1. About
  2. Portfolio / Projects
    1. Memoirscape: a cozy interactive experience
    2. Building the Spear: a Blow the Man Down text-adventure
    3. The Puzzling History of His Majesty’s Botanical Society
    4. a rich man comes to your father’s gate
    5. It Was [Not] Like This
    6. Le Chemin de la Mort
    7. wallpaper women
    8. GrapplingHook Submission Toolkit
    9. The Magic Shop I Will Never Own
  3. Academic Work
    1. Publications
    2. Conferences
    3. Colloquia, Guest Lectures, and Select Recent Panels
    4. Teaching Experience
  4. Awards and Honors
  5. Odds and ends from the blog

See also:

About

I’m currently an MFA candidate at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the Interactive Media and Game Design program, where I study and put into practice theories of fiction and audience, as well as a heap of lateral creative thinking.

Fig. 1. Photograph by Matthew J. Burgos of Inkblots and Snapshots, August 2024, in the Workshop of Bad Ideas and Amazing Results. (See my About page for a dedicated press kit.)

I also do experimental archaeology and practice-led research by reconstructing household goods and cosmetics from the Western Scientific Revolution (approximately the 1480s to the 1710s), because humans are amazing and explosions are fun.

(When asked, I tend to consider my active recreations and subsequent storytelling of historical recipes to be a form of interactive media. Though when asked, I can describe a lot of things as interactive media.)

Portfolio / Projects

Memoirscape: a cozy interactive experience

(2024)

Step into the recreated haven of a Queens, NYC, apartment circa 1986. Indulge in the warmth of nostalgia as you experience—or explore—a slice of time from Dr. Julia Adler’s childhood, long before she became a professor or started experimenting with memory technology. Come back to when everything was beautiful and perfect. Because it was perfect. It really was.

Click here for a full credit list

Leadership

  • Kathleen Morrissey, Director-Producer
  • Dr. Melissa Kagen, Narrative & Acting Director
  • Hannah Belan, Art Director
  • Shubham Sharma, Performance Lead and Developer

Performance
The Teaching Assistant

  • Shubham Sharma
  • Liv Bell
  • Marisa Higgins
  • Kathleen Morrissey

The Admin
  • Katherine Crighton
  • Kathleen Morrissey
  • Hannah Belan

Professor Julia Adler
Young Julie Adler
  • Olivia Simon (voice)

Lillian (Grandmother)
  • Nick Smith (voice)

Sean
  • Kweku Akese (voice)

Robert Adler
  • Chase Urban (voice)

Erin Adler
  • Ella Hughes (voice)

Stephanie “Steph” Palmer
  • Axe Kiraly (voice)

TV News Anchor
  • Ricardo Croes-Ball (voice)

Narrative

  • Renee Cullman
  • Mia Mueting
  • Maddie Veccia
  • Marisa Higgins
  • Katherine Crighton (narrative consultant)

Art/Construction
  • Marisa Higgins, Assistant Manager
  • Hannah Belan (room design and theming)
  • Katherine Crighton (ephemera developer)
  • Ricardo Croes-Ball (construction/props)
  • Kanik Hollan (construction/props)
  • Julian Mendez (construction/props)
  • Adrienne Saucier (construction/props)
  • Eric Zhong (construction/props)

Puzzles and Electronics

  • Cumhur Onat, Game Designer (puzzle prop design/build, room electronics, analogue recording transfers)
  • Samin Shahriar Tokey, Game Designer (computer game programmer, backup electronics)

Special thanks to the WPI theater crew and Prof. Sarah Lucie for construction and student voice actors respectively; to Mikel Matticoli for website and ticket system maintenance and archiving; to Mia Mueting for stage management; and to the IMGD faculty for early playtesting and feedback. Several elements of Memoirscape‘s design and narrative, particularly during development, are iterations of a pitch written by Renee Cullman, Maddie Veccia, Mia Mueting, and Liv Bell for Prof. Melissa Kagen’s “Design of Interactive Experiences” course in the Fall of 2023, and their continued presence and creative input were instrumental to the completion of the Memoirscape experience.

