Travis Wagner (they/them)

Excited about this upcoming talk at Skeuomorph!

Ah, right, sometimes the heading of an email alone triggers a "hmm, I will wait till next week to reply to that" response.

Rewatching Tank Girl and realizing that like older video games some things are just meant to be seen on era specific hardware. The VHS version pops off of a CRT far more than a high definition bluray ever could on modern hardware!

This is perhaps the most damning evidence in the AI could never do X argument debate to date. No amount of LLM training could produce something so joyfully chaotic. Not to mention it would literally melt the ice away to try and do it.

Dear Colleagues & Peers, My name is Deanna Zarrillo (she/they), and I am a PhD candidate at Drexel University’s College of Computing & Informatics. I am conducting dissertation research on the experiences of trans and gender diverse authors who have changed their name on academic publications and perspectives around digital identity more broadly. This work is aimed at assessing the community impact of post-publication name change policies from major publishers and enhancing policy around author privacy in the publication process. As part of this work, I am recruiting eligible participants for a survey on this topic. If you are an academic and have changed your name in the past, whether on publications or not, please consider responding to this survey! As publishing policies evolve, your experiences can help shape more inclusive practices for current and future scholars. You’re eligible if you: You are an academic student or faculty member (current or previous) with a history of publications in academic journals You are transgender, gender diverse, or otherwise self-identify outside of the gender binary. You have changed your name and have used, or have considered using, a post-publication name change policy or have changed your name on a publication in another way. Are fluent in English. What to Expect: This survey includes questions about your experiences with post-publication name changes and utilizing publisher policies. Your participation in this survey is voluntary. You may refuse to take part in the research or to exit the survey at any time. Partial responses will not be retained. Should you volunteer as an interviewee*, further consent information will be provided via email prior to the scheduled interview in addition to a verbal consent agreement at the beginning of the interview. Your responses will provide vital information to help assess current policies, identify barriers and challenges, explore impact, develop recommendations for improvem…

please RT! if you've ever contacted a journal or publisher to have your name changed on a publication, a friend and colleague of mine wants to hear about your experience! drexel.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

#phdchat #academicchatter

I did and it had the opposite effect 🤖💀🤖

As part of a New Year’s resolution to have a creative hobby I started doing some found object collaging. While I am not at all confident in the collages themselves I do really like some of the little guys I have made. The inspiration for a few of them may be a bit obvious 😅

In the inaugural “Media Necromancy” talk @skeuomorphpress.org, @drtlwagner.bsky.social asks “what does it mean to take seriously obsolescence as a fundamental part of queer archival work?”

I found the old 35mm slide for the cover for Neuromancer and had it scanned in for your pleasure. Enjoy!

I fear that I may have found my new favorite media artifact courtesy of a library book sale. I’m a bit afraid to pop it in a DVD player

I working on my slides for this and oscillating between the format of a media studies presentation and an information science presentation. The jury is still out on which side will win 👾📼🏳️‍🌈

Last summer I was the Rose Library’s LGBTQ Collections Fellowship at Emory University. The blog for the archive just posted my write up as part of the fellowship. It is part of a bigger project of mine, but here is a sneak peak of some of what I am exploring:

scholarblogs.emory.edu/marbl/2026/0...

Battletoads (NES) Music - Pause Beat YouTube video by GBelair

Sorry to say it y'all, but music peaked with the Battletoads (NES) Pause Music:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRPX...

Bri Watson - Lecture Series '25 - A World Divided into Sheep & Goats YouTube video by Rotman Institute of Philosophy

I gave a Rotman Lecture last fall about the my dissertation and book, specifically about the Kinseys (the man and the Institute) and the influence taxonomy has on the labels we use to describe ourselves (gender, sexuality, etc. It was recently uploaded to YouTube:

youtu.be/KDwF_3ilkwM?... 🗂️🗃️📚📃📜

The Political Librarian Volume 8.2 In Conversation: "What is Lost in 'Restoring Truth and Sanity'? Queer Approaches to Absence, Silence, and Erasure in Archival Description" Featuring Evan M. Allgood & Travis L. Wagner January 26, 2026 1:00 p.m. ET

Join The Political Librarian tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. CST for a webinar with PhD student Evan M. Allgood and Assistant Professor Travis L. Wagner. They will discuss what federal directives targeting DEI mean for libraries, archives, and public memory.

