Erin List

aka. Scarfront

Erin List (pronous: she/her) is a polymath, artist, illustrator, designer (games, graphics, characters, multimedia, etc.), inventor, musician (drummer & percussionist, whistler), philosopher, photographer, librarian, scientist, intersectional queer-transfeminist, historian, (infinite) storyteller, poet, anthropologist, ludologist, (voice) actress, writer, cook, mythologist, activist, humorist, autodidact, information archaeologist, and versatile interdisciplinary creative human being.

She also identifies as queer, lesbian, polyamorous, kinky, neurodivergent and as part of the wider LGBTQIA2S+ and autistic community.

She has been acting as Art & Design Director at the Game Lab Graz from September 2019 to June 2025, within the Institute of Human-Centred Computing (HCC) at Graz University of Technology, where together with a multi-disciplinary team of game developers she has been involved in developing “educational” and “serious” video games that have a (hopefully) positive social impact and “go beyond” “pure entertainment”. (< 2.000€ per month at the time)

She started out there as a project assistant, and also acted as Lab Coordinator, 2D & 3D Visual and Concept Artist, Graphic Designer, UI & UX Designer, Game Designer, Narrative Designer, Playtester, Social Media Manager, Lecturer, Librarian, “Educator” and Researcher [also as Philosopher, although this was never formally declared anywhere, and is a little redundant to mention anyway, as pretty much all people are philosophers almost all the time])

Her current residence (as of 2025), where her body is physically located most of the space-time, is her home city of Graz, Austria, somewhere in the district of Eggenberg, where she is currently working on FruchtFabel, a vegan, gluten-free and sustainable food start-up, amongst other things.

She speaks German (Austrian and Styrian dialects, Hochdeutsch if need be) and English (mostly British and American dialects) fluently, and has basic knowledge of other natural human languages, primarily European ones (like Italian, Spanish, French, and Latin). Additionally, she has experience with a wide range of technical and professional languages across fields spanning the humanities, gender and LGBTQ+ topics, technology, computer science, informatics and programming, games, play and gaming, art & design, business, politics, science, architecture, ecology, history, sociology, mythology, philosophy, psychology and medicine.

She practices ethical BDSM and shibari in her free time, and engages in activities like hiking, archery, swimming, dancing and gymnastics when she can. She has also been playing the drumkit and other percussion instruments for many years, and likes to whistle, sing, and hum songs and melodies. She also plays video games and tabletop pen & paper roleplaying games with some of her friends every now and then.

In addition, she is generally dedicated to promoting and contributing to a more ethical, equitable, diverse, inclusive, accessible, joyful, passionate, sustainable and regenerative world (where many worlds fit) for all its inhabitants, applying her abilities and resources wherever possible.

© 2023 | Erin List, pictured in her home office, with a black stylus in hand and one of her cats walking across her graphic tablet. In the background are lots of books on shelves, a bunch of figurines and plushies, and a small rainbow flag.

Biography

Erin was born in the 1990s in Graz, Austria, and mostly grew up there and in other regions of Styria, Austria, including Hartberg and Bad Radkersburg. She’s the daughter of a social worker who worked and an artisan, and comes from a working-class family with a non-academic background. Her father was absent during much of her later childhood, and her mother had to raise her and three of her siblings largely on her own. She was assigned male at birth and born under a different name.

She was baptised by Wolfgang Pucher.

She was capable of reading and writing German and doing basic math and arithmetic from around the age of 3.

She had been home-tutored before entering school by an ex-teacher on a wide variety of topics, such as math, art, astronomy, history, geography and paleontology.

She only briefly went to Kindergarten (herself complaining that it was “too boring”) and skipped 1st grade in elementary school (de. Volksschule) due to already knowing all the subject matter. In 2nd grade she already knew about many of the platonic solids. This is also where she first had access to a computer in one of the school classrooms.

She later went to the Bundesrealgymnasium Körösi in Graz, where amongst other things she had to switch class once, and was bullied by some of her classmates and even some teachers, in particular her English teacher. Around this time she first got access to the Internet and Wikipedia, as well as a personal home computer. In biology class she once held a presentation on dromedary camels, which turned out to be so long her teacher stopped her mid-way through. She also once held a presentation on Aristotle.