If I missed your name or your contribution to the experience– or if you have a website or social you’d like me to link to– please contact me so I can add/edit you!

  • I contributed as a narrative consultant, ephemera developer, and actor. Blog posts about Memoirscape can be found under the #memoirscape tag. Some samples of the ephemera:
  • Close-up photograph of several articles printed on newsprint, the top of which has a circled hint
    Articles on newsprint (front)
  • Close-up photograph of back side of articles printed on newsprint, with advertisements from 1986.
    Articles on newsprint (back)
  • Close-up photograph of two postcards. The top one has writing on, with one line crossed out at the bottom. The bottom postcard has no text on it except the line at the bottom, which is not crossed-out.
    Memory/reality postcards
  • Photograph of a participant survey for Memoirscape.
    Participant surveys with invisible ink
  • Close-up photograph of a collection of lab notes on a clipboard.
    Top page of lab notes
  • Close-up photograph of a pile of "handwritten" game scores and notes.
    Collection of room notes
  • Close-up photograph of a 1986 pizzeria menu edited to match a Queens, NY, location, including map and family notes.
    Edited 1986 pizza menu
  • Photograph of a folded, "handwritten" letter.
    Letter from lost love
  • Photograph of a saddle-stitched journal with cursive "handwriting".
    Experiment journal
  • Photograph of a paperback young adult novel, slightly open to reveal what looks like real pages "handwritten" on.
    New pages in ANNIE ON MY MIND
  • Photograph of inserted pages in the 'memory' copy of the paperback, with "handwritten" inscriptions.
    New pages (memory copy)
  • Photograph of inserted pages in the 'reality' copy of the paperback, with "handwritten" inscriptions, coffee stains, and aging.
    New pages (reality copy)
  • Photograph of inserted pages in the 'lost love' copy of the paperback, with "handwritten" inscriptions.
    New pages (lost-love copy)

Building the Spear: a Blow the Man Down text-adventure

(2023)

The year is 1718 and this is the world of Blow the Man Down, where clever pirate captains Olivier Levasseur and Sam Bellamy, each pursuing the same vast treasure of Spanish gold, meet up and—through storms, enemy fleets, and their combined delight in codes and hidden messages—eventually fall in love.

You, though, are just a simple pirate who’s woken up in a strange place—and with no idea who you are or how you got there. Through your choices, you piece together your memories…and create your own place within the BTMD universe.

  • An interactive fiction story coauthored with Dr. Naomi Jacobs and Shivhan Szabo as a “multimedia poster” to demonstrate principles outlined in our presentation for Fan Studies Network North America 2023.
  • All art was created by Shivhan; Naomi, Shivhan, and I drafted and revised the story; and I used Sugarcube 2.36.1 for Twine 2.6.2 to write the actual gameplay.

The Puzzling History of His Majesty’s Botanical Society

(2023)

The Archives of His Majesty’s Botanical Society have been rediscovered… and now the secret history of the Chesterton family and their efforts for the Crown can at last be decoded. Stories include:

1. The Language of Flowers

2. Le Voyage de Noces

Interlude – Avant La SoirĂ©e

3. An Evening Party

  • An ongoing series of humorous Regency-romance short stories with embedded puzzles.

a rich man comes to your father’s gate

(2023)

You grew up on fairy tales, though you hardly hear them now that your mother is gone. Not with your younger siblings to care for; not with your father, a merchant with too many lost cargos and failed endeavors.

The only stories you hear now are of fortunes lost on storm-tossed seas and brigand-plagued roads and how many mouths he is forced to feed.

You know how so many of these stories start. And you know that there are always trials before there can be a happy ending. But you’re not thinking of fairy tales, the day that the stories come for you.

