Bernie DeKoven Big Fun Holly Gramazio
Holly is a writer, curator and game designer, originally from Adelaide, South Australia and currently based in London.
She’s curated events including Now Play This, a festival of experimental game design which she founded in 2015 and directed until 2019, and which runs at Somerset House as part of the London Games Festival; and Game Changers, an exhibition looking at how chess, billiards and mazes have changed over time and been reinvented by contemporary artists. Prior to Now Play This she curated the Sandpit, a night for artist and game designers to try out new physical game ideas, which ran from 2007-2013 at venues including BAC, the BFI, the Southbank Centre, the ICA and many other venues across the UK.
She’s made work independently, as part of Matheson Marcault with colleague Sophie Sampson, and as Lead Game Designer at Hide&Seek. These projects include Art Deck, a collaborative drawing game originally commissioned by NYU for No Quarter; One Easy Step, a playable installation transforming the Quad at King’s College London with patterns and mirrors; and 99 Tiny Games, a series of ninety-nine site-specific games, with rules on posters installed at 99 locations across London.
Her recent writing includes working with Bernie De Koven to complete his final book, “The Infinite Playground”; writing the videogame “Dicey Dungeons”; and “How To Play”, a series of wide-ranging essays for Wellcome Collection looking at play in different physical contexts.
Trailblazer Derek Yu
Derek Yu created the Spelunky series, co-created Aquaria, and was editor-in-chief of TIGSource, an indie game community and news site.
Game Changer Zuraida Buter
Zuraida is a playful culture curator based in the Netherlands. She curates, initiates, consults and documents events focused on playful culture and games.
She has curated projects such as Incubate Arcade, Screenshake Game Expo, New GameGrounds, Dig it Up and IndieCade Europe, showcasing a wide range of different game projects and artists throughout the years.
Zuraida co-founded Playful Arts Festival in the Netherlands in 2012, which explores and highlights the intersection of interactive performing arts, visual art and playful design with a focus on social interaction. It features a festival, Art of Play masterclasses, meetups, and a variety of other playful events, bringing people together across disciplines.
She founded Women in Games NL (WiGNL) in 2011 to stimulate diversity in the Dutch game industry, which regularly runs meetups organised by different members.
Previously she initiated Dutch game showcase INDIGO in the Netherlands as project manager at Dutch Game Garden. She was worldwide Executive Director of the Global Game Jam until 2014 and founding board member of Global Game Jam, Inc. In the past she has been a lecturer at different universities. For 8 years she taught game design theory at Interactive Performance Design at the HKU University of the Arts.
In 2020 she took on the role of program curator for A MAZE. / Berlin 2020, which took place online for the first time in its history. She invited people from around the world to be part of the A MAZE. line-up in different ways and implemented a few new formats such as the A MAZE. Live Cooking Show and the A MAZE. Chain Zine.
More info: https://zo-ii.com
Twitter: @zoewi