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My name is Raramainashe Wadaya, and I am a digital artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I have a keen interest in technology, but particularly in how humans interact and make meaning from their interactions with technology. Which is what informs my game and applications development.
I began my journey into storytelling with film and photography. Making my first short film, A Fortunate Series of Events in 2019, which meanders philosophically around the death of young woman named Naledi. While admittedly, like any first attempt, not a strong film, it displays my inclination to contemplative and deep reaching narratives.
Shortly after the release of my short film I got into portrait photography, I find that the human subject is by far the most interesting and captivating for me to capture.
The most challenging form of storytelling I have encountered is in game design. While I enjoy coming up with narratives that focus on underrepresented and marginalised groups for my games, I quickly learnt that immersive storytelling, while highly rewarding, is no simple task.
In creating these and other games I have gained an understanding of the complexity of interactive media, but this challenge is one I thoroughly enjoy and continue to step up to. This leads me to seek more and more immersive, interactive and challenging ways of telling the stories that grip my soul.
In 2021 I had the privilege of being a part of the Retrospect Queerantine Exhibition, which was a digital exhibition exploring queer experiences during the pandemic. I partnered up with Mosibudi to tell the story of a queer student who has had to move back home from university to a space that is not welcoming of their queerness.
I am forever excited by innovations in technology and how they can be used to tell stories that resonate and help weaken the divisiveness and hatred that at times mars humanity, replacing it with empathy and understanding.