  • A recursive, atmospheric folk horror story built around “Bluebeard” and the murder ballad “Mr. Fox.” (The next version will include additional fairy tales and ballads!)

It Was [Not] Like This

(2024)

It felt like a moment that could only happen now.

  • Hypertext flashfic that alternates paragraphs randomly when the browser refreshes, creating a “new” story for each visitor to the site. Readers can choose to either refresh multiple times to read all the available angles of the story, or they can view it through the single lens of the random moment.
  • Written with HTML and JavaScript.

Le Chemin de la Mort

(2024)

A final journey
A guided passage
An unknown hereafter

The core focus of our experience is storytelling through scent. Despite being one of the most powerful triggers for memory and emotion in our sensory arsenal, scent’s ephemeral and transitory nature provides a unique creative challenge.

  • Developed by Hannah Belan (Budget Manager and Visual Lead), Shubham Sharma (Electronics and Technology Lead), and Katherine Crighton (Story and Research Lead), “Le Chemin de la Mort: A Scent-Intensive Extrasensory Experience” was a proposal for the “scent” area of a sense-based paranormal immersive experience set in Worcester Polytechnic Institute‘s Higgins House.
  • The proposal included a presentation, video demo, and a perfume researched and then backwards-engineered to align with the Regency-era ghost story developed for the project. In particular, I researched perfume recipes and found one in the Victorian period that used ingredients widely available in the Regency era called “Esprit de Bouquet”. To ensure a further level of plausibility, I changed the base alcohol to match the Cognac found in some Georgian-era recipes, reimagining the perfume to a new, historically plausible creation.
  • The scent was presented during the presentation under the name “Esprit de Bouquet” and pitched as the perfume of a Regency-era ghost audiences would have the opportunity to take with them as a reminder of their journey exiting the overall experience. The remainder of the original batch was later provided to the creative team under the name “Le Chemin de la Mort”; and subsequently over several weeks the recipe was tested and finalized for sale through my Historically Inaccurate Shop under the name “The Green Knight”. (For more information about “The Green Knight”, see the Regarding Scents section of the Experimental Archaeology pages and the related Historically Inaccurate Shop page.)
  • Close-up of small glass jar with dark brown liquid in it, sunlight glowing through it, ground spice visible along the bottom of the jar.
    Demo mixture of “Esprit de Bouquet” for presentation
  • Close-up photograph of a dark brown, matte glass bottle with a black dropper and a small circular kraft-paper label with "LE CHEMIN DE LA MORT 2024: Esprit de Bouquet" handwritten on it.
    Bottled remainder of original mix of “Esprit de Bouquet” for the creative team of “Chemin de la Mort”
  • Four small glass jars, each with different colored liquid interiors and labeled with pink post-it notes. One jar is a light, cloudy brown; another is a darker brown; and another is almost completely clear. The nearest one is the lightest brown, though still cloudy; it's post-it note is legible, and reads "1 oz brandy, clove oil"
    A set of experiments testing the “Esprit de Bouquet” recipe with different base alcohols and natural essences
  • Close-up of glass jar with a rich amber liquid resting on a workshop table. Sunlight shines through it from behind.
    Green Knight finalized experiment
  • Close-up photograph of a dark brown matte glass bottle with a kraft label printed with craftsman-style borders and labeled "The Green Knight". In the background are smaller bottles in the same style.
    Finalized eau de toilette “The Green Knight”
  • "Esprit de Bouquet" recipe from Henry Beasley’s 1871 THE DRUGGIST'S GENERAL RECEIPT BOOK. It reads "ESPRIT DE BOUQUET. English oil of lavender, oil of cloves, and of bergamot, of each 2 dr.; otto of rose and oil of cinnamon, each 20 drops; essence of musk 1 dr, rectified spirit 1 pint; mix."
    “Esprit de Bouquet” recipe from Henry Beasley’s 1871 THE DRUGGIST’S GENERAL RECEIPT BOOK.
  • Septimus Roe’s “Esprit de Bouquet" advertisement, showcased at the 1852 Salisbury Exposition. It reads: "SEPTIMUS ROE, Pharmaceutical and Dispensing Chemist, SILVER STREET, POULTY CROSS, Opposit Minster Street, Salisbury. Prescriptions carefully Prepared. Genuine Patent Medicines. Manufacturer of Soda Water, Ginger Beer, and Lemonade. Proprietor of the celebrated SALISBURY EXHIBITION PERFUME Esprit de Bouquet, A most elegant and refreshing Perfume for the Handkerchief, Toilet, &c., greatly admired for its richness and permanency of fragrance. This admired and recherche Perfume is unrivalled for its excelling sweetness and delightful fragrance, impregnanting the atmosphere of the largest apartment with the grateful odour of a fresh Bouquet. N.B. It is also destructive to Moth. PREPARED ONLY BY S. ROE, CHEMIST, In Bottles, at 1s., 2s., and 3s. 6d. each, SILVER STREET, POULTY CROSS, SALISBURY."
    Septimus Roe’s “Esprit de Bouquet” advertisement, showcased at the 1852 Salisbury Exposition.
  • A recipe Hungary-Water from Pierre-Joseph Buc'hoz's 1779 household manual TOILET OF FLORA. It reads "51. A Receipt to make the genuine Hungary-Water. PUT into an alembic a pound and a half of fresh pickt Rosemary Flowers; Pennyroyal and Marjoram Flowers, of each half a pound; three quarts of good Coniac Brandy; having close stopped the mouth of the alembic to prevent the Spirit from evaporating, bury it twenty-eight hours in horse-dung to digest, and then distil off the Spirit in a water bath."
    A recipe for a medicine (and later, early perfume) called Hungary-Water from Pierre-Joseph Buc’hoz’s 1779 household manual TOILET OF FLORA that uses Cognac as its base.

