Abstract

circuits is a narrative Twine Game that explores the act of remembering, witnessing, and narrativizing sexual trauma in a time when conversations about what constitutes sexual trauma, how to talk about it, and which discursive communities have a stake in this discussion are particularly prominent in media, classrooms, and art. Through poetry and photography, circuits looks specifically at an individual’s experiences with sexual trauma in order to explore how the act of writing sexual trauma is negated and rehashed through institutions, on media platforms, and in courtrooms. circuits’ fragmented and cyclical construction reflects the chaos of remembering and repeating trauma. As the story winds around itself, the artificial photos develop, constructing a body as well as a narrative, and suggesting that trauma narratives are not just repetitive, but regenerative. The title of this project, circuits, reflects the interwoven process of narrating one’s own trauma through the body, media, and institutions, as well as the power in and difficulties of reconciling one’s experiences with the trauma of others. Circuits weaves together many conflicting themes including self-identification and self-harm, archival obsessions and erasure, censorship and hyper-publicity, truth and facts, submissiveness and authority, to create an interconnected map of experiences that the reader/player must navigate. My goal in publishing circuits online is to explore how interactive platforms such as Twine can not only make a story more accessible, but allow for new methods of storytelling. This paper copy of circuits is intended to only be read in addition to the digital version.