Rainey Straus is the founder and principal designer of Whirligirl Studio, which focuses on web and interactive design. She received her M.F.A. in sculpture from the California College of the Arts, and a B.F.A. in painting from the State University of New York at Purchase.

Video games are not simply a leisure diversion, amassing greater profits than the film industry. They're an influential aspect of mainstream culture that has altered popular discourse concerning, among other things, recreational consumption and visual interaction. Media artists have been drawn to this influencing engine, appropriating the technology, the imagery, and the conceptual underpinnings of the game world. Rainey Straus's lecture will explore the growing cross-fertilization between contemporary artists and the video game. Starting with a “game art history,” she'll explore early “cracker” art and “machinima” films, as well as present an array of works that repurpose the constructs of the traditional video game. Additionally, Straus will present her own works, co-developed with Katherine Isbister, that utilize the Sims Game platform, including The SimGallery, a site-specific, virtual traveling art exhibition, and SimBee, a live virtual performance which takes the work of Vanessa Beecroft to its SIMulated extreme.