[-empyre-] Melanie - Countess of Qwghlm

[melinda R]

Not being of philosophical bent I am far more familiar with
Stephensons's Qwghlm than any lands authored by Borges and Tolkien.
Its story spans the centuries of Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle,
shifting and modifying computing history. Conveniently its language
Qwghlmian, has a Runic alphabet, no vowels and 16 consonants enabling
easy rendering in four-digit binary code.

I suspect that our final guest to be introduced - Melanie Swalwell
hails originally from Qwghlm - she is currently developing a suite of
projects on the history of digital games in New Zealand (the new land
of Tolkien) , with essays published in the Journal of Visual Culture
and Vectors, and forthcoming in Ludologica Retro and Aotearoa Digital
Arts Reader.

Her  bearing  suggests an intense interest in the museums relation to
games history, specifically local histories of games and game
development, including digital games in histories of the visual and
the roles of/for cultural institutions and, in true Contessa style,
surveying the challenges facing software conservation initiatives.

Melaine ventured:
My research centres on newer media with particular attention to media
arts and digital games, as well as the intersections of these. I am
concerned with question of aesthetic and affective experience and the
implications of these for theories of audience reception, engagement
and meaning making. Much of my research attends to experimental media
uses, and the issues that are raised by the creations of media
artists, modders, and independent game developers. I also undertake
research with different communities of practice (lanners, collectors,
home coders).
More at: http://melanieswalwell.backpackit.com/pub/1284142

I am currently working on a suite of projects on the history of
digital games in New Zealand. Outcomes include traditional and
interactive journal articles, a monograph (in preparation), an
exhibition of historic photographs, an online, community database of
early NZ software, as well as revived examples of such software.  I
assembled and currently lead the NZTronix research team, comprising 2
computer scientists, an IP lawyer, an archivist, and myself.  We are
concerned with the technical, legal and various other challenges that
are faced in preserving early software.
Early NZ Software Database:
http://www.nztronix.org.nz/main.php


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