Using the Twine platform as a tool, Porpentine Charity Heartscape makes games in the format of poetic hypertextual narratives that seek to manufacture a sensitive space for intimate feelings, desires, fiction, femininity, and sex. Either displayed in a museum or played in the private space, the games offer an introspective experience in lo-fi iconoclastic aesthetics challenging the elaborate immersiveness of console games. In contrast to the marshmallowization of digital reality, Porpentine Charity Heartscape offers a pixelized world of “trash” and “slime,” iterating the poisonous violence she has experienced as a person. Girlswampwar Parade is a game about girls at war in a world full of traps and longfin eels. In Thrall of the Dying Sun, the protagonist is a soldier deserting an army formation ready to fight invading pagans. Erotic dialogues intertwine with sorcery and war.

#hypertextual #intimacy #desire #fiction #digitalreality #transgender

photos: Nysos Vasilopoulos, 6th Athens Biennale 2018 ANTI