A Star is Born!

Assistant Curator - Jeremy Thackray and Dr Gordon Freeman

Our very own Jezza moonlights as Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman in Computerphile’s latest video and it’s going viral!

Within 12 hours of the University of Nottingham’s Computerphile channel uploading the video to YouTube it had received over 19,000 views. This five minute film features our assistant curator, Jeremy Thackray, who conducts a whistle-stop tour of the collection pausing to discuss iconic machines like the ZX Spectrum and Acorn Atom.

As viewing figures on YouTube escalated, more and more observers were quick to point out Jeremy’s remarkable resemblance to one of the greatest video game characters of all time - Dr. Gordon Freeman. The heroic, silent Gordon is the main protagonist of the Half-Life video game series, created by Marc Laidlaw and Gabe Newell of Valve Corporation. He is portrayed as a MIT graduate with a PhD in Theoretical Physics who works in the Anomalous Materials laboratory at the vast Black Mesa Research Facility, a top-secret complex in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Controlled by the player, Gordon wields a range of weapons and tools, including – famously – a crowbar, to fight alien creatures such as headcrabs!

In contrast, Jeremy, a recent graduate with an MA in Museum Studies from Durham University, joined the team at the Centre for Computing History in January 2015. When not masquerading as Dr Gordon Freeman, Jeremy can be found conducting educational tours for schools and creating exciting learning materials for students. He is also steering the centre towards museum accreditation status by implementing appropriate systems and compliance.*

Serious stuff! However Jeremy is swift to reveal that he’s really a gamer at heart and relishes his reinvention as Dr Freeman.

"Working at CCH is much like working at the Black Mesa lab," he says.  "Both places are full of amazing technology, both are staffed by ingenious technicians and both regularly mess about with portals to terrifying alien worlds.  Visitors needn't worry, though - next time one of our experiments goes wrong, I'll be there, crowbar in one hand and museum health and safety policy in the other."   

*Museum Accreditation is the UK standard for museums and galleries. It defines good practice and identifies agreed standards, thereby encouraging development. It is a baseline quality standard that helps guide museums to be the best they can be, for current and future users.

For further information contact: Elaine Symonds

elaine@computinghistory.org.uk

Date : 07-05-2015

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