Heather Kelley (akaMoboid) is a media artist,writer and video game designer. She is a co-founder of theKokoromi experimental game collective, with whom she produces and curates the annual Gamma game event promoting experimental games as creative expression in a social context. She regularly appears as a jury member for several computer gaming festivals (such asIndiecade). She is also a frequent public speaker at technology events.
Her career in the games industry has included AAA next-gen console games, interactive smart toys, handheld games and web communities for girls. She has created interactive projections using game engines such as Quake and Unreal.
Heather Kelley was Creative Director on the UNFPA Electronic Game to End Gender Violence, at the Emergent Media Center atChamplain College inBurlington, Vermont.[1] For seven years, Heather served as co-chair of the IGDA's Women in Game Development Special Interest Group.[2]
Lapis (2005) Lapis is an interactive art work designed to help teach women how to reach orgasm by simulating the effect of pleasurable sensation on a cartoon bunny.[7][8]
Fabulous/Fabuleux (2008) – An experimentalart game collaboration withLynn Hughes.Fabulous/Fabuleux[9] was created atConcordia University's Hexagram Institute and integrates gameplay into a full-body interactive installation using custom "squishy" interface hardware.[10]
Body Heat (2010) – Body Heat is avibrator interface for theiPhone andiPad which allows touchscreens to be used for adjusting vibration speed, intensity, and patterns. The project was first presented at the sex tech conferenceArse Elektronika in September 2010 in San Francisco.[11] The companyOhMiBod, which specializes in music-driven vibrators, bought the application and renamed it into "OhMiBod app" in early 2011.[12]
Joue Le Jeu (2012) – An exhibition atLa Gaîté Lyrique inParis, France.[13][14] It showcased new forms of games and creative game design. The event was a hands-on exhibition of interactive play.
“Trente pas entre terre et ciel: Version Musicale” (2018) – An installation debuted inToronto, Canada. The project is a long hopscotch, designed to be played by multiple pairs of players at once.[15]
Fortuitous Orbits and the Hazards They Contain (2019) – A two-person Exhibition atArizona State University, ArtSpace West.[16]
Housed Within Marrow (2020) – Carnegie Mellon University. Virtual.[17]
Kelley's game conceptLapis, based on female masturbation, won the 2006MIGS Game Design Challenge.[18]
In Spring 2008, she was Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, and Adjunct Faculty at the Entertainment Technology Center, atCarnegie Mellon University, where she organizedThe Art of Play symposium andart game arcade.[19]
In September 2009, she was Artist in Residence forSubotron[20] at Quartier21,MuseumsquartierVienna.[21] Her biographical sex game concept withErin Robinson,Our First Times, won the 2009 GDC Game Design Challenge,[22]
She was part ofFast Company's 2011 list of 'most influential women in technology'.[23]
In March 2013 she was awarded the "GDC 2013 Women in Gaming Award" as "Innovator", granted for breakthrough innovation in her work.[24]
Kelley has contributed to the following publications:
"'EyeToy Play,' 'Animal Crossing,' 'Wii Sports'" inSpace Time Play: Synergies Between Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism. Sub-editor. Borries, Böttger, and Walz, ed., Birkhäuser, Basel, October 2007.[26]
On Turtles and Dragons and the Dangerous Quest for a Media Art Notation System. Contributing writer, contributing editor. Time's Up, Linz, 2012.[27]
“Proverted Pleasures: Orgasm and Gameplay” inScrew The System: Explorations of Spaces, Games and Politics through Sexuality and Technology. Grenzfurthner, Friesinger, and Fabry, ed., RE/Search Publications, 2014.[28]
Social Web and Interaction: Social Media Technologies for European National and Regional Museums. Contributing writer. European Museums Exhibiting Europe. 2014.[29]
Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. Contributor. Marie, ed. Roseville, CA, Prima Games, 2018.[30]
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