This fellowship would support me in my ambitious new project Intrapology, an interactive online queer sci-fi series exploring societal issues from the perspective of alien anthropologists doing fieldwork on Earth. Its queer sci-fi multiverse is inspired by my PhD research in sociotechnical imaginaries, critical post-humanities and new materialism, as well as my lived experience as a queer disabled person.
Facilitated by our original software Intrinsink, our shows have an experimental format of semi-rehearsed live readings over video call. The script shown to actors changes on the fly, responding to interactions such as voting on dialog options, or typing in improv prompts. The audience shapes the protagonist’s narrative about society, reflecting the fact that we all shape society collectively.
Intrapology represents a significant step up in the scale of my work, in terms of team size and budget, thanks to substantial grants from Arts Council England, Innovate UK, and Creative UK. This fellowship would allow me to build on our success, and take more time for creative work, and focus on the aesthetic and narrative goals of the project.
Exploring new collaborations
– Multiplay Network at University of Sunderland
– Sharings with local community in Darlington, including a game jam supporting other artists to create their own test pieces using our software Intrinsink
– Public workshops running worldbuilding games such as Everest Pipkin’s The Ground Itself and Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year
Testing out a new approach
– Adapting our online-first production model to a hybrid performance at a local venue in Sunderland
– R&D workshops with international collaborators such as Soft Chaos Cooperative and Transcend Streaming
– Production costs for a hybrid performance of Intrapology
– Further building on our integrated access, such as audio description and pauses to allow audience to process the relatively large amounts of information that our format can involve
Exploring new ideas
– Researching “naff towns” and “naff theory”, connecting the conditions of northern towns to common issues facing low-income communities at the peripheries of the imperial core.
– Putting together plans for Season Two of Intrapology and exploring new interaction features and audience engagement activities that push our work further
County Durham and Rotherham are both priority places for Arts Council England. Living in Rotherham, I am sensitive to the pitfalls of bringing in artists from outside, which can make local artists feel ignored and provide only short-term impact that ends when the artist leaves. I would try to use this residency to contribute to networks both locally and internationally, that can continue to grow after my residency ends.
I would take the residency as an opportunity to develop a new collaboration with Steph Farnsworth, Lecturer in Media and Communications and founder of Multiplay at University of Sunderland, which aims to strengthen networks for games scholars and creators in the Northeast. I would also tie this work in with existing academic collaborations, such as CRASSH at Cambridge University, University of Sheffield, DiGRA, ASU CSI, and non-academic organisations such as Critical Distance.
The hybrid format of Intrapology lends itself to performances in local venues, and its narrative themes resonate with heritage buildings. I am particularly interested in the Darlington Hippodrome as one possible venue for a hybrid interactive performance, inspired by Allie Carr’s work exploring the theatre’s history from a feminist perspective. Many small northern towns feature these beautiful structures that were created out of political and economic conditions that no longer exist, and conserving these spaces is a form of collaborative worlding that requires active and intentional effort by a community that believes in their ongoing potential.
I am a neuroqueer and disabled writer, researcher, and digital artist, creating interactive media based on social and historical research. I recently completed a PhD by practice in Sociology at Lancaster University, submitting original videogames alongside a traditional dissertation. I am one of Sheffield Theatres’ supported artists, and a fellow of the Imaginary College at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination. I have been incorporating oral history into videogame-like interactive pieces since 2018, when I carried out a residency in Tokyo interviewing transgender people and turning the material into Tamagotchi-like characters. I further developed this method in the 2019-2020 Freelands Residency with Site Gallery, by developing Cis Penance, a large project based on 45 interviews with trans people in the UK. In 2023 I received a DYCP grant to research accessible design for games and the web, and better serve disabled audiences. Since 2021 I have been developing a practice in interactive theatre. With the support of the New Conversations programme (British Council, Canadian Council for the Arts), I developed new interactive theatre technology with Canadian videogame artist Dietrich “Squinky” Squinkifer. I have worked with Sheffield Theatres Young Company and Megaverse as a games consultant, and my work has been supported by the Bank Cohort programme, Theatre Delicatessen, Barrel Organ Theatre, Arts Council England, Innovate UK, and Creative UK. I am currently working on an ambitious multi-year project called Intrapology, which primarily takes the form of interactive online performances but also encompasses video art, interactive fiction, and independent social web initiatives. Intrapology is about how people make worlds together, and the cataclysmic social fragmentation that threatens to unmake them. In the season finale this autumn, the audience will decide whether to preserve the power dynamic that keeps our world together, or destroy it in the hope that we can find more autonomy in fragmentation.
My post-graduate education has been positioned at the intersection between humanities research and applied arts.
2012 MA (Royal College of Art) History of Design and Material Culture Studies, a programme which places students in the research department of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
2024 PhD by practice (Lancaster University) Sociology, for which I submitted my own videogame artworks alongside a written thesis.
I have received multiple professional grants and awards for my art practice. Here I will highlight three organisations that have supported my work.
