Dys4ia

Dys4ia is an interactive, autobiographical narrative dealing with the transgender author's experience of hormone treatment and becoming a woman.

Dys4ia in itself is an assemblage of fractured spaces strung together by a continuous narrative. There is little connection in terms of game play between each of the scenes, some of which last little more than a few seconds. There is no way to win or lose, it is more about engaging the audience through interactivity to heighten the impact of the story which is undoubtedly the focus of work.

As a player you control multiple representations of the protagonist (also the narrator) across the different screens of the game - characters, objects, metaphors and abstractions. To me this highlights how most forms of interactive media confine themselves by their own mechanics. While I praise Portal for its ingenuity and originality in its construction of space, the fact is that it is this same construction which persists throughout the entire game. What I like about Dys4ia is the fact that it entails a multiplicity of spacial arrangements - no sooner than the player has become accustomed or expectant to the workings of a space the rules are reconfigured, not to the point where it becomes overly disorientating but far enough to keep you engaged with the gameplay and by extension, engaged with the narrative. This example shows the potential of the affective nature of space based on a constant and continuous deconstruction of itself. It is this refreshing of convention that makes simple mechanics like those of Dys4ia surprising and constantly immersive as the viewer is never given the opportunity become too comfortable in the world created.