Christine Wilks Explained

Christine Ann Wilks (born 1960)^[1] is a British digital writer and artist whose work in electronic literature has been published in online journals and anthologies.^[2] Her interactive Fitting the Pattern (2008) depicting memories of her mother by drawing on dressmaking tools is considered to be a "born digital" work.^[3] Underbelly, presenting a digital account of women working in the pits of northern England, won the New Media Writing Prize 2010 as well as the 2010/11 MaMSIE Digital Media Prize.^{[4] [5]} In 2021, Wilks earned a Ph.D. in digital writing from Bath Spa University with a thesis titled "Stiched Up in The Conversengine: Using Expressive Processing and Multimodal Languages to Create a Character-Driven Interactive Digital Narrative".^[6]

Biography

Born in June 1960, as of mid-2022, Christine Wilks is based in Leeds in the north of England.^[1] After graduating in fine art from the South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education in 1982, Wilks earned a masters degree in Fine Arts from the Cardiff Institute of Higher Education in 1992.^[7] In 2008, she received a second master's degree in creative writing and new media from De Montfort University. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in digital writing from Bath Spa University in 2021.^{[8] [6]}

Wilks has spent many years with the electronic learning company, Make It Happen Now, where since 2011 she has served as creative director.^{[1] [9]} From 2007, she was a key member of R3M1XW0RX, a remixing project for digital media which was developed until 2012.^[10]

Wilks recounts that she began as a visual artist but moved into filmmaking and joined the trAce Online Writing Centre, set up by Sue Thomas.^[11]

Awards

Underbelly won the New Media Writing Prize 2010 and the MaMSIE Digital Media Competition 2011.

Works

Electronic literature works

• Writing New Body Worlds
• Stitched Up
• Inkubus, 2014. This is a largely 3D narrative-based game.^[12] Reviewed in Electronic Literature as Digital Humanities ^[13]
• A Revolution of Words (HTML, CSS, Javascript)
• Upside Down Chandelier (Collaboration with Maria Mencia, Jeneen Naji, and Zuzana Husárová)
• R3M1XW0RX, 2007- 2013, various media
• A crissxross trail (originally included Flash)
• Rememori, 2011 (originally Flash)
• Out of Touch, 2011 (originally Flash)
• Underbelly, 2010 (originally Flash) . Underbelly explores a hypertext-guided connection between the carving of a successful sculptor of today and the submissive women who in the past carved out coal from a Yorkshire colliery.^{[3] [14]} Published in Studies in the Maternal, Volume 3 • Issue 2 • 2011 • Special Issue: Motherhood, Servitude and the Delegation of Care^[15] Wilks analyzes this piece in #WomenTechLit^[16]
• Fitting the Pattern, 2008 (originally Flash). The interactive Fitting the Pattern (2008) depicts memories of her mother by drawing on the vocabulary of dressmaking tools. It is considered to be a "born digital" work.^[3] The reader is required to cut, sew and weave to appreciate the relationship between daughter and mother.^[17]
• Tailspin, 2008 (originally Flash)
• Heights, 2006 (originally Flash). This poem was inspired by the Sagrada Familia and other church spires.^{[18] [19]}
• IntraVenus, 2005 (originally Flash). This work combines an image from the Venus of Urbino by Titian as well as voices and photography in a complex polysemy: a phonetic game showing both desire and violence.^[20]
• We Drank, 2005 (originally Flash)
• Social Dis-Ease, 2004 (originally Flash)
• Sitting Pretty aka Before We Begin, 2004 (HTML and CSS)

Essays

• These Waves …:" Writing New Bodies for Applied E-literature Studies ^[21] Also published in First Person Scholar.^[22]
• Chapter 7: Bodies in Elit ^[23] Edited by Dene Grigar & James O’Sullivan Bloomsbury Academic Bloomsbury Publishing Inc. 2021

External links

• Christine Wilks website

Notes and References

1. Web site: Christine Ann Wilks - Leeds. Check Company. 18 September 2022 .
2. Web site: Christine Wilks. Washington State University. 2012. 18 September 2022 .
3. Book: New Approaches to Literature for Language Learning . Springer. Naji, Jeneen; Subramaniam, Ganakumaran; White, Goodith. 2019. 18 September 2022. 102 . 978-3-030-15256-7.
4. Web site: Visual Work: Maternal Subjectivities, Care and Labour", Studies in the Maternal 3(2). Mamsie. Pullinger, Kate. 1 July 2011. 18 September 2022 .
5. Web site: Previous Shortlists & Winners. New Media Writing Prize. 18 September 2022 .
6. Web site: 'Stitched up' in the 'Conversengine': using expressive processing and multimodal languages to create a character-driven interactive digital narrative. PhD thesis, Bath Spa University. Bath Spa University. 2020. Wilks, C.. 18 September 2022 .
7. Web site: Book Review . Electronic . 5 April 2020 . Christine Wilks . Electronic Book Review.
8. Web site: Christine Wilks. elmcip. 18 September 2022 .
9. Web site: Third Hand Plays: "Out of Touch" by Christine Wilks. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Stefans, Brian. 28 July 2011. 18 September 2022 .
10. Web site: R3/\/\1X\/\/0RX - selected works. elmcip. 18 September 2022 .
11. Web site: Literary Review . Electronic . 20 January 2017 . Interview with Christine Wilks . electronicliteraturereview.
12. Web site: Hight . Jeremy . 16 November 2022 . Unlikely Stories .
13. Book: Electronic Literature as Digital Humanities: contexts, Forms, and Practice. Bloomsbury Academic Publishing Inc. . 2021 . 978-1-5013-6349-8 . New York . 43–46 . English. Edited by Dene Grigar & James O’Sullivan Bloomsbury Academic Bloomsbury Publishing Inc. 2021
14. Web site: Underbelly. Electronic Literature Directory. 19 September 2022 .
15. Web site: Wilks . Christine . 1 July 2011 . Visual Work: Maternal Subjectivities, Care and Labour, Underbelly . Studies in the Material.
16. Book:
    1. WomenTechLit
    . West Virginia University Press Computing Literature . 243–254 . English.
17. Web site: Christine Wilks' Women, Politics and Poetics. International Journal of Transmedia Literacy, Vol 2. Doménech, Oreto. 2016. 19 September 2022 .
18. Web site: Christine Wilks. Electronic Literature Directory. 18 September 2022 .
19. Web site: Heights. Bilumliteraria. Remírez, Féliz. July 2022. 18 September 2022 . es.
20. Web site: Doménech . Oreto . 2021 . Christine Wilks' Women, Politics and Poetics . Led on Line: Electronic Archive of Academic and Literary Texts.
21. Wilks . Christine . 5 April 2020 . "These Waves …:" Writing New Bodies for Applied E-literature Studies . Electronic Book Review. 10.7273/c26p-0t17 .
22. Web site: Person Scholar . First . 2022 . First Person Scholar .
23. Book: Electronic Literature as Digital Humanities: contexts, Forms, and Practice. Bloomsbury Academic Publishing Inc. . 2021 . 978-1-5013-6349-8 . New York . 43–46 . English.