NEWS
September London. Panel Age of the heroine.
Also did an interview for Design week, design and representation of female characters in video games
ISDRAKE BRANDS
EXPERIENCE
Game Creative Director &
Narrative Designer
Art house to AAA, research in immersive media, LARPs, transmedia, experience design, physical installations, archaeology of game culture, game jams, playtesting events, incubation/start-up support through my lab Collaboratory. Games for social innovation and learning, UX, diversity and inclusion, cyborg interfaces. Co-initiator of IGDA Sweden, initiator of Diversi Gothenburg and other activities for inclusive gaming.
Game Innovation
Game innovation is a big part of my work, partly through Collaboratory, consulting and also in AAA at EA. At EA Stockholm/Los Angeles, we developed an R&D lab, Frostbite Labs/SEED. Focus on themes like deep learning and VR research. My role was a mix of producer and designer, prototyping future game experiences and features for EAs games. I also facilitated team activities, brand and innovation workshops, introduced hackathons and a diversity initiative at the DICE/EA/Frostbite office in Stockholm.
Film Director
Art house, music video, VR/AV/AR/MR, video art and installations, projection, interactive, feature, short, web series, documentary, transmedia, commercials. Outside of directing I also have experience in script writing, editing, producing, production design, photography and basic cinematography and light design.
Research
Spaceship management innovation for start-ups, policymakers and organisations through living labs like Collaboratory, consulting and innovation workshops. New business models, value of different currencies.
HCI, cyborg interfaces and non-verbal communication. Avatars and identity in virtual worlds and augmented spaces. Diversity and ethics in digital domains and AI. New business models and currencies. Game culture and archaeology.
Communication technology. Music tech, playing music or ‘singing’ through implants in the body. See test video.
Cyborg art
CYBORG INTERFACES
A new language based on NFC implants in my hands and chest. Experiments for alternative communication, diversity and inclusion, and identification in metaverses, VR and more. How can tech help someone who does not speak the common way, to express pain or a scream for example? And how can we adapt, identify and interact in digital domains, use blockchain etc. in secure ways?
HEART
Implant under a tattoo of a cyborg heart that gives a unique experience when scanned with an NFC device. This piece explores non-verbal emotional expressions and shows how tech brings people closer. It is also a reminder of how little time we have, showing an cardiac ultrasound video and countdown of my heart beats.
Diversity & Inclusion
Labs, meet-ups and consulting for diversity, inclusion and equity is an important part of my work. I run and support several initiatives in the game and tech industries, including awareness of cyborg and robot rights, micro transportation alternatives, new game controllers. I develop new solutions and prototypes, have explored music tech and made audio art with nerve signals and other types of biofeedback. Made a list of diversity resources here. Also curating, directing and supporting festivals like Electrodome and Music Tech Fest.
I directed the MTF Lab at Slush 2017, theme: inclusion & blockchain. Including a show at the closing party of Slush Music and opening party of Slush. News broadcast Yle
Article by Gautam Dhameja.
Axion
Axion, a game and interactive documentary that can be played with an EEG sensor, and be experienced as an art installation Trailer. Initiated when game designers, film-makers and scientists gathered at CERN in Switzerland, hosted with Tribeca Film Institute, to find new ways of telling interactive stories about science. BBC story
MIT Media Lab Doc
Body Hack – film about our MTFLab Body+Performance featuring Viktoria Modesta. Made by BAFTA-winning filmmaker Sheila Hayman, produced by MIT Media Lab at Music Tech Fest Berlin 2016. I led the lab together with Peter Kirn. Artists, neuroscientists, technicians, MIT Media Lab fellows, designers and hackers worked together on technology as extension of the body. Article in Wired and summary video.
European Commission
Research & innovation – shaping our future, bringing together policymakers from EU institutions, nearly 700 stakeholders and interested actors to discuss the role of research and innovation for Europe’s future. Visionary speakers included Nobel Prize winners, captains of industry, researchers and innovators at the frontier of progress, politicians and movers and shakers in society. Live stream available here, (I talk at 11.53).
Highlights video:
Panelist
Opening of the International Science Festival with Nobel Center 2018, panel on AI with Max Tegmark as a hologram.
Game culture talk at The Royal Dramatic Theatre Stockholm, stream link http://www.dramatenplay.se/spelkultur-och-kulturspel/
Panel on queer film and short film at Pride 2017 Klarabiografen, Stockholm, hosted by Shortly.
Slush Music keynote, and panel on Sourcing talent to the music industry, with: Emilien Moyon, Nico Stadi, Yvan Boudillet, Derek Sellin, Jasmine Isdrake.
Music Pool Berlin: Music ideas, performance, and music technologies At Noize Fabrik Berlin, theme: How can music technologies influence your work as an artist, and how can you influence technologies to develop your style of music and your musical performance?
Speaker/Curator
Collaborator and speaker, The Glass Room Experience, Kista and Hornstull libraries.
Keynote at Innovation by collaboration, SNITTS tech transfer conference.
