Erin List (* 1995 [AD] in Graz, Styria, Austria) is a polymath and versatile creative professional, with expertise in video game design & development, informatics and computer programming, engineering, illustration, visual media arts & design, character design, music (she plays drums & percussions), archery, history, mythology, literature, poetry, photography, science, storytelling, philosophy, intersectional feminist, queer and crip theory, activism and education.
She has been serving as Art & Design Director at the Game Lab Graz (starting out as a project assistant) from September 2019 to June 2025, within the Institute of Human-Centred Computing (HCC) at Graz University of Technology, where she has been involved in developing educational and serious video games that go beyond entertainment.
She currently resides in her home city of Graz, Austria, in the district of Eggenberg, and is working on a sustainable food project, amongst other things.
In addition, she is committed to promoting and creating a more ethical, equitable, diverse, inclusive, accessible, joyful, passionate, loving, sustainable and regenerative world for all its inhabitants, wherever and whenever possible.
A short (auto-)biography (in the making)
Written interchangably from 1st and 3rd person perspectives, because fuck “proper” writing conventions.
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken
— Oscar Wilde
Other events in context:
1992-1996 – The Siege of Sarajevo takes place
1995 – Austria joins the European Union (EU)
Erin (pronouns: she/her) was born in Graz, Austria, in June 1995, and mostly grew up there, as well as in other parts of Styria, specifically Bad Radkersburg, Weiz, and Hartberg.
At the time of her birth, she’s the youngest of her mother’s three children, and was assigned the male gender.
Early Life and “Education”
Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.
— Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
- Kindergarten, left early after having read all the books in the library, citing “boredom” as reason
- Got home tutored on various topics, from math and astronomy, to history, paleontology, geography, and different cultures from all over the world
Other events in context:
1999 – Austria adopts the euro currency
- Volksschule Algersdorf (2001-2004)
- Skipped 1st grade after about two weeks there, as I had already learned all the subject matter (like reading, writing, basic math and arithmetic, etc.) prior to even entering school
- Aced pretty much all of the subsequent three school years there
Other events in context:
2001 – The 9/11 attacks take place
2003 – The USA and Britain invade Iraq
- BRG Körösi (2004-2009)
- Was bullied by classmates and certain teachers (specifically my English teacher, who called me by racist slurs during class and in front of classmates, amongst other shitty pedagogical practices)
Other events in context:
2006 – The Nintendo Wii releases
2007 – The first-generation iPhone launched
2008 – A global financial crisis happens
2008 – The United Nations first Declaration on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity is supported by 66 nations
- BORG Dreierschützengasse (Informatics branch, 2009-2011)
- Of the five branches to choose from at the time (Informatics, Visual Arts, Music, Natural Sciences, Theater) I chose “Informatics”, because I saw computers and the Internet as one of the greatest ways to create and share something, like a computer programm, that could potentially help people all over the planet. I also had a computer at home already.
- Was discriminated against based on my perceived gender, amongst other reasons
- “Dropped out of school” after finishing compulsory school education, because of mental health problems and miscommunication issues, amongst other reasons
Other events in context:
2011 – The global human population exceeds 7 billion
2011 – The video game Minecraft gets formally released
- Attempt to get back into various schools in Graz to finish high school education
- Was rejected by several, allegedly because I was already “too old”, or because the school had no available capacity for additional students
- Attempt to get admitted to the Sir Karl Popper Schule in Vienna
- Wasn’t accepted, or “didn’t make the cut”, despite allegedly passing their acceptance test
- Wanted to do various apprenticeships in the areas of computer programming, informatics, software development and/or media design in Graz
- Wasn’t taken by anyone.
- Was called to do mandatory conscription.
- Wanted to do civil service instead.
- Was deemed unfit for military service due to psychological reasons, and was thus not obliged to do either.
- Still wanted to do civil service, just to have something to do and not have to hang around at home. Wasn’t taken.
- Did a bunch of hobby projects, modded video games, made small video games on my own, and wanted to start a band with a friend
- Was sent to the Schulungszentrum Graz by the AMS
- Applied to various jobs in the information technology, software development and media sector.
- Wasn’t taken by anyone.
- Autodidactic learning by trial and error with freely available and open source software, freely available educational videos and online tutorials, watching lots of documentaries, CrashCourse series, using Wikipedia and local libraries, etc.
- Went to a Subotron event in Vienna
On January 29, AD 2014, she posted an announcement for an event called “Indie Game Community Meetup Graz” on the social media platform Twitter (now called X), aimed at attracting independent game developers and enthusiasts, to build up the local community.
In 2015, she co-founded Game Development Graz, a non-profit association dedicated to supporting game developers and promoting play and gaming culture, and currently serves as its vice president (2025). She is co-organizing many local events, like community meetups and game jams, as well as the annual Game Dev Days, Austria’s leading game developer conference.
Other events in context:
2016 – The EU enacts the General Data Protection Regulation
In 2016, she was diagnosed with Asperger-Syndrome (aka. Asperger-Autism), after getting the suggestion that she might be autistic, by a psychologist at the AMS, as she continuously didn’t find employment, despite a highly developed technical skillset (like being able to code in several programming languages, and using a plethora of industry standard art & graphic design software).
In 2018, she officially changed her first name from her given birth name to Erin.
In 2019, she was attempting to catch up on her formal education (Matura) via the Abendgymnasium Graz, mostly so she would be allowed to study formally at a University or University of Applied Sciences, but left a few weeks later, due to experiencing learning and teaching methods unfit for her, some teachers she deemed arrogant and too authoritarian, and already knowing much of the subject matter relevant to her, and thus feeling like she wasn’t learning much anyway, and mostly just wasting time and being tested on knowledge and information that’s available on the internet, if one just cares enough to actually go look for it.
In September 2019, she started to work as a project assistant at the Game Lab Graz, within the then so-called Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science (now the Institute of Human-Centred Computing) at Graz University of Technology.
Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order.
— Victor J. Papanek, Design for the Real World
Other events in context:
2020 – The COVD-19 pandemic sweeps across the globe, with various preventive measures taking place in Austria
2020 – UK figures reveal that reported homophobic crimes have almost tripled since 2015
She designed the Game Lab Graz logo, its marmot mascot (it’s not a beaver), as well as the new logo of the Institute of Human-Centred Computing. Amongst other things she designed (or helped design) are project posters and logos, infographics, 3D-models, pictograms, characters, drawings, various graphical elements and art assets for projects, and educational video games. She also held lectures on visual art & design principles, user interface and user experience, concept art, game design, and game accessibility as part of the Game Development & Design course there. In addition, she consulted on various student projects and participated in many user studies.
Other events in context:
2021 – OpenAI introduces DALL-E, demonstrating AI’s capacity to generate images from textual descriptions
2021 – Single-use plastic plates, cutlery, straws, and more are banned from sale in the EU
2021 – Hungary prohibits the sharing of LGBTQ+-themed educational material with under-18s
2022 – The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine begins in February 2022
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
— George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905
At some point during her time at the Game Lab, she wanted to start formal studies in history at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz, partially out of genuine interest for history, a concern over the growing use of artificial intelligence for creating fake images and narratives, historical or otherwise, and also because of an argument she had with one of her then co-workers about whether or not the Armenian genocide happened, and to what extent Turkish nationalists had been involved.
Other events in context: Philipp Gosch, a good friend of Erin and one of her fellow Game Dev Graz members, unexpectedly passes away in September 2023.
Other events in context: On 10 June 2025, a mass shooting occurred at the Dreierschützengasse secondary school in Graz, Austria, the school that Erin used to go to school to when she was a teenager