8.7 Maker Spotlight: Squinky

The maker spotlight for this module is game designer Squinky. Squinky is a Montreal based new media artist and diversity consultant. Find their website here: https://squinky.me/ To give you a quick idea of what Squinky does, here is an excerpt from the interview:

I’m D. Squinkifer, Squinky for short. Most people call me Squinky. And I am a game designer. And I make things ranging from experimental video games like interactive art installations, immersive theater performances, just like all sorts of playable experiences. I have recently co-founded a worker co-op called Soft Chaos. And we design playable experiences together. And also we’re a co-op. So we basically share all of the decision making in a democratic and equitable way.

The transcript of Squinky’s video can be read at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KaCZO-PEZ-jrZZABrF7ES8rq9qaAT0sem4GdP-VTGqY/edit?usp=sharing

The transcript of Squinky’s video with visual description can be read at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Np9uO-WyC9rlSroK7Gt4723uU4LHNOj-6KvbEcOj2pY/edit?usp=sharing

After engaging with Squinky’s maker spotlight video, consider the following questions:

• How does Squinky describe their relationship to technology?
• What does Squinky mean by the ‘right to repair‘? Can we connect this practice to materiality and the production of digital devices?
• Who is Squinky’s ideal audience?
• What challenges and/or barriers does Squinky describe?
• What is Squinky’s critique of the practice of ‘mastering difficulty’ in conventional gaming? How do they connect this critique to accessibility?
• Do you relate to parts of this interview? What is your relationship to games and interactive art/fiction?
• What was one thing you learned from this interview?
• If you could ask Squinky one question, what would it be?