AGO Let’s Play is an exciting series of new programs investigating the intersection of art history, game arts and design. Join us on Twitch as we play and talk through a different game each week. We’ll explore how games shape culture, adopt art historical traditions and inspire new forms of community engagement. Twitch is an online space for viewers to watch others play while offering their insights about the game and, in our case, art more broadly.

This week, we will be joined by Sarah Brin, an arts facilitator and creative technologist based in London, England to explore the tremendously popular dating game, Hatoful Boyfriend. The game is a curious blend of text, digital animation and photographic material that pays homage to other games of its genre. Within the context of this game, your character, one of the few remaining humans on Earth, must romance a series of suitors. There is, however, a catch: these suitors are not humans but intelligent birds.  

Both game-makers and artists have shown a longstanding interest in love as an artistic subject. Scenes of courtship were among those most prevalent in European decorative art of the 14th Century. Within aristocratic communities, rituals of courtship were often defined by the exchange of a precious gift — it was common that these gifts would bear scenes of romance and fauna. A notable example were “ivories,” objects or tools carved from the tusks of elephants, which were a popular gift among the French noble class. These artifacts share many of the same qualities as Hatoful Boyfriend which we will discuss in the talk. 

The conversation will be led by Nathan Huisman, Curatorial Assistant, Studio & Learning Programs, at the AGO.

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Sarah Brin is an arts and design leader based in London.  She specializes in building infrastructure for bringing unprecedented creative technology experiences to life. You may have seen her work leading business development for the immersive experience company Meow Wolf, directing public programs and the art residency at Autodesk, or guiding an EU design research grant focused on expanding museums’ design and technical capacities. She is a co-founder of PlaySFMOMA, the games and play initiatives at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a recipient of the Creative Producers International fellowship, supported by Watershed, Playable City, and British Council. She has received awards and recognition from Arts Council England, the Red Dot Design Awards, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the International Game Developers Association. She currently serves as an advisor to UKAI Projects in Toronto. www.sarahbrin.com.

Nathan Huisman is an Experience Designer who has worked across many fields, including theatre, film, television, museums, science centres and art galleries. His work has been presented in many cities such as Los Angeles and London. He holds a CASC award for co-creating Junkyard Playground (Best Science Centre experience in Canada in 2018). Nathan has worked as a producer for high profile artists, including Canadian LGBTQ icon Brad Fraser, CBC’s Mary Walsh, and Juno award-winning Tanya Tagaq. 

We acknowledge GAIN (Game Arts International Network) as our consulting partner.