Keynote StoryTech conference 2018, Gävle.
Participatory project by the dance company at the Gothenburg Opera. Creative direction in digital storytelling.
Lead curator of the early development for the game exhibition I named Play Beyond Play. The team was Playcentric Industries, BankerWessel and Strombro Building Workshop, together with the Technology Museum Stockholm personell.
Film and games festival awards & selections
Indie Gathering Film Festival, USA 2012, winner experimental shorts, Brainfuck.
Gothenburg International Film Festival 2013, selection online shorts competition, Brainfuck.
Brainfuck is a psychogeographic game, wearable art and performance project initiated in New York 2010.
Consulting / Teaching / Industry partnerships with universities
Science Parks
Norrköping Science Park/Visualiseringscenter-Keynote on makerculture, 2015. Article
Ideon Science Park – Talk on innovation and design 14 feb 2014.
Skövde Science Park – makerspace, game innovation info, 2014.
Linköping Science Park, Mjärdevi & Umeå Science Park, Sliperiet, HUMLAB – talk and processleader workshop, 2014.
TEACHING
Business Innovation
Guest lecturer on Spaceship Management at School of Business, Economics and Law, the Department of Business Administration.
Teaching advanced game design at FutureGames.
Film & Games
Transmedia storytelling – lectures, workshops, examinations 2014, 2015.
STOCKHOLM GAME UNI, KISTA SCIENCE CENTER
Game innovation, AI, music tech.
Transmedia and makerspaces – guest lecturer 2014.
ZURICH UNIVERSITY OF ARTS Dep. of Film & Performing Arts. Guest lecturer on transmedia, mobile apps, augmented reality, 2011.
Story architects Collaboratory was industry partner for the Business & Design program 2014.
A group from the 2015 Business & Design program were inspired by Collaboratory and got support for holding their Future innovator lab in the space when helping the company First to know with creating a lab, The ( ) space, for students. Now they are building a makerspace in Bergsjön.
2 student groups from the Business & Design program have made their Master degree projects at Collaboratory.
This group did a nice video
LBS High School
Game design and game jam, 2015.
EVENTS & LABS
TEDx Lab
Lab curator and speaker 2013, 2014.
Maker Faire Gothenburg
Producer / Curator 2016
International Science Festival
Creative director & head of public programs 2019, co-curator lab & makerspace 2014-16.
Game Jams
Design for stage
I direct and produce stage shows, and can deliver digital scenography and extraordinary set/costume designs. Like Gydja, a character that involves everything from fire to sensors that control projections through dance. Or this projection cube for Twisted Feet’s 5 Degrees, built in Collaboratory. I also dance, perform with fire and have studied dance at DNA in New York and other dance studios.
GIBCA
Invited artist at Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA), held every second year and has today become one of the leading art biennials in the Nordic region. Round table discussion in House of words, at Röda sten art hall.
SPINE
Game installation in a container, work in progress, with graffiti spine by Sagie.
Initially the motive and placement, facing buildings with policy makers and tax funded orgs, was an artivistic action against spineless cowards who destroy the culture scene in Gothenburg, copy and push away independent and citizen driven initiatives instead of collaborating.
Fight Fire with Ice
VR game developed at Collaboratory Global Game Jam 2016. Team and game presented here GGJ games
The Spiral
Acting as myself in 2 Larps and online game about an artist collective, lending original art to the TV series and Larps, making videos for events and social media. Article
MOMO
A game in the making, by me and Theo Gabay.
Illustration by Anders Muammar.
Urban cultural planning
STADSMUSEET GÖTEBORG
Talk and a 2 day Urban Culture Planning Lab with artists, citizens, politicians from European places. Article.
STENKROSSEN LUND
Held a Spaceship management Ninja playshop at Stenkrossen. The local community was really awesome and later they started ZON Art Lab Agency, check it out if you visit Lund. The local paper wrote an article.
WATER themed labs
Series of city planning projects in Älvstranden, with Älvstaden, ADA and other local organisations. Article GP.
Main idea was to make the city playable when it rains and fight against segregation, partly through sculptures by the tram stations, bringing people together and taking care of water flows.
URBAN ART & ARCHITECTURE
Participating in city planning projects and construction of public spaces. One is the award winning sauna project at Frihamnen with Raumlaborberlin and SBK.
Field_Notes – Deep Time
September 2013, a group of international artists, scientist and practitioners met for “Field_Notes – Deep Time”, an art&science field laboratory at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Lapland, organized by the Finnish Society of Bioart.
Deep Time / Deep Futures – Finnish Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki. Symposium on artistic responses to the dichotomy between human time-perception and time in biological, environmental, and geological processes, within which we are embedded.
The Common Roof: Göteborgs Kollektiva Hus
Workshop at Röda sten led by artist and architect Marjetica Potrč, exploring the crossing of art, activism and urbanism. Through participatory design a group of artists were invited to build a house. The exhibition was then open for any visitor to continue building.
