ROBERT YANG

Robert Yang makes surprisingly popular 3D video games about gay culture and sexuality -- he is most known for his historical bathroom game The Tearoom and his shower simulator Rinse and Repeat, and his game trilogy Radiator 2 has had over 250,000 players around the world. His games have been exhibited internationally at the Melbourne Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria, Somerset House, London Short Film Festival, Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, La MaMa in New York City, and at the A MAZE festival in Berlin. He is currently an Assistant Arts Professor at New York University.

NICOLE HE

Nicole He is a Brooklyn-based artist and programmer who uses digital and physical mediums to explore the relationship between humans and computers with interactivity, playfulness, and humor. Her projects—such as The True Love Tinder Robot, The Best Art, and Soylent Dick—have been featured in outlets including The Guardian, BBC, Vice, and The New York Times. Recently, her work has been focused on experimental and artistic uses of voice technology. Nicole has presented her projects at conferences and festivals in the US and abroad. She holds a Masters degree from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program.

ZACH GAGE

Zach Gage is a game designer, programmer, educator, and conceptual artist from New York City. His work often explores the powerful intersection of systems and social dynamics, through both interrogating existing systems in digital spaces, and framing entirely new systems through games. An Eyebeam Alumni, Apple Design and Game of The Year Award Winner, and BAFTA Nominee, he has exhibited internationally at venues like the Venice Biennale, the New York MoMA, The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, XOXO Festival in Portland, FutureEverything in Manchester, The Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, and in Apple stores worldwide.

LOUIE ROOTS

Louis Roots is a curator and game developer from Perth, Western Australia, who moved to Melbourne in 2016 to open Bar SK, the first gallery space dedicated to interactive art in Australia. Louis has previously curated and run events in South Africa, the UK, the USA and all around Australia. His interest lies in the social aspect of videogames, and he is known for quickly creating bespoke controllers that add a tactility and accessibility to the games he exhibits. He spends the majority of the time behind the bar at SK, 90 Smith St Collingwood, so drop in and say hi sometime.

DOUG WILSON

Douglas Wilson lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he is a Lecturer at RMIT University, teaching and researching game design. Douglas is also a co-owner of Die Gute Fabrik, a small games studio based in New York and Copenhagen, Denmark. He is best known for his award-winning motion control game, Johann Sebastian Joust, winner of the Innovation Award at the 2012 Game Developers Choice Awards. His work has been exhibited at festivals and museums around the world, including: MoMA, the Museum of the Moving Image, Hong Kong Arts Centre, SFMOMA, IGF, IndieCade, PAX, and Roskilde Festival.

KATIE STEGS

Katie Stegs is a game designer and the co-founder of Lumi, a games marketing consultancy. She also runs Blushbox Games—a collective of developers making and hosting events on love, romance and sexy sex. She is a hurricane of marketing, designer of weird art and physical games and lover of David Mitchell.

Robert Yang Exhibition

August 9 - 15

Robert's selection of games shows an intimate and sexual side of videogames, including his commissioned piece "Ruck Me", a homoerotic play on AFL.
[Click here to attend]
@ Bar SK
Q&A with Artist - 7pm August 9
Not Ticketed
Capacity: 100+ attendees over the course of opening night

Nicole He Exhibition

August 16 - 22

Nicole's playful use of voice technology will be specially adapted to the public environment of the bar, including her new game "Enhance" as well as another new piece that might get installed in an unexpectedly private part of the bar...
[Click here to attend]
@ Bar SK
Q&A with Artist - 7pm August 16
Not Ticketed
Capacity: 100+ attendees over the course of opening night

Zach Gage Exhibition

August 23 - 29

Zach has a knack for doing new things with old familiar games. His new multiplayer game will make use of the social space of the bar.
[Click here to attend]
@ Bar SK
Q&A with Artist - 7pm August 23
Not Ticketed
Capacity: 100+ attendees over the course of opening night

Robert Yang Masterclass

August 15

This masterclass starts with a survey of video game designers and play communities focused on sexuality and eroticism. After studying this emerging tradition of work and its many practitioners, Robert will also explore a set of design guidelines and theoretical frameworks for thinking about sex, games, and interaction, along with promising and unexplored directions in designing for sexuality, and the many ways that society and technology facilitate (as well as police) sexuality on the internet.
@ ACMI
Tickets on sale
Capacity: 70 People

Nicole He Masterclass

August 15

Talking with Computers will dive into the current and beautifully broken state of human and computer conversation. Nicole will explore how text-to-speech, speech-to-text, NLP techniques, computer generated poetry, conversational UI design and voice assistants can be used to create interactions for games, apps, or art.
@ ACMI
Tickets on sale
Capacity: 70 People

Zach Gage In Conversation

August 20

Join us for a public conversation with award-winning game designer and conceptual artist Zach Gage, visiting from New York as a part of the MEL&NYC program. The interview will be conducted by RMIT Lecturer Douglas Wilson, who will ask Zach to discuss how he balances his commercial game business with his fine arts practice.
[Click here to attend]
@ RMIT Games
Not Ticketed
Capacity: 100 People