wallpaper women

(2024)

I wonder if they all come out of the wallpaper as I did.

  • Glitch art video on Vimeo. This video contains rolling images and rapid, irregular flickering. Audio is a loud, discordant synth sound.

GrapplingHook Submission Toolkit

(2022)

A free, open-access toolkit for digital publishers to more easily accept alternate-medium works through their established submission processes.

GrapplingHook helps digital publishers more easily solicit and review works that don’t easily fit in the traditional submission process.

  • An in-development studio project created specifically to help SFF magazines interested in publishing multimedia/interactive/digital works but need to still use their largely-volunteer-powered submission process.
A screenshot of a Pinterest profile page titled "Metaphysical Mishaps". The icon, though cut-off by Pinterest's system, is a triangle rising out of a portal, one eye peering to the side, adorned by a pair of antlers. The subtitle reads "You don't know where your feet are taking you, only that you must leave at once..." At the bottom of the screenshot is the Pinterest icon and the user name: "metaphysicalmishaps"

The Magic Shop I Will Never Own

(2012– )

An ongoing digital art piece depicting parts of an otherwise-imaginary immersive experience: a magic shop called Metaphysical Mishaps.

  • Existing only within the structure and bounds of a single Pinterest account developed over the course of more than a decade, “The Magic Shop I Will Never Own” is a story that can be read only through slow changes over time; it is an experience that can only be outlined but never made concrete.
  • By visiting each board within the Pinterest account, reading the introductory narratives, and then scrolling down through the decade-plus of additions and subtle changes to the shop, its denizens, and its wares, the viewer is asked to imagine themselves within the experience based not on exact information, but on the cumulative aesthetic that develops– and to ask what paths they’d want to follow if the chance to do so ever came.

