarity from white feminists in 2014.

2. The collective will to hold our icons accountable – to hold ourselves accountable – in the face of our desire to see ourselves represented. Here, on this blog, we deal with the complexities at the intersection of feminism and popular culture. We call for a crunk politic. Last year, I wrote a piece about my complicated relationship with Mindy Kaling and her new show – and I haven’t really stopped thinking about Mindy and representations of South Asian American women in the US. It requires a mustering of strength and courage to call out our pop-culture icons, especially when there are things about them or their work that are truly revolutionary and transgressive. Especially when they also face critique from racists, sexists and homophobes, and we want desperately not to cast our lot in with that kind of hateful criticism. I hope that 2014 can be the year of loving ourselves well enough to contend with all the implications of Mindy or Beyonce, President Obama, Michelle Obama or anyone else we are grateful for, but whose complexity we cannot elide.

3. That we stop saying “women” when what we really mean is white, able-bodied, non-poor, cisgendered women. This is perhaps one of the greatest mythologies of “mainstream feminism,” that there is such a category as “all women” that we can use uncritically. Once, in a conversation with an anti-violence movement leader, a white cis woman, I made the case that we ought to start our anti-violence training by centering the experiences of violence of women of color. I was met with the response: “But don’t you think that fragments us, by naming women of color specifically?” She went on to ask, “What about women as women?” I said it then, and I’m saying it now, I refuse. If I have to silence particular truths about my identity for any political aim, it is not for me. And that is true for every queer, trans, differently-abled, poor, indigenous, gender variant, transnational, and immigrant person. This is true for every single person. The power of an intersectional analysis is that it allows us to be whole, to define ourselves, to self-determine. And we don’t lose power by being specific, by stating our truths, in fact, we create it.

Don’t get me wrong, the category of ‘woman’ is of great use: for fomenting a politic of solidarity across difference, for aggregating political power, and for giving us something to hold onto as we anchor against oppressive policies and institutions. But we can’t let that be the whole story. That political power is of no use to me if I have to make parts of myself invisible to be counted. And let me be clear: this is something I have been asked to do many, many times. Told to just wait till we have a more sympathetic Congress before we name racism in health care policy, or remain silent when immigrant women are excluded by policies that use citizenship as a measure for access, or told to support anti-violence strategies that assume that all intimate partner violence happens only in heterosexual relationships. So many times that it’s too many to name. This is true of racial categories, as well, of course. This is Intersectionality. Our identities aren’t made by us entirely, or by society entirely: we negotiate, we push the boundaries, we make our own meaning. Those of us who are marginalized within these identities do this in order to survive. No more should that work, of shaping and naming our own identities, be made invisible.

4. That we remember that those of us that live in the United States, particularly those of us who have American citizenship, are citizens of a country at war. Violent, ongoing war/s. Many of us benefit from American imperialism, despite the oppressive institutions within the country, so it is incumbent on us to remember that when we offer our political analyses, and think about what it means to be (however you define it) “American.” This includes knowing and naming the colonization and eradication of Native and First Nations peoples who live/d where we live, and the histories of the land on which we stand. It includes understanding the forces that push people to come here without papers, and pushes people out without warning, breaking apart families, lives and homes.

5. May we stop, finally, with body shaming each other. This includes fat-shaming, gender policing, telling thin people to “eat a sandwich,” and all the other ways in which we make others, and ourselves feel painful alienation from our very skin and bones. May our bodies be, instead, sites of radical self-acceptance, power, full-expression, and love.

Since I’m not following any of the rules of top-ten lists, I leave you with only five, even though there are many other things to wish for in 2014. Please add your own aspirations in the comments. May 2014 be the year that all your crunk dreams come true.

www.typetoy.tumblr.com

Dispatchwork, a cityscape lego repair project around the world.
Check their manifesto here.

Fruit Mystery is a game about an eventful trip to the zoo by Brett T. Graham.

Play Online

Why Try It: Meet a wide range of animals at the zoo and feed them fruit; unlock the secrets of the absolutely indelible fruit mystery.

Time: Two minutes.

How to Play: Use the mouse to drag fruit to the animals as they pass across the screen. Please note that the game contains rapidly flashing colors in some scenes.

Author’s Notes: "the absolutely indelible FRUIT MYSTERY a game by BRETT T GRAHAM. can you solve the FRUIT MYSTERY?? the message part at the end DOESN’T WORK because brett and his computer is LOST IN THE ANDES"

prostheticknowledge:

Appearance Of Crosses by Ding Li 

Continual painting series by Shanghai artist creates abstract colourful grids using the cross as his motif mark unit. He has been making these paintings for 20 years and is considered one of the most important abstract artists working in China today.

