Maxwell Lander (he/they) is a Assistant Professor of New Media at Toronto Metropolitan University. Their work spans many mediums, from games (both analog and digital), to XR, photography, film and music and is entangled in many conceptual frameworks, the most central of which is queer and trans subjectivites. They have been winning awards and exhibiting internationally since 2007 and, after publishing a book of photography exploring queerness and science fiction in 2016, they took a brief hiatus from photography to delve into game design, interactive media and immersive technology. In May of 2019, they completed their Master of Design in the Digital Futures program at OCAD University, where they explored technology’s engagement with the body through custom controller design and the use of VR tech outside of the headset. They were lead-developer on Night of the Living Dead VR, an immersive homage to the classic film and have exhibited as a part of the Gladstone Hotel’s annual design exhibition, Come Up To My Room. They have released several tabletop roleplaying games, including one of Gizmodos best RPGs of 2022, Himbos of Myth & Mettle, and are starting to work in the creative space between analog and digital immersive games.
He has also been identified by strangers as the guy that talked about eating blood on that podcast.