Chromium Lemonade is the rambling intellectual explosion of writer, Art historian and critic Diana Poulsen. Reading Chromium Lemonade provides the mind with vitamin enriched reading material on Art, Literature, Videogames, Skepticism and occasional ramblings on Canadian Politics. Chromium Lemonade is refreshing. However, it must never be taken internally as it may result in a variety of conditions such as: chronic and debilitating neurosis, hyper- itchy megalo-World of Warcraft-mania, explosive nerd syndrome and general shininess.*
Biography: Diana Poulsen is an aspiring fiction writer, art historian , videogame** critic, former visual artist and general know-it-all. (She has also formed a habit of writing her bio in the third person.) Having completed her BFA in Visual Arts at York University in 2005 she exhibited widely including Australia, Canada, England, New York and Slovenia. She no longer considers herself a practicing artist since she prefers to write and hasn’t shown any work since 2008.
As an art historian Poulsen is able to write on all manners of art work. However, she does an extensive background in New Media, Assemblage, Collage, the Independent Group and the Neo-Baroque. She firmly believes in criticism and asking hard questions, which often makes her a pariah at parties.
From 2005- 2009 she volunteered as a videogame critic and videogame section editor for MONDO magazine.
She finished her Masters in Art History at the University of Western Ontario in 2010.
Currently she writes a column on art history and critical theory for Kill Screen and teaches art history at Fanshawe College.
While primarily a modernist, her research interests extend to prehistoric art and the middles ages. Her MA thesis, “But today we collect videogames”, is an examination of the parallels between videogames and visual art drawing on the Independent Group, the Situationist International, the neo-baroque and collage. She is a member of the Canadian Gaming Studies Association and has presented a number of academic papers on the similarities between videogames and art to her peers.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft, Winter Voices, Terraria, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Skyrim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Uncharted (all)
Raids as: WoW – Combat Rogue and Discipline/Holy Priest . (I have an iced DK tank)
Leveling: Red Mage – FFXI, (Hiatus) Rift – Rogue (PvE- Bard/Nightblade/Bladedancer PvP- Riftstalker/Saboteur/Infiltrator), Cleric (PvE -Sentinel/Justicar PvP- Cabalist/Purifer), Mage (PvP and PvE Dominator/Stormcaller and Chloromancer/Warlock/Archon )
Favourite mod: Grid
Freelance writing capabilities:
Areas of expertise :
1. Art History – Contemporary, Art Theory and Art Theorical Texts, Prehistoric Art, Neo-Baroque, Assemblage, Collage, New Media, Multimedia, the Independent Group, Pop Art, etc
2. Videogames – Survival Horror, RPG, MMOs (World of Warcraft), PSP, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, RetroGaming (Sega Saturn, NES, Game gear, etc).
3. Literature – Fantasy, Young Adult novels, classic literature, Science fiction, pretty much I will read anything. Yes, I do review books and will take submissions.
4. Fiction – Drama, Romance, thriller, speculative fiction, fantasy.
5. New Age/Skepticism – Ghost Hunting, explanations of paranormal phenomena, background in debunking, background in methods of fortune telling, Occult, etc. (I am the director of the small and theoretically based London Ontario Paranormal Society(LOPS))
*Chromium Lemonade is not a doctor and cannot diagnose your illness. You could very well be the picture of health.
**I spell ‘videogame’ as one word, instead of the more popular ‘video game’, because videogame is the preferred spelling in the field of Game Studies.
