About Matt Hawkins

For over 20 years, Matt Hawkins has been pinpointing, highlighting, preserving, curating, and advocating the cultural significance of a variety of mediums and media, primarily focusing on video games and lost media. 

In addition to designing games, for both major and independent publishers, Matt has extensively written about them as well; bylines include NBC News, MTV News, Nickelodeon Magazine, Kotaku, Gamasutra, GameSetWatch, and Tiny Cartridge. Matt’s unique voice would earn him the reputation of “the Harvey Pekar of video game journalism”, a reference as well to Matt’s prior activities in the world of cartooning. 

The combination of Matt’s focus as a reporter plus his aforementioned ties to the world of comics & animation eventually lead him to become involved with the “game culture collective” known as Attract Mode. As their driving force, Matt would go on to produce exhibitions all across North America; collaborators include Giant Robot, Fangamer, Babycastles, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto Comics Arts Festival, NYU Game Center, and First Second Books. 

Concurrent to these activities were those related to lost media, in particular outsider cinema and cable access television. By developing relationships with local producers of said content and organizations with adjacent interests, Matt would eventually become a programmer for Brooklyn based microcinema Spectacle Theater and the once displaced indie arcade collective new permanent home known as Wonderville. 

Matt’s interest in lost media has been intensified in recent years, thanks to the rise of Twitch, a platform originally intended for livestreaming video games that has since become the premier destination for broadcasters of pirate television in its contemporary form, and the requisition acquisition of MSLIS, with a focus of media preservation.