Connections: An intergenerational feminist game art timeline

Abstract

A growing collection of art games can be identified as feminist, this paper gathers historical precedents to create an archive for future research. By identifying key feminist performance, interactive media, technology-based and game artworks over the past fifty years and placing them on a timeline we explore connections across time and context. The initial focus on Canadian artists moves forward to reference key international artists that contribute to a canon of feminist game art. The selection of work is partial, problematic, and inevitably reflects the biases of the authors, but aims at starting a process in the hope that others will diversify the works and framing selected. The research is intentionally promiscuous and pragmatic, offering future feminist game artists a heritage to draw on, a continuum to situate themselves in, or against, and tools for grant writing by identifying historical connections and contexts. By connecting game art to precedents, we look beyond the margins of game studies in a call for new conversations on art games.