Cirrus@Austlit

'“How to Knit a Human – the Interactive Version” was created with choice-based digital storytelling, through the Twine platform. The pathways the reader can take represent the inconsistencies of memory(loss) from a severe episode of psychosis I experienced in 2011 and enforced electroconvulsive therapy treatments. The creative process for the interactive version began with my adaptation of my memoir manuscript. As I developed this piece of electronic literature, I incorporated the visual along with the text, creating my own animations, drawings, and scans for an immersive experience. The reader can engage in these parts of my story and actively participate in the losing and regaining of agency through my narrative perspective, to gain a better understanding of my experience. As a result, this work could also benefit mental health professionals as an important resource, to empathise with one example of a patient’s journey through the psychiatric hospital system. Through the digital form, I allowed my experience to travel beyond what a traditional text can do by utilising multiple choices that link to different alternatives and possibilities that exist in my memory. By taking power in my own valuable lived experience, I aim to reduce the stigma in wider society, and institutions.'  (Publication abstract)