Around 2007 her then family’s cat (Bella) died after a veterinarian appointment.

She went to high school from 2009-2011 at BORG Dreierschützengasse and chose the informatics branch (now the informatics and media branch), not staying there long enough to be able to do her Matura due to “mental health” problems she was struggling with at the time (due to e.g. getting bullied by some classmates) and a multitude of other reasons, such as semantic misunderstandings with school teachers, socio-economic factors, and the mandatory school years in Austria only lasting until 16 years of age at the time. She also took extra-curricular guitar lessons there.

During her teenage years she was briefly involved in a local Amnesty International group.

After having left her previous school, she applied to several other schools in Graz to continue her education, but wasn’t accepted anywhere, for reported reasons such as there “not being any spot left” and her being “too old”. She also applied at the Sir Karl Popper Schule in Vienna, but wasn’t accepted there, despite reportedly passing their entrance exam. She also searched for apprenticeships and employment opportunities in the software development, video game development, media arts and print sectors in Graz, but was unable to find any available at that time, or rejected by the ones she applied to. Consequently. she was registered as unemployed, and the AMS directed her to the SZG, where she completed her ECDL (now ICDL) among other courses.

At the age of 17 she first “came out” as transgender to some of her then friends.

In 2013, due to her then different legel gender and Austria’s mandatory military service laws at the time, she was called for conscription but was deemed “unfit” and thus also exempt from the alternative civil service.

In 2014 she started what was then still known as the Indie Game Community Meetup Graz (now the Game Dev Graz Meetup), together with Matthias Frey and Lukas Trotzmüller, after having briefly made a solo trip via train to one of Vienna’s Game Dev Meetups.

In 2015 she co-founded Game Dev Graz, a non-profit association dedicated to supporting game developers and gaming culture, and is currently (as of 2026) acting as its Vice-President. As part of the association, she has been co-organizing dozens of local community meetups (100+), game jams, and the annual Game Dev Days, as well as created various visual & graphic artworks and designs.

In 2016 she was formally diagnosed with Asperger-Syndrome by a neurologist and psychiatrist. She also got notice that year that one of her old schoolmates had died by suicide.

In 2017 she publically “came out” as transgender, after having previously come out to her family and close friends.

In 2018 she officially changed her name and voluntarily started gender-affirming hormone-replacement therapy, which she hasn’t ever regretted since. The same year, one of her aunts dies by suicide in the LKH Graz II (then still called the Landesnervenklinik Sigmund Freud).

From 2018-2019, she has been working as a graphic designer, digital artist, digital print technician and product photographer at pro mente Steiermark. (< 1.000€ per month at the time)

In September 2019 her grandmother on her mothers’ side died at the age of 89.

Towards the end of 2019 she briefly enrolled in the Abendgymnasium Graz with the aim to officially finish her Matura in order to be formally allowed to study at a University. During this time she was being offered payed employment at the TU Graz by Johanna Pirker, whom she had first met at the Global Game Jam Graz in 2014.

In 2020 she officially and voluntarily left the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2023 she was briefly enrolled at the University of Graz to study history, partially motivated by having had an argument with one of her then colleagues at the Game Lab about details of the Armenian genocide. In May of that year, one of her family’s cats (Schnurrli) which she had been caring for for about 17 years suddenly died from a torn stomach ulcer. About three months later in September, Phillipp Gosch, one of her good friends and colleagues, died in Greece on his honeymoon due to a natural disaster exacerbated by human-made climate change.

She had sex for the first time in 2023, consensually and non-reproductively so, mostly just for fun, enjoyment, and exploration’s sake.

In 2024 another one of her family’s cats (Mia) died from old age. The same year, Erin suffered a burnout, and was misdiagnosed with schizoid personality disorder.

In 2025 she has briefly been part of the Austrian symphonic metal band Shades of Eternity as drummer.

