XOXO Explore is fitting showcase for a brilliant experiment
XOXO was completely wonderful. This site is a lovely showcase of why.
Link: Launching XOXO Explore, by the Andys
I freaking loved XOXO, the experimental festival for independent artists and creators from the internet. I attended the first one during a fraught, stressful, often sad period of my life; I’d ripped my life up to move to the US to be nearer to my terminally ill mother. I thought I knew where my life was going, and then everything was uncertain.
And here was this joyful festival of people doing things on their own terms, in their own way. I attended with my partner at the time, who was visiting back from the UK, and we discovered Portland itself in the process. We played Johann Sebastian Joust with Dan Harmon. Ben Brown, who I had followed for years, silently sidled up at an arcade and played the 1990s X-Men cabinet game with me. We had a beer with MC Frontalot. And felt home in a way I desperately needed to.
Clearly, a ton of work went into this archive site, which contains almost every talk. (One in particular was too sensitive to record.) I’m grateful that this exists. I can relive Maggie Vail and Jesse Von Doom’s CASH Music talk; relive one of my childhood heroes, Tim Schafer, talking about his work; and see talks from years I couldn’t attend by people I am in awe of like Molly White and Erin Kissane. It’s really worth plumbing the archive; it’s all good stuff.
It can’t show me the absolutely insane Q&A with the Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared team ("...How?" "Because!"), or remind me or chatting with Cory Doctorow, or let me cuddle a baby goat again. But I can remember. And this is a lovely start.
Bonus link: here’s how I wrote about it at the time.