We are pleased to welcome Sam Thomson as the latest member to join PARTICIPATE. Sam is a game developer and researcher currently teaching on the BSc (Hons) Games Design and BA (Hons) Games Art courses at Leeds School of Arts. Research interests include cybernetics, feminism, simulation, ontology, commodification of knowledge, and the history of the “artist” as cultural figure.
Sam has worked professionally in the games industry since 2009, and ran Framelord Ltd, a real-time development studio, from 2017 to 2025. Previous end-clients include games companies such as Cave (Japan) and Nyamyam (U.K.), major corporations including Ford, Oracle, Penguin, Diageo, and Disney, artists such as Marina Abromovic, Jeff Koons, Olaffur Eliason, Allen Jones, Ami Clarke, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, and fashion designers including Philip Treacy, Roland Lane, and Christian Louboutin. This work has been exhibited through arts institutions including SXSW (U.S.A), Moderna Museet (Sweden), Julia Stoschek Collection (Germany), Almine Rech (Paris), Frieze Foundation, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Arebyte (London), the Grimaldi Forum (Monaco), Oculus (New York), and Disneyland (Paris).
In 2012, Sam directed the V22 Indie Game Expo, London, where participants included Zachtronic Industries, Playdead, Jonathan Blow, and Sophie Houlden. Framelord Ltd received a grant from SpiritAI in 2019 for the development of an NLP-driven VR escape room in which players seek to evade Hubby, a sentient Home-Hub system. Samuel Thomson obtained funding from Arts Council England for the development of Saint-Simon’s Saw, a fortune-telling app, released in April 2021.