## Arts Council England
2024 Project Grants award for Intrapology
2023 DYCP award for accessible design in web and games
2019 Project Grant award for Empty Carriage: an interactive self-portrait
2019 Project Grant award for Cis Penance: Transgender Lives in Wait
2018 Project Grant award for Interactive Portrait Cushions
Arts Council England has supported my practice through multiple grants and awards which have played an essential part in my transition from critical writing about interactive media to creating my own original works. In 2018-2019 I worked on a series of pieces developing methods of turning ethnographic research into interactive media installations. Specifically, these projects focused on interviews as one research modality, dialogue with videogame characters, and installation methods that subvert expectations of digital media through feminine-coded objects such as applique cushions or a coach-built pram.
## Freelands Foundation
2018-2020 Freelands Artist Programme / Site Gallery Platform Residency, Cohort 1
[The Freelands Artist Programme](https://www.sitegallery.org/news/freelands-artist-programme-artists-announced/) was created to support and enhance collaboration between 80 emerging artists and four arts organisations, to build and strengthen professional arts practice outside of London. I was one of the first five artists selected for the Sheffield cohort, and received over £20,000 of investment, including a £10,000 bursary, production grants and travel budget, as well as guidance and mentorship through Site Gallery and the Freelands Foundation’s curators, and an exhibition of my work at Site Gallery Sheffield and the Freelands Foundation in London.
## Space Studios
2019-2020 Art + Tech residency
In 2019 I was accepted for a three-month residency at our new Art + Tech studios at [SPACE Ilford, Redbridge](https://spacestudios.org.uk/studios/ilford-35-new-studios/) as part of their Art + Technology programme, following an open call looking for artists who “will build the worlds for post-labour futures, turning gamification upside down and showing us how to subvert or better understand the rules of the game.” I received a stipend of £1,800, a production allowance of £500, and curatorial support. This residency was originally intended to take place in London, but due to the pandemic was moved online. Our final showcase was held in a 3D transmedia space accessible through VR or web browsers, which displayed some of my work creating interactive portraits of trans people in the UK.
World building is a major theme and method in my work, and draws on my experiences of place making and community building with other artists, which range from grassroots event organising with QGCon to work on the board of trustees for digital arts charity NEoN. Below I will describe in more detail my work on the board directors of two grassroots non-profits: Critical Distance, and Typeset CIC, the latter of which I founded.
## Critical Distance
Critical Distance was founded in 2009 as a point of connection for critical discourse on games. Rather than acting as yet another publisher or outlet of games writing, it functions as a curated aggregator of insightful writing from around the web, through activities such as a weekly link roundup. Activities such as podcasting and running a Discord server allow Critical Distance to facilitate in-depth discussions about games as an artistic medium, the political economy of the games industry, etc.
I became Senior Curator of Critical Distance in 2015. In addition to maintaining the weekly roundups, I set up an archiving initiative that created backups of everything we linked to, as a backstop against the pervasive issue of “linkrot”. I joined the Board of Directors after standing down as Senior Curator in 2018, and since then I have led community activities such as “writing jams” and facilitated new partnerships with educational institutions such as the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and Arizona State University’s Centre for Science and the Imagination (ASU CSI).
## Typeset
I started Typeset CIC in 2021, to respond to a lack of cultural spaces in Rotherham town centre, and recruited a board of directors of local neurodivergent LGBTQ+ people working in the creative sector. It aims to support creativity and social connection for local people, provide a platform for artistic experimentation, and bring more activity to Rotherham’s ailing town centre.
For our first year, we operated a bookshop in a heritage building, creating an inspiring space close to local independent cafes and leading culture organisations. I secured local authority funding to run workshops and public events, and worked with Barnsley College and University of Sheffield to provide valuable work experience opportunities to young people with an interest in arts, retail, and/or cultural organisations.
I have taken part in multiple residencies, ranging from international programmes funded by governmental organisations to informal site-specific residencies organised with grassroots organisations. Here I will highlight three recognised residency programmes that I have participated in.
## 2022 Sheffield Theatres Bank Cohort
The Bank opened in November 2019 as Sheffield Theatres’ creative hub dedicated to talent development. Located adjacent to the Crucible, this is a creative space for local artists and theatre makers to develop work, skills, collaborations and careers with the support of Sheffield Theatres. The Bank Cohort is a talent development scheme for creatives with at least two years of experience in the relevant discipline. As a supported artist, I benefitted from support developing skills in interactive theatre, working with local theatre organisations as a researcher and designer.
## 2021 New Conversations
New Conversations is an exchange between Canada and UK, funded by the British Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Farnham Maltings, and the High Commission of Canada in the UK. In 2021 it invested over £200,000/$350,000 to increase collaborations between Canadian and British artists with an emphasis on new partnerships.
This programme supported a collaboration with Dietrich “Squinky” Squinkifer (Quebec, Canada) on Protocol integration: a queer and socially awkward interactive online play (working title), an exploratory online interactive play using the qualities of online video to highlight the awkwardness of social performance and transgender experiences of neurodiversity.
## 2018 Project to Support Emerging Media Arts Creators
Organised by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (Bunka-cho), the Project to Support Emerging Media Arts Creators encourages young creators in order to improve the industry standards in media arts for the coming generations. As an international artist in residence, I spent three months in Tokyo interviewing transgender people and experiencing cultural activities ranging from meetings with museum curators to events for local independent game developers. The resulting works have toured internationally as Interactive Portraits: Trans People in Japan.
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