The LAN party revival makes public radio
KCRW sent Jennifer Swann to Paizley Lee’s roving Dead Internet Theory, where Angelenos haul towers and CRTs for the pleasure of one cable.
Three weeks ago we covered the iMac Rainbow, Paizley Lee’s floor of candy-colored G3s at the second LA night of Dead Internet Theory. Now the LAN revival has made public radio: KCRW aired a five-minute segment by Jennifer Swann on Lee’s roving event, and the station’s photo carousel—towers, CRTs, a room strung together with cable—is exactly the kind of thing that used to circulate on burned CDs.
The format Lee is reviving died of convenience. LAN parties existed because the internet was too slow to carry multiplayer, so the multiplayer came to the room: tower, monitor, cords, all of it lugged to a friend’s place. “It was everybody bringing something,” Lee told KCRW. Lee tagged along to those parties as a kid and now stages them for Angelenos at ark/8, on machines scavenged from around the country.
It's no surprise that the theme has been presence: the machines are less stimulating than phones, so the game is the only thing happening, and the people around you are actually there. It's one of the arguments for why games are such a compelling break, compared to other passive, lean-out, always-on media. An Ethernet cable is a commitment device.So I don't think nostalgia for CRT glass is the driver here, so much as an appetite for one thing at a time, with witnesses.
It says something that this story traveled from a warehouse on La Brea to public radio in a summer: the desire is not niche. Dead Internet Theory is roving, ongoing, and in Killscreen’s own city—follow Lee’s account for the next date. We’ll keep showing up.
Scenes from Dead Internet Theory, via KCRW’s post. Photos: Jennifer Swann/KCRW.
We covered Dead Internet Theory before the radio got there, because scenes like this are what the free Killscreen newsletter exists to catch early.