Year notations on this page are for the Common Era and international calendar, aka. the Gregorian calendar. (because I think it makes for easier reading for most of the general populace. I acknowledge of course that there are other calendars used by other people(s), such as the Holocene calendar and the Iranian calendars)

🎮 Ludography
📜 Scientific Publications
  • Poglitsch, C., Safikhani S. Erin L., Pirker J. (2024) XR technologies to enhance the emotional skills of people with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review
  • At least one other on social media platforms together with Stephan Keller I wrote during my time at the Game Lab Graz, but I can’t find it right now. (2025)
  • Several publications where I haven’t been added as co-author, even tho I contributed to the project or publication in a manner other than being purely a study participant. (so much for proper accreditation in the sciences and academia, as if they haven’t learned one bit from the history of science and its all too often exclusion of women and other minorities…)
🌐 Wikipedia Articles

Those of which I have written the initial and/or a substantial amount of

🎨 Visual, graphic, sculptural, plastic and mechanical Artworks, Designs and Inventions
  • For most of my purely visual art works, visit my Cara, ArtStation and Instagram (mind you, not all of my visual works are currently visible there)
  • Logo, mascot, and other “branding/corporate” designs for the Game Lab Graz
  • Some graphics for the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science at TU Graz (when it was still called that)
  • Logo of the Institute of Human-Centred Computing at TU Graz
  • Various drawings and paintings I did in art class during school
  • 🛴 A kick-scooter (that I bought from the company Hepros from Germany) which I modified with additional bags and gadgets so as to make it more useable to me as a transportation vehicle for myself in a 21st century urban environment
  • A drum stick holder I made of an old toilet paper roll, a small plastic cup, a toothpick, and attached to my e-drum set with duct tape (subsequently exchanged for a more professionally crafted drum stick holder I commercially bought)
  • BDSM & Kink Community Graz 2025 folders
  • Adaptation of and visual improvements to a “Nerves in Rope Bondage” informational flyer design for the shibari community in Graz
  • A couple of completed jigsaw puzzles
  • Lots of structures inside Minecraft
  • Lots of custom creatures, buildings, and spaceships in Spore
  • Lots of custom houses in The Sims
  • Many a construction with LEGO bricks
  • Sandcastles built on various beaches on mediterranean coasts, that have been washed away by the waves
  • A marble run of wood and paper I created in secondary school together with others, which became dysfunctional at some point and was thus discarded
  • 🐘 A knitted elephant puppet I crafted in elementary school (which I’ve since lost or handed on to someone else)
  • 🕯 A candle holder made of clay I did in elementary school, which still works to this day
📰 Selected Press & Interviews
  • PGDA Call: Gender Diversity & Inclusion – Pioneers (2022)
  • An interview I gave many years ago for an independent games journalist, whose name I can’t remember, and I can’t find the link to the interview either…
  • An interview I once gave to someone who was doing research on online dating platforms
  • An interview I once gave to someone about my clothing habits as a queer person
🗣 Selected Talks & Lectures
  • The Game Design of Diablo, talk I gave together with Lorenz Jäger in 2014 at Spektral Graz (if only I could find the slides on my laptop, I would link them here…)
  • Intro to Game Art, lecture(s) held for the Game Design and Development 1 course at TU Graz
  • A small talk I gave at the Games Intersectional Symposium 2025
  • A presentation I held in 2012 at the SZG on the profession of a game designer (my then aimed at profession), including a poster I made for the occasion (which I still have lying around somewhere I think)
💭 Philosophical contributions
  • Intergenerationeller Philosophieabend im Lendhafen Graz, irgendwann zwischen 2020-25 (kann mich grad nicht ans genaue Datum erinnern)
  • Various philosophical snippets here and there in everyday situations, as to philosophize comes very natural to a playful human like myself
🏆 Prizes and Honours
  • Won a small wooden medal for participating in the 5. Grazer Inklusionslauf
  • Won a little medal for running really fast in elementary school once
🎶 Music & Audio
  • Every sound I’ve ever made and uttered with my mouth and other body parts, every melody I have ever hummed or whistled, and every song I’ve sung, some recorded, some not. Whether some other human has heard it or not matters little as to the fact that I’ve produced the soundwaves anyway.
  • A couple particular drum patterns, not written down in proper musical notation as of yet
📜 Writing
  • A bunch of essays I’ve written at school
  • A couple blog posts on my video game projects here and there
  • Lots of chat messages inside video games
  • Loads of messages via Skype, Slack, and Discord (some now lost forever)
  • (Too many) tweets and other social media posts
  • A couple online forum posts
  • All the text on my own website, obviously
📜 Poems
🎓 “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.

— Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1968

  • Course in Historical Fencing with the Long Sword at VHS Steiermark (2025)
  • Several archery courses.
  • Several first aid courses
  • Every project I’ve been a part of and every “job” I’ve had, which simultaneously count as education too
  • Higher Education didactics courses at TU Graz (2021)
  • Scientific writing course at TU Graz (2021)
  • All the things I learned from playing video games and using other interactive media, many with real world applicable educational and informative content
  • Read many professionally written non-fiction books and articles and watched lots of documentaries, video essays, and educational videos by experts in their respective fields (most of which I could list here)
  • Informal autodidactic learning, learning by doing, and knowing what proper sources are as opposed to complete nonsense and propaganda
  • BORG Dreierschützengasse (2009-2011)
  • Access to public libraries and knowing how to use them
  • Access to the Internet and Wikipedia since around the age of 13 (which is when I realized that many facts, tutorials, and information could simply be accessed at almost any time, thus learning them by copying the information from school books and similar methods is sort of redundant and a waste of time and energy, especially considering that new research and information is continuously coming out anyway that makes at least some of the old information outdated)
  • Elementary school (where I skipped 1st grade cause that was mostly just a rehearsal of knowledge already known to me and skills I had already developed)
  • Kindergarten (where I didn’t stay particularly long cause it “got boring” real fast)
  • Books (some of which were way above my age grade)
  • Getting home-tutored by an ex-teacher on a wide variety of topics, such as math, biology, and astronomy (which is part of the reason why I later became bored so often during school)
💶 Scholarships & Grants
  • So far, none. Nada. Keine. Zero (0). Zilch.
  • Also no student discounts of any kind. Not even food stamps for the food I ate and paid for on university campuses while I was working there. No ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) either for any of the things I did in a university context, for which other people who were officially and formally inscribed students got some points already, even though the activities were essentially the same. Students at least got support through various institutional measures, some of which I had to pay for out of my own pocket instead. (such as hardware equipment, software licenses, professional literature not available in the university library, etc.)

Opinion on Austria’s educational system (emphasis on system; also keep in mind that this is obviously based on and informed by my own experience with and within it, as a pupil, informal student, university lecturer, and as having worked at a university for more than five years)

  • Overall, mixed
  • Outdated in many regards (as of 2025)
  • Much that could still be improved
  • As of 2025, it still feels elitist and exclusionary to me in respect to and towards minorities, the physically as well as “mentally” or “socially” disabled, cripples, the working class, women (some but certainly not all), in certain instances and situations in fact men even more than women (due to complex reasons to do with gender dynamics), LGBTQIA2S+ and gender non-conforming people, men that “don’t act like men”, ethnic minorities, BIPOC, non-academics and those from a non-academic family background, people intersectionally and structurally discriminated against, migrants, people who have to work to earn money so they can keep their appartment and don’t end up on the street or worse, and thus don’t have the time, space, energy, material or immaterial resources to invest in so called “higher” education (this distinction between “higher” and “lower” education is yet another [in my eyes] somewhat nonsensical way to hierarchically distinguish between what is ultimately skills and knowledge of various kinds, all together necessary for a society and culture to function and flourish in its entirety anyway, let alone the globally interconnected world of spaceship earth), etc.
  • Yes, I’ll keep complaining about it and trying to improve it until it is better for everyone and peace between all the people on earth is achieved and till over-priviliged professors and academics (some of which I’ve had the displeasure of meeting face-to-face, others just hearing about) stop being so arrogant and entitled.

Opinion on the competition culture (in general, and as opposed to, say, a more cooperative culture) that to me seems to be so very ingrained in certain parts of western(ized) society, or humankind in general

  • Questionable if not outright harmful to the survival and well-being of our species (that is, the human one) on planet earth

💡 IDEAS

  • Writing disabled/handicapped and neurodivergent people into history
  • Writing games and play as important and influential media forms and cultural phenomena into history (more than they are already)
⌛ Major Historical Events that happened in my lifetime
Special Fuck You
  • My secondary school English teacher, for being a racist prick amongst other shitty behaviour (and whose skills of the English language I have since far surpassed anyway)
  • Donald Trump