Xavier Ho (he/him)

Dr Xavier Ho
Email: xavier@jtg.design
Monash: Researcher Profile
Cohost: @spaxe
Twitter: @xavier_ho

Hi! I'm an interdisciplinary creative technologist and interaction designer for queer communities.

I have a career spanning across queer games research, public interactive installations, and scientific data visualisation. I'm currently doing research at Monash Art, Design and Architecture, and I run a creative videography studio, Jump to Glide ↗.
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In 2023, I hold a Junior Visiting Chair in Sexuality Studies at the Hunt-Simes Institute within the University of Sydney. During my visit, I am producing Pride at Play with a team of researchers, designers, and curators who play and make queer games, and furthering research in that area.

I'm one of the recipients of the inaugural CSIRO Medal for Diversity and Inclusion for my contribution in raising awareness for LGBTQIA+ issues in the organisation. I'm also a finalist in the 2020 Victorian Premier Design Awards for my data visualisation work. In 2022, I received a MADA Education Award for sustained excellence in quality education.

My most recent work is focused on queer independent games, and how videogames as art can become means of individual expression. The work includes "Public Art Park" (2022), "Infinite Colours" (2022), "Message for Queer Game Makers" (2021). My work has been exhibited at Melbourne Design Week (Victorian Pride Centre), and Testing Grounds (Queen Victoria Market). I co-authored with Cody Mejeur for Public Books in a piece titled "Queer Lives Are Not Side Quests", and organised a queer games panel at Games Connect Asia Pacific 2022.

Research

I am a firm believer in making research open and accessible to everyone, and so I provide as many links as I can below.

Queer Indie Games. Pride at Play, FDG 2022, GCAP 2022.
We wanted to make indie games more accessible to the public, and tell their stories. I am the lead producer for Pride at Play (2023) that aims to put queer indie games on the map for games made in Oceania and Southeast Asia. The Arcade (2014) is a University of Sydney Union initiative where I curated Australian games for them. My research has been wonderful spending time doing this work. Publications and talks include Public Books, MSU Digital Humanities 2021, and interview.

Inspiration Networks in Game Design. PhD Thesis, DiGRA Journal, Roguelike Universe.
‍I studied game jams both big and small to understand how ideas were remixed, linked, and manifested in videogames, and then applied what I call an "inspiration network" to map roguelike games. Publications, demos, and talks include Global Game Jam, ANSAC 2018, ICGJ 2017, Meaningful Play 2016, DiGRA Australia 2016, DiGRA Queensland 2016, DiGRA 2015, DiGRA Australia 2014, and Meaningful Play 2014.

Other notable publications include chartjunk for visualisation (led by Dr Phil Gough), and remote sensing (led by Dr Tim Malthus). For a complete list of my publications, activities, and scholarly profile, see my Monash page or Google Scholar.