welcome to my site!
if you know me in real life, you know that i continue to espouse the sentiment that i am finishing up my portfolio site. well, that's sort of the case..... i decided to revamp it through hosting it on github pages again. while i liked the ease of use of adobe portfolio, the features were not conducive to where i wanted to take my site and would often leave me too frustrated to be motivated to make it work.
marcinek.tech is not just a portfolio site, but it is also a page where one can glimpse into more personal interests of mine. you may see this as a mistake, and that is valid, but i often denote the idea of "personal" vs "professional" to be too rigid of boundaries. the phrase "be the change you want to see in the world" comes to mind. if i don't act in such a way that (respectfully) pushes the barriers of social norms, who am i to complain about them?
a major inspiration for the direction of this site came from friends and colleagues whom i have met in person who are also interested in creative technology. likewise, the web revival and indieweb movements are of great interest to me. i won't reveal the url, but i was a rather early adopter of neocities! lastly, i have been going through mark fisher's k-punk archives as well as the wit of the staircase by theresa duncan. two geniuses in their respective disciplines gone too soon, both with blogs a part of their legacies.
on this site, you will see an archive of some of my best and/or favorite works in game design, computational art, and immersive media. this site is my portfolio first and foremost. most of the other topics on here are related to my professional interests. this blog won't be about the meals i had today, for example. i also feel the need to reiterate my footer disclaimer: while i am proud of, grateful for, and identify with my employment history, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. they are not representative of the wilson center, national children's museum, american university, or rutgers university.
a core tenet of mine is there is something to be learned from everyone. i write not as an authority, but as an equal. this is not to say i have no expertise on the matters i write about, quite the opposite, nor is it an excuse for me to portray narratives that are uninformed. rather, it is a reminder that the lens in which i write is ultimately just that of another person. a valuable lens, a lens which attempts to ground itself in tangible realities outside of me, but still my own, not free from bias or egocentrism.
i hope you enjoy your stay! this website is currently still under construction. i am having some continued issues with using the bootstrap 5 stylesheet. you may also click on a lot of dead or broken links. adding more things as i go!
memento vivere,
kristen 💌