Today Thomas from the ShelfLife Team is chatting with Char Simpson, a non-binary artist, interactive writer, creative producer, and avid collagist who specialises in the mapping and crafting of compelling immersive stories. Char is the co-creator and writer of the interactive horror installation ‘Alexa, Call Mom!’ a project virtually teased in the Tribeca wing of the Museum of Other Realities.

This Q & A is the first of what will hopefully be a series of cool, fresh, fun and informative interviews with other LGBTQIA+ and diverse people working in the world of interactive media.

—THOMAS:
Char, your resume is padded! A dual MFA in writing and interactive media, writer-in-residence positions, a wide variety of successful projects through a multitude of different genres including digital storytelling, VR, Horror, Education, and Healthcare, plus work exhibited at Tribeca Virtual Arcade...

—CHAR:
In the US, saying that someone’s resume is padded implies that it’s mostly fantasy, but I promise it’s all true!

—THOMAS:
Oops! In my mind the phrase meant like "full to the brim of fantastic stuff". Must have been watching too much Drag Race, "padded" has a much more positive connotation on that show! In any case, where did this passion for narrative and interactive works from? Were there particularly influential books/games/movies that set you down this path?

—CHAR:
I have major plot paralysis when it comes to writing. There are so many different directions a story can take, and I end up getting caught up in all of them. When I wrote my first book, Eighth Grade Witch (for Choose Your Own Adventure), it felt really natural to just keep pushing more out of the story, like popping a huge zit! 

 I don’t think there’s a specific work that pushed me toward interactive fiction, but ‘The Psychoanalysis of Fire’ by Gaston Bachelard and ‘House of Leaves’ by Mark Z. Danielewki are enduring favorites. I love writing and experiences that -in the words of Clarice Lispector- “go past imagination and grasp reality”. I think non-linear thinking creates work that feels alive and unpredictable.

—THOMAS:
House of Leaves was one of the first gifts I got my BF - it’s a wild ride! When embarking on your creative process, where do you begin? How do you go about constructing an interactive narrative for a specific location, medium or hardware?

—CHAR:
This is going to sound like an anti-secret, but I believe in just starting early and revising ad nauseum. It is mandatory to find the core of the story and that can sometimes take a long time. I have to get through a lot of my own assumptions of what I feel the story should be before I really find it. Author Ottessa Moshfegh sums this idea up beautifully in her essay ‘How to Shit’, she writes: “I learn by digesting my own delusions. It’s often very disgusting.”

I write the story, chart all the twists and turns, realize its all wrong and do it again. I do that over and over until I can read the story without grossing myself out. When I find it, it feels right, but I have to sift through a lot of garbage first.

(Enjoy this Stock Photo)

—THOMAS:
2020 has been a challenging year for artists. How do you balance productivity and self-care, and what's your top tier comfort food?

—CHAR:
I’m something of a workaholic. Especially in quarantine, remote collaboration has helped me remain sane and stave off some existential dread. I’ve been re-examining my relationship to productivity and capitalism lately, and whether or not this crisis could be a kind of renaissance for interactive work. My self-care has become related to productivity in a way that… might be positive? If I’m busy with something I’m generally happier, but I also like sitting down with a cup of Earl Grey tea and an excellent cookie.

—THOMAS:
We're always excited to see works from other queer creators (and happy to see more LGBTQIA+ people as writers and directors for interactive). How do you feel that gender diverse and minority sexuality artists can benefit from working in games/interactive (and how does the industry itself benefit from having us working in it?)

—CHAR:
I love this question, I feel like it’s not asked enough. Gaming and interactive, at its core, is about looking at dominating paradigms and either subtly abusing them or destroying them in a explosion of fiery glory… It’s about thrill rides and “holy shit” moments. It’s so much fun because learning really becomes a full-bodied, gamified experience. I think we’ve become more porous toward entertainment, enter ‘edutainment’ (a word I hate, but…). We have the power to create programs and experiences that heal, shift cognitive function, and transform the way we teach. To really make a difference we need to collaborate with artists who defy classification. To exist in an in between space causes waves and creates enough turbulence for things to change.

I think we’re in an incredible moment of social change, but we need to make a lot more space for LGBTQIA+ identities, artists, and stories. Our industry needs an influx of compassion, accountability, and fearlessness. When you spend a certain percentage of your life proving the validity of your existence these traits come naturally.

—THOMAS:
With regards to non-binary visibility specifically, are there certain elements you would like to see explored with non-binary characters in interactive storytelling?