Urban sound
Som en satellit till Göteborgs Internationella Konstbiennal öppnar utställningen ”Älvsnabben- drömmen om ett annat Göteborg” på Sjöfartsmuseet Akvariet.
Group exhibition at the Gothenburg Maritime Museum 10/9 2011 – 8/1 2012, including live performances at Älvsnabben boat during the Gothenburg art biennial. Winner of the UEForum Golden Room award.
Idun participated with video, audio and text works. Click to read booklet.
FSCONS 2013-14
Ninja buildshop 2014, Rube Goldberg Ninja Turtles Challenge.
Talk on makerculture 2013 video link
Älvornas strand
Elves beach is an urban game and parkour experience. The game will bring stories of citizens to life, connected to training sculptures around the city, turning the city into a big board game. We want to use the city as test ground for new ways to use technology and deal with issues like segregation and fear. With athlete Samir Gadre and Stampede, we also want to start a user driven culture space in the center of Gothenburg.
Video from my previous research and documentary projects about parkour based on my interest in what I call mind parkour, and psychogeography. I met awesome communities and runners in New York, Montreal, Gothenburg and Berlin. Linked here is also a video by Steve Zavitz showing the NYC community.
Gothenburg City Triennial
Playcentric Industries & Institute was asked to curate parts of the first Gothenburg City Triennial. We held a playshop and show together with partners and athletes from Collaboratory and Stampede, as well as singer Ida Long.
Started Diversi Gothenburg Local Group to raise awareness of diversity and accessibility within game culture. We work in all the spheres; industry, academia and community. In Gothenburg there are Meet-ups and gatherings regularly in different spaces and with different themes. Everyone is welcome to suggest themes and activities. Check out the national organisation here diversi.nu and the local group on Facebook.
2016 we organised Diversi workshop and panel at Nordic Game Conference.
Was also speaking and promoting at Gothcon 2016.
IT
Process leader playshop for women in IT WinIT, at Gothia Science Park 2014.
Speaker and host for Engineers Union in Sweden, gathering at Collaboratory.
Speaker at Compile Gbg 2014.
Supporting kids code activity Dataföreningen
Sealand Multiversity Living Lab
Traveled to micronation Sealand for directing film, doing a workshop on sustainable living solutions for a space like this, and breathing some fire.
Reboot Stories
Creative producer at Reboot Stories and collaborator at educational projects like the story of robot Lyka that empowers students to reboot their education.
The BUKE is a people-powered bike bus that serves as the symbol of how youth drive change and progress in their community. From an idea on a napkin at Learn Do Share Los Angeles 2013, to several prototypes, to a business plan, to a youth-run cyclery: The BUKE, as envisioned and imagined by a group of former high school dropouts, is a vehicle for economic sustainability and community transformation.
Mobile makerspace
Idea about a maker car for experiential learning. Looking for partners to build it. Current partners in the discussion are Collaboratory, Engineers without borders and BUKE.
Collaboratory consulted many spaces in Sweden in their process of building labs and permanent and mobile makerspaces. Also a long list of companies (Ericsson, Volvo, Dassault systems etc), schools/unis, government orgs and unions (Business Region, VGR, Unionen, Engineers Union, Science Parks etc), and researchers came for guided tours and inspiration.
PRESS/INTERVIEWS
Femhype
“Blanket Fort Chats” is a weekly column featuring women and nonbinary game makers talking about the craft of making games. In this week’s post, we feature Jasmine Idun Isdrake, a game and experience designer.
Filmteractive
Filmteractive 2014 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=172&v=sbxf3aiGOk8
and publication Filmteractive-projekt-1.12.2014
LEVEL wrote about the underground game culture in LA, Tokyo and Gothenburg, and about the work Collaboratory does to support the indie devs.
PING 2014
Article about projects developed at Collaboratory
http://dp.hpublication.com/publication/637faf8a/
Thesis by A. Stehn researching spaces like Collaboratory.
A_Stehn_Transition Hub
Svenska Dagbladet
Game reviews
Listed games that are not the mainstream or AAA kind that people usually write about in this section www.svd.se
Article and news broadcast by Yle https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9953104
SVT interview about a stunt course for driving and proper police acting for the film industry.
PUBLICATIONS
Make Change Kitchen
Blogg and magazine made at Collaboratory until 2015.
Also check the Collaboratory blog, a new form of living lab and publication of research, CSR/ASR and open innovation.
Art and Game Obstruction
Anthology connected to the exhibition at Skövde Art Museum 2015. Writers: Lars Kristensen, Ewa Mazierska, Graeme Kirkpatrick, Lissa Holloway-Attaway, Jenny Brusk, Thomas Oldrell, Olle Essvik, Benjamin Fallon, Robert J. Homewood, Marisa Tapper, Karin Ryding, Mathilda Bjarnehed, Jasmine Idun, Dev Karnal Fridén, Ossian Borén, Jenny Sörensen, Berith Stennabb, Iman Farhanieh, Carlos González Díaz, Minnamari Helmisaari