about Christine Wilks

writer & new media artist

I create multimedia works for the web and occasionally live performance and installation. I also write fiction, have written screenplays and made a number of short films and videos. As a freelancer, I develop e-learning content and courses, and teach creative media workshops.

I’m a regular contributor to the remix - a creative blog where digital media artists and writers remix each other’s media in the spirit of open collaboration. Since January 2007 I've created more than 60 Flash animations and interactive pieces for the remix and they are also collected in my blog: crissXross / wilX

A recent highlight is the devil’s rope journal, which grew out of the remix, and was premiered in a live presentation at Interactive Futures 2007 in Canada. Read more about it here.

Download the devil’s rope journal (in zip format, including versions for both Mac and PC).

I'm currently studying part-time on the Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University. Tailspin is my latest new media fiction project and here's my connected research project that led to its development: Exploring methodologies for non-linear story development

Background

I live in Leeds in the North of England, where I was born and brought up, although for 20 years I lived in Cardiff, South Wales.

I started out as an artist and film-maker, gaining a BA Hons and MA from the School of Fine Art in Cardiff (now part of University of Wales Institute, Cardiff).

Later I went on to write screenplays, including a commission to develop an original comedy-drama series for the BBC.

I started creating hypermedia works for the web in Summer 2004 - thanks to a wonderful Digital Writing course at the now archived trAce Online Writing Centre. My article Alice and the Digital Dump was published by trAce in March 2005.

From 2004-2005 I was part of the Writer Development Programme at Yorkshire Art Circus. My short story - Dragon - was published in the literary magazine - YAC YAC - and I screened my hypermedia poetry at the magazine launch in July 2005.

In Autumn 2005 I took part in Multiversity, a Yorkshire tour of live literature events. I gave live performances of crissXross, a combination of my digital artworks and the spoken word, at Ilkley Literature Festival and Sheffield's Off the Shelf Festival. In Bradford I premiered Cutting Words, a multi-media performance, in collaboration with my sister, sculptor Melanie Wilks, at Theatre In The Mill.

To earn a living, I work as a freelance tutor and facilitator of creative media and writing workshops. As part of Make It Happen, a training and consultancy company working in the voluntary and community sector, I develop e-learning content and courses, and other creative communications.