Author Archives: crissxross

xWish card

This movie requires Flash Player 8

remixed for remixworx from: Notes Noir + xmas card + StoneFaceSea

25 December 2011 | Posted in Flash artworks, remixworx | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

occupy everywhere

This movie requires Flash Player 8

remixed for remixworx from: Shadow Capital + Occupy London calls Occupy Everywhere – D15

25 December 2011 | Posted in Flash artworks, remixworx | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

shadow capital

This movie requires Flash Player 8

remixed for remixworx from: shadows of hats + Notes Noir
related to: mondrian money moon

source file: ShadowCapital-dk5_CS4.fla (2.2mb)

3 December 2011 | Posted in Flash artworks, remixworx | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Digital Literature featured in The Independent

Underbelly and Fitting the Pattern recommended works

In an Arts & Entertainments feature in The Independent, Lisa Gee “explores the unbound possibilities of digital-era fiction” and announces the shortlist for the 2011 New Media Writing Prize. She asked a number of people working in digital writing and/or publishing to nominate their favourite works of digital literature and I’m delighted to say that Tim Wright and Jim Pope both recommended Underbelly, and Sue Thomas picked Fitting the Pattern. Here’s what they had to say in the accompanying video:

Underbelly screenshotTim Wright, digital writer/consultant, on Underbelly :

It’s a really interesting use of interactivity, Flash animation,  amazing sound and it’s a story about women miners but then also a thought piece about bearing children and motherhood and balancing work and home.

Dr James Pope, academic & judge/co-founder, New Media Writing Prize, on Underbelly :

I still maybe think it’s the best piece I’ve seen in terms of emotional connection to a piece of interactive work.

Detail from Fitting the PatternSue Thomas, professor of new media, De Montfort University, on Fitting the Pattern:

It’s beautifully designed, but it also has very clever tools within it that you have to learn how to use before you can actually navigate the piece and read the story.

Here are the other recommended works:

New Media Writing Prize 2011 – shortlist

Also announced yesterday on the New Media Writing Prize blog, the shortlist for the student prize:

Student Entries

  • Chasing Pandora – Emily Devereux, Allyson Cikor, Trent Redmond, Mathew Vickery  (Alberta, Canada)
  • 5 Haitis – Simon Kerr  (Nottingham)
  • Maybe Make Some Change – Aaaron A. Reed  (Santa Cruz, California)
  • Unravelled –   Spenser Wain, Zac Urness, Kollin Branicki  (Alberta, Canada)
14 November 2011 | Posted in crissxross | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Rememori – a new work

Rememori - a game and e-poem

Rememori is a degenerative memory game and playable poem that grapples with the effects of dementia on an intimate circle of characters.

Play-read or read-play, however you approach it and whoever you identify with, you’ll become entangled in a struggle for accurate recall, attention and the search for meaning. Inevitably, it’s a contrary game – there can be no winners.

I began creating Rememori about a year ago, when my father was in the later stages of Alzheimer’s Disease but still living at home, being cared for by my mother. I finished the work this weekend, coincidentally just as my father moved from a hospital ward into a Nursing Care Home. On the face of it, the main reason why it’s taken so long to make is because I took time out to work on other projects. During that period my father had a third massive stroke and the prognosis didn’t look good. So for a while, I think I was reluctant to return to the piece. I’m glad I did. There can be no happy endings in situations like these but, now that we have him settled in our preferred Care Home, there’s a sense of respite. I think the work reflects that, certainly in the later stages of the game.

Having said that, the work is a game – it’s not factual, it’s not autobiographical, but like all works of art, it’s fed by reflecting on one’s experience.

Modified image of brain: source thanks to Wellcome Library, London.

7 November 2011 | Posted in crissxross | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)