More can be discovered at ShangART Gallery website here

roarlivia:

roarlivia:

Synopsis of the written portion for my senior thesis

Self Øbsessed//Self Esteem

Collaged with screen caps from Eduware’s Prisoner game for Apple II

It’s cool that my undergrad thesis is getting passed around again/got passed around as much as it did. I have the full text available here and will hopefully have a new print version available for Paper Jam Fest. 

adactivity:

Here are the raw images which make up the

EAT NO FOOD A BIRD HAS TOUCHED human hygiene infopamphlet

of yesteryear.  I don’t know what happened to the design document which had them in layout.  But this is basically it.

Still have some copies of it anyway.  Feel free to print out the fifth image and sign it.  If you are a serious person who is determined to choose order over filth and destitution.

pretty make-up

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron by ToeJam & Earl Productions

Spelunky

obscurevideogames:

opening - Low G Man (Taxan - NES - 1990) 

requested by deadcrescendo

I instigated the Naked Twine Jam on something of a whim, having just read Rob’s end-of-year review post in which he made the following comment about everyday, human stories in videogames:

We’ve been really shit at ordinary stories with human things that haven’t fallen out of SF, fantasy or our DVD collection of gritty angry man movies (looking at you especially, R*). So it’s nice to see things branch out from there. It’s also nice to see us do it in a way that the not we can relate to.

(Sort of sidenote here, I love what Twine enables and I’m cheered constantly by the sheer variety of stories that come out from it but it’s hard not to notice that there can be a certain, erm, “drift” towards those playing with the form, esoterica and the likes that garners attention over the smaller more intimate and human things.

Which is OK! But it’s a good reminder of how much these things are circulating amongst videogame people still and not really pushing as far out from there as we could be doing.

There’s always work to be done and we’re on that though, right? We’ve got time)

This is something I’ve worried about before — whether the increased availability of tools for modifying Twine might not end up reproducing in miniature, to some degree, the biases that exist in broader game creation towards audiovisual and mechanical “polish” (a word I have come to revile). I’ve heard people voice concerns that their little Twine project wasn’t as worthy of the complex, technically impressive works they see being produced, and I’ve worried that this might lead some people to just never bother in the first place. And I’ve even found myself wracking my brain, thinking up ways to make even very small, personally important pieces more mechanically interesting, when that wasn’t something they necessarily needed.

I’ve pushed Twine as an accessible means of making games in the past and I don’t want to see it get pulled into the commercial videogame logic that seems to infect so much game design, even the furthest outside the industry. That’s where the Naked Twine Jam comes in. By encouraging participants to avoid the use of any CSS modifications or Javascript and to make a game in a few days (though with a much laxer schedule than a traditional jam), I hoped to relieve some of the external and internal pressures on new game makers and to provide an environment in which they didn’t have to worry about feeling like they were competing with more experienced creators.

And I think in some way, it worked:

"Thank you for doing this. It got me to actually make my first game. I already want to do more." - Matt Marko

"Thanks for running this game jam! It was the perfect nudge I needed to finally mess around with TWINE. (This is actually my very first game!)" - Bryan Rumsey

"I tried writing a Twine game before, and couldn’t finish (my story got too complicated too quickly - classic noob mistake I guess). This time I picked a much easier idea, and tadaa ! It’s my first finished game. So thank you very much." - Amandine Bru

"I’ve been making Twines on and off for about a year now and I sometimes look at the ones with the fancy CSS and crazy stuff going on and I’m all “man I don’t know how you’d even start doing that” so it’s cool to see something aimed at just telling the goddamn story. Can’t wait to see what other people make and if there’s any new people coming out with cool stuff." - Ric Cowley

"I had so much fun! And it gave me an excuse to invite some friends over, teach them Twine, and watch them each make their first game ever. We wrote all day, with breaks for stretching, dancing, and a nice dinner. It was a great time! I kind of associate game jams and code parties and stuff with the whole boastfully self-neglectful nerd attitude, but this one wasn’t like that at all!" - Alex Roberts

