Event overview
The last seminar in the Auto / Bio / Fiction series this academic year combines a practical writing workshop with digital role-playing game
Beverly Frydman & Rochelle Robshaw, 'Writing the Ordinary'
Starting as a writing project to try to write each day, our joint work now spans 9 years and has developed into a complex exchange of the mundane and the profound. Moments of our lives are woven together in disconnected email exchanges to create pieces of life writing. Our exchanges are not based on a call and response, but focus on either Beverly or Rochelle’s written moment in space and time.
Built on those thoughts which tend to fall into the cracks of our lives, the work falls into the concept of negative space, and the sheer volume of writing offers a unique picture of connection with ourselves, each other and the world.
Although we both live in London we seldom meet yet our shared memoir is a rich inter-active life writing project, playing with time and form, yet always rooted in our identities as two women whose only connection is through the thread of the emails.
Our work falls happily into 'the temporal and spatial dimensions of life narratives' and our future intent is to explore how we can weave our work with music, sound and the visual arts.
For this seminar we will offer a practical writing workshop, in which pairs of attendees will respond to lines in the chat. The end result will build into a long piece of tapped moments, which might repeat, ebb or flow away.
Xiyuan Tan, 'Defeating the ‘boss characters’ of my life: Representing life turning points and adversities in an autofiction RPG'
This research is an autoethnographic case study that investigates the composition of autofiction using of digital game-making applications. A work-in-progress RPG created by the author is analysed from a visual narrative perspective. The game is set in a fictitious medieval fantasy universe, and represents the author’s key life events through various video game visuals such as character design, map design, level design, boss design and cutscene illustrations. Although the game applies pre-made codes and graphic assets from the game-making application ‘SRPG Studio’, the character portrait illustrations, level map layouts and cutscene visuals are all original work of the author.
Some of the game’s chapters focus on telling stories of life turning points such as the death of a friend, while others represent experiences of confronting adversities including bullying and interpersonal relationship challenges. The game outcomes suggest that comprehensive visual narrative skills combined with the versatility of game-making applications makes it possible for us to create interactive game levels that could represent anything ranging from literal events to metaphoric concepts.
Three chapters/levels from the author’s game will be taken as examples, covering topics of bullying, coming out as LGBTQ+ and grieving and focusing on how characters, map layouts and level progression narrate the author’s experiences within the autofiction video game context.
Further information on the seminar and the speakers
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 6 Mar 2025 | 5:30pm - 7:15pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