—CHAR:
I am really interested in the history of fluid identities. We have been here for centuries, and developing more stories around our connection to myth, nature, and folklore fascinates me. We value certainty so much in our culture and stories that actively navigate ideas of flux really inspire me. I hope we can find a way to simultaneously uplift and normalize fluidity as an important part of lived experience. I’d love to see more fluid love stories out there!

“Alexa, Call Mom!”

—THOMAS:
You were co-creator, writer and project manager on the extremely well-received project "Alexa, Call Mom!" (or as we'd say 'Mum'). This work sounds like it almost combines urban-séance folklore with the discomfort of emergent technology (the approaching singularity). Can you give us the vibe of the "Alexa, Call Mom" experience?

—CHAR:
The vibe is definitely creepy, we’ve been working toward a feeling of elevated horror. No blood, haunted house tricks, or spooky visuals. The installation is a comforting space, reminiscent of a living room. We lure the participant into an aura of calm that they unwittingly give up as Alexa contacts Mom. The comfort of home is subverted and becomes unstable, the feeling of convenience and immediacy around the Alexa branded Séance is twisted into an invasion.

—THOMAS:
In a world where Black Mirror has perhaps lost its edge - how did you come up with "Alexa, Call Mom!", and what do you think makes a story like this resonate so effectively?

—CHAR:
The co-creator of Alexa, Call Mom! Nitzan Bartov approached me with the concept of Alexa as a spiritual medium.  We both found it so hilarious and it really started as a joke between us. When I started writing it we found that the veil of humor was very thin, and underneath were issues of surveillance, consent, and the dark side of convenience. I think the humor is what really draws people to it and buoys the experience when it becomes dark. We built it as a space for a user to feel comfortable interfacing with Alexa in a new, experimental way. It is a horror experience that demands personal introspection on grief, love, and devotion in the dark, an “emotionally haunted house.”

“Eighth Grade Witch”

—THOMAS:
We remember with confused fondness playing through Goosebumps and Dungeons and Dragons gamebooks in the late 90's / early 2000's. Can you talk a little bit about the overlap of creating narrative works for interactive/VR, and working on YA choose-your-own-adventure literature?

—CHAR:
They definitely lap at each other! The major difference in writing is the level of user intervention. The more you ask of a user, the more complicated the writing process becomes because the directives and narrative have to be choreographed so that they propel the experience forward holistically. A great story can be told in any medium, but interactive/VR and choose-your-own-adventure absorb the story in different ways. CYOA allows more twists and turns because the level of user intervention is limited to simple choice making on the page. Interactive/VR work has a care-taking element that can be challenging but that process is what transforms the work from story to experience. There is nothing more rewarding than watching a user just “get it”.

—THOMAS:
Explorations of horror and 'the supernatural' in storytelling can sometimes come partnered with questionable tropes and problematic cliches (poor treatment of minority characters, ableism, sexuality, culture, tokenism, etc). How do we go about moving past cliches within the horror genre, and create richer story worlds with dark themes that feel fresh?

—CHAR:
Oh, yeah, this is something I think about a lot. At its best, horror exposes the most odious parts of our culture and has the potential to create fascinating and engaging analogies that make us question ourselves and our world. However, its formulaic use of unacceptable clichés is not entertaining or artful. The best part about horror is that it can constantly regenerate and shift, like a changeling. I think we need to take a match to our current reality and smoke out the monsters within it. There’s a lot of horror going on right now and I hope to see and create more work around that.

That’s a wrap!

—THOMAS:
Thanks for covering so many topics with us! Before we wrap up, got any exciting new works coming up on the horizon?

—CHAR:
I have some fun horror work on the horizon. It’s early days but I have been doing lots of research on PsyOps and Faeries.

—THOMAS:
Spooky, intriguing and topical! Can’t wait to see how you tackle that. Any shout-outs to underrated artists or projects you'd like to give? (Nobody reads our blog but maybe some bots will hit these links up).

—CHAR:
I’d love to shout out the Alexa, Call Mom! Team:
+ Co-creator, Director, and interactive designer: Nitzan Bartov. Nitzu.me
+ Creative Technologist: Nouf Aljowaysir. NoufAljowaysir.com

Also:
+ The Mortuary, an LA-based curatorial initiative and lab for unclassifiable projects. Themortuaryla.com
+ Lutte Collective, a space for disabled and chronically ill artists.
@luttecollective and Luttecollective.com

—THOMAS:
Awesome, very excited to check out all of them shout-out links! Thanks so much for diving into this Q&A with us, your answers are incredible and I feel 647% smarter and more motivated just from hearing your thoughts! Double-thanks to you, as well, for being the very first casuality in our [Interactive Diversity] interview series!

Thanks for reading! You can check out Char’s portfolio at Charsimp.com or follow @shar.cimp