"I just wanted to send a message to say a massive THANK YOU for setting up the NakedTwine Game Jam this weekend. It’s been great seeing folk talking about it/reblogging it/working on it, especially given what you were saying on Twitter about folk feeling able to create their very first ever games thanks to the jam being such an open but relaxed environment! I thought the no-CSS-modification rule was great; it can be really daunting entering a jam (or any part of the games scene/industry, really) and trying to compete with people with a lot broader or deeper skillsets/knowledge. I really appreciate everything you’re doing through your games and through projects like Forest Ambassador, to making games more accessible and more interesting, and you’re one of my personal heroes when it comes to game development. " - Mitch Alexander

In light of how things went, I think anyone interested in hosting game jams aimed at new game makers might want to consider imposing some kind of creative restriction on participants as a kind of leveling force. These could be more broad in jams that use a wider range of tools: limitations on game length or the number of actors or player verbs, for instance. Working within these kinds of restrictions often benefits more experienced game makers too, so I’d love to see more jams that play around with them.

Finally: I hope it goes without saying that I love the ways that Twine has been expanded upon and I am deeply indebted to Leon Arnott and others who have worked tirelessly not just to develop modifications for the program, but to support them and ensure they’re usable for people like me without their level of technical expertise. If any jam participants are interested in checking out some of the ways that Twine can be altered to do some things that the base program can’t, I highly recommend starting at Leon’s site Webbed Space. The official Twine website also maintains a useful list of resources, frequently asked questions, and other information.

I hope this jam was a positive experience for everyone who participated in it. Making a game, even one that might feel small, is a big deal. And if you tried but didn’t finish anything that’s still important — Twine is a useful tool but it’s certainly not a universal medium that everyone needs to use. And admitting when something isn’t working or recognizing your limits is a valuable skill too, and one that takes a great deal of practice.

There are 45 games here in all, about topics like relationships with animals, shaving, ghosts, travel, negotiating sex, making jam, and casting spells. Thanks again to everyone who participated — I’m excited to play through all of your projects.

Naked Twine Jam Game List (46 as of 1:40 PM, Monday January 13 2014)

• Room 9 - Mario Jara
• Children’s Story - Mark Gobbin
• SPACESHIP CARPTAIN - Laura Michet
• Gemini - Susan O
• Interactive Beckett Inversions - E.V. Ung
• Lights Out, Please - Kaitlin Tremblay
• The Day I Went Away For A While - Niall Taylor
• Love • Worthy (episode 1) - Matt Marko
• nmpisun-medicine - Coyote Victoria Knockwood

• Eyes Down! - Ric Cowley
• Endless Reaches Through Mind and Soul - Bryan Rumsey
• bed dream, first draft - julian elizabeth mcallister
• To the Other Side of the World - Amandine Bru
• woods leaves stream body blood - David Demchuk
• Meeting a Pony - Samantha L.
• Cut From Shadows Prologue: Waking With a Start - AcidReign
• Super Leg Shaver II Turbo - Jonn Hill
• Patience - Tim Skew

• Terms and Conditions - Cameron Higby-Naquin
• Fade Away - Jazz Catte
• Delirium: Chase Scene - Rowan Jacobs
• cynanchum - NS
• Emotional Turmoil Sequence - trichybees
• Harvest - Colin Sandel
• Candy Gore - Bee and Dr. Dork
• The Bender of Destiny - KT Jayne
• hyde - brain sullivan

• Mirrored - Epithet
• The House With Nothing In It - D Marie
• Negotiation - sexartpolitics
• Bookshelf - Alex Roberts
• Game Jam Jam Game - Nathan Weizenbaum & Liz Cady
• sword adventure simulator and instruction manual - tinaun
• The City Between Here and Nowhere - Bret Sepulveda
• Meeting - astral
• The Straw Man in the Wicker House - Alfabites

• Playdate - Kimmy D Lux
• Crumbchin’s Quest - merritt kopas
• NIGHTLIFE - kristoffer zetterberg
• the songs she sings at the other end of the tunnel - fracto luminous
• Arthur’s Dream of the Dragon and the Bear - mno
• augur - ohnoproblems
• The Visit - Justin Herrick
• Amorphous - Chupaflora
• Lilium - Kimberly Delande
• One Man’s Shit: An Interactive Trash Adventure - Riftoff

xmaslemmings:

http://harmonyzone.org/50SHORTGAMES.html

50 SHORT GAMES by THECATAMITES affordable download PC only (for now) drawn with markers in his free time after work my fave game designer on the planet get the fuck on this

everyone has their little collections.

All the original art from my mini If I Were a Magical Girl is now up for sale on Storenvy~ Each original comes with a print copy of the mini!

You can also download the mini as a PDF for free (or any amount you want to pay) on Gumroad~