Nathalie Lawhead: altgames (onkraj norm)

DATE:
Wednesday, 26 November 2025 | 18:00–19:30

LOCATION:
Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Auditorium (Cankarjeva 15, Ljubljana)

At this year's final event in the series Controllers, we will be joined by Nathalie Lawhead, aka AlienMelon, author of the cult game Everything is Going to be OK!

In her lecture at the Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Nathalie will share her thoughts on the concept of altgames – experimental games that have grown from a marginal label into a movement, a community, and a way of thinking about games as art.

About the lecture

Video games are more than just big AAA titles. There is a world of independent developers who explore games as an art form – in the past, such practices were referred to as arthouse, a movement of which Nathalie Lawhead was also a part. In this lecture, they will share their experiences, talk about their beginnings in video game creation, and present their view of artistic games and the arthouse label. In the altgames (beyond the norm) lecture, they also explore how developers today are raising social issues, breaking the norms, and influencing the wider gaming community, while contributing to positive changes in society. The lecture will be held in English.

About the author

Nathalie Lawhead (1983) is an award-winning internet artist, software creator, and game designer. Their work is included in numerous collections, including Rhyzome ArtBase and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. They create at the controversial intersection of video games and art, challenging the way we live and work in our digital era with their experimental works. They publish their games (Everything is Going to be OK, Tetrageddon Games, Blue Suburbia, etc.) under the pseudonym AlienMelon on the itch.io platform.