Insights 2023: Angela Washko

Confronting sexism and toxic masculinity in gaming and other digital spaces, Angela Washko’s practice spans interventions in mainstream media, performance art in virtual environments, net art, video games, and moving image works. Washko’s unique approach uses digital and game design to challenge misogyny and queerphobia in virtual public arenas. Her projects include The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft, a four-year-long feminist intervention inside the most popular online multiplayer role-playing video game of all time; and The Game: The Game, a dating simulator wherein players experience the practices of several prominent seduction coaches (aka pick-up artists) taken directly from their instructional books and video materials. The evening’s introduction will be by Frenchy Lunning, Professor Emeritus of Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Visiting Faculty within the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at Macalester College Copresente