Sickness, Systems, Solidarity
Subtitle
A Pandemics and Games Essay Jam
Edited by Zoyander Street and Joey Eschrich
The global cataclysm of COVID-19, and the quarantines and social distancing that have accompanied the still-unfolding pandemic, has brought enormous changes to the games industry, the ways we play videogames (and physical games) alone and together, and the meaning and content of games old and new. "Sickness, Systems, Solidarity" collects more than 30 micro-length essays submitted as part of the Pandemics and Games Essay Jam, a collaborative writing event about the tangled relationships between pandemics and games hosted by Critical Distance and the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. It features a foreword by Yussef Cole, a games critic, animator, video artist and art director at Glow Up Games.
Bios
Zoyander Street is a neurodivergent, genderqueer artist-researcher making work about cultural fissures, toxic feelings and tech garbage in the country currently known as the United Kingdom. Their practice focuses on videogames, but also involves other forms of media art and (mis)uses of technology.
Joey Eschrich is an editor and program manager at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, and assistant director of Future Tense, a partnership of ASU, Slate magazine and New America on emerging technologies, culture and society.