Watch live ▶️ bit.ly/3NE9pin

the "nostalgia" thread here may have particular salience to the #dhmakes & book lab crowds?

Strongly considering changing my entire aesthetic to the character from Sega Bass Fishing

I'm running a graduate reading seminar titled "Queering Information" this semester and we had our first meeting. The students came energized and engaged! I know it is likely to slow a bit as the semester grinds on, but if this keeps up it is going to be a true high point of my semester.

What is the German word for the upsetting feeling you get when accidentally locking eyes with someone who is mid vape pull?

A poster for a talk reading: “As Usual You Have Produced Yet Another Installment Worthy of Archiving”: The Persistence of Obsolescence in Queer Information & Media Technologies Travis Wagner, Assisant Professor, School of Information Sciences Queer communities are early adopters of emergent technologies, whether video cameras to document the HIV/AIDS epidemic or microblogging platforms like Tumblr to explore new identity categories. Yet the same technologies queer communities foster are subject to the most rampant obsolescence, making the formats of these objects difficult to preserve & make accessible. As a question of archival materials, queer history seems inextricably linked to obsolescence. In this talk, Dr. Travis Wagner (they/them) asks, what might it mean to take this question of queer archival obsolescence seriously? Through a series of archival object case studies, Wagner will call attention to how data exists within the objects of queer history, how they represent the circulation and use of information within queer communities in their historical moments, & how they pose challenges to ensuring their long-term preservation. Wagner will interrogate the sociotechnical nature of queerness & obsolescence as co-constitutive forces & argue that obsolescence can serve as a generative tool to think about the past, present, & future of queer archives in an age where the promises of technology seem limitless, yet prove deeply biased & exclusionary. WHEN: WHERE: Also: Tuesday, February 17th 2026, 1-2pm SKEUOMORPH PRESS, CU Community Fablab 1301 S. GoodWin AVE. Urbana, IL 61801 SNACKS!

Then later in February @drtlwagner.bsky.social will kick off a new "Media Necromancy" speaker series—we’re still chatting with folks about ideas, but are hoping for 1-2 more talks in this series over the spring semester, with more next year skeuomorph.ischool.illinois.edu/our-research...

Please consider submitting to this conference if you're a community preservationist! The first Save the Games was a terrific place for the industry and community to meet together on their work

I’m found this unopened package of Kool-aid in a comic book from 1996. I’m pretty sure if I drank it I would immediately be dropped into eXistenZ

My New Year's resolution to take the stairs more isn't going well so far. Meanwhlie, my additional resolution of blocking/reporting every scammy AI add I get on my social media is going off without a hitch.

I got a device that lets me play Game Boy cartridges of all kinds directly on my computer. Recently, they updated the software to allow the Game Boy camera to work as well. I used it to take this era-appropriate image. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out how to get Zoom to read it as my camera.

I love locations that aren’t on the map in RPGs

Halo 2 Skin for Windows Media Player 10

Halo 2 Skin for Windows Media Player 10

Riverbottom Nightmare Band | Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas | The Jim Henson Company YouTube video by The Jim Henson Company

My partner and I watched Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas and I am happy to report that it led to me discovering my new favorite band The Riverbottom Nightmare Band

m.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ3c...

“Each character you create requires a full 15 blocks!” preserving video game memory cards in the age of cloud storage The act of saving in video games has shifted from a material, active practice to a passive, near imperceptible occurrence. However, until systems like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 were releas...

New article out by me and @ashleyblewer.com titled “Each character you create requires a full 15 blocks!” Preserving Video Game Memory Cards in the Age of Cloud Storage." In it, we examine the sociotechnical challenges of preserving video game memory cards.

Read it here:

tinyurl.com/53pnv64b

I’m passing on a question from @drtlwagner.bsky.social & their students: Do you know of existing/in process book history work on clip art? I know Shep’s history of print emoji & anecdotally I know some early clip art remediated printer’s ornaments—as does the "font" Wingdings—anyone digging in more?

Truly stoked to have my favorite academic partner in crime continue teaching with us! I’m gonna insist all of our students take classes with Ashley!