Academic Work

Publications

  • Jacobs, Naomi, Katherine Crighton, and Shivhan Szabo. 2024. “Building the Spear: A Demonstration in Faking and Remaking Real Feelings for an Imaginary Work.” In “Fandom and Platforms,” edited by Maria K. Alberto, Effie Sapuridis, and Lesley Willard, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 42. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2024.2623.

Conferences

Colloquia, Guest Lectures, and Select Recent Panels

  • Jeff Hecht, Katherine Crighton, Kathryn Morrow, Victoria Janssen, and Alexander Jablokov (moderator). “Archeology in Reality and Speculative Fiction,” Readercon 33, July 2024.
  • Katherine Crighton. “Weird Research 101,” guest lecture for graduate course (“IMGD 5600: Multidisciplinary Research Methods in Computational Media,” Prof. Karen Stewart, WPI Interactive Media and Game Design), February 2024.
  • Katherine Crighton, Sarah Smith, and Kat Nepveu (moderator). “Serial Fiction: Everything Old Is New Again,” Readercon 32, July 2023.
  • Elizabeth Bear, Robert Killheffer, Sarah Pinsker, Shweta Adhyam, and Katherine Crighton (moderator). “Space: The Ultimate Locked Room,” Readercon 32, July 2023.
  • Avani Wildani, Katherine Crighton, Tenaya Anue, and Jennifer Rhorer (moderator). “The Public Domain We Don’t Have,” Discon III (79th World Science Fiction Convention), December 2021.
  • Katherine Crighton, Stephanie Feldman (moderator), Jeffrey Ford, Karen Heuler, and L. Penelope. “Reading Fantasy Through a Motif Index Lens,” Readercon 31, July 2021.
  • Katherine Crighton (mod), Gillian Daniels, Foz Meadows, AJ Odasso, and Megan Whalen Turner. “Content Tags: Implementation, Accommodation, and Ancillary Art,” Readercon 31, July 2021.
  • Suzanne Palmer, Katherine Crighton (moderator), S.B. Divya, and Charles Stross. “The Shape of Robots to Come,” Boskone 58, February 2021.
  • Christine Taylor-Butler (moderator), Paul Tremblay, Katherine Crighton, E. Lily Yu, and Carlos Hernandez. “Writing Relatable Characters,” Boskone 58, February 2021.

Teaching Experience

  • SpringB 2022. “Writing Short Fiction,” ACE.
  • Fall 2022. “Writing Short Fiction,” ACE.
  • Spring 2023. “Writing Short Fiction,” ACE.
  • Fall 2023. “Practical Publishing,” ACE.
  • Fall 2023. “Writing Novels,” ACE.
  • Fall 2023. “Writing Short Fiction,” ACE.

Awards and Honors

  • 2020 Rho Beta Epsilon Award for Excellence in Robotics Education, Worcester Polytechnic Institute chapter. (Student-nominated, in recognition of dedication and commitment to the advancement of Robotics education.)

Odds and ends from the blog

Embracing the cozy; or, MFAs and Me

(Part 1: A History of the Universe Until Now, With Some Significant Exceptions) Fig. 1. Foreshadowing, probably. (Photograph by Hannah Belan) 1. Several Jokes and…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

History and Experimental Archaeology

Experimental Archaeology (posts on both the regular blog and from The Minor Hours and Small Thoughts Magazine, a blog series in the form of an 18th-century magazine; this link is to a collection of essays/articles/snippets specifically intended as write-ups– or random live-reports– of my historical research/experimentation)

The Historically Inaccurate Shop (successful– and not so successful– results from my experiments available for purchase, along with opportunities for live instruction and commissions, and a nonzero number of folkloric/cryptozoological research and reimaginings for the modern age)

Writing

Fiction Bibliography (a full list of short fiction and novels across a variety of genres, with links to additional content, award news, international versions, and reprintings)

Nonfiction Bibliography (a shorter version of the “Academic Work” section above, featuring just the published works in chronological order, and also including nonfiction articles that don’t necessarily reach the definition of “academic”)

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