Christy Dena is an Australian writer, game designer, and scholar. Her scholarship and design practice in
transmedia storytelling has been widely cited,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] especially for promoting the term "cross-media storytelling". She is also known for defining the term "transmedial fictions" for The Johns Hopkins Encyclopedia of Digital Textuality.[9] She created her own studio, Universe Creation 101,[10] where she creates original projects and does consultations and freelance work. She likes to combine live social experiences with online technology, traditional forms of screen (film and games) and paper-based objects (tabletop and books).[11]
Dena was the first Digital Writer in Residence for the
Australia Council for the Arts and the Queensland University of Technology at The Cube.[13] She currently serves as the Program Co-ordinator of the Master of Creative Industries at the SAE Creative Media Institute, Brisbane.[9] She has worked on games for
Cisco and
Nokia, and is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys).[9]
She has served as a mentor; is supervising Artistic Fellows at the CEFIMA, Norwegian Film School; and is teaching at Griffith University.[14] Dena works closely with unceded Boonwrrung Country.[14]
Dena, Christy (2007). "Capturing polymorphic creations: towards ontological heterogeneity and transmodiology". Proceedings of the 4th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment. RMIT University, Melbourne: 1–8.
Dena, C. (2008). "Emerging Participatory Culture Practices: Player-Created Tiers in Alternate Reality Games". Convergence. 14 (1): 41–57.
doi:
10.1177/1354856507084418.
Dena, Christy (2009). Transmedia Practice: Theorising the Practice of Expressing a Fictional World across Distinct Media and Environments. University of Sydney.
Dena has worked on
alternate reality games: Nokia's Conspiracy for Good, Cisco's The Hunt, and the Australian Broadcasting Company's Bluebird AR.[15][16] She has also created touch-screen installations for The Cube (Robot University)[17] at
Queensland University of Technology[16] and at the Experimenta Biennial of Media Art.
Dena was inspired to write AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS after the passing of her mother, which led to her contemplating her own mortality.[13]
She has also exhibited her work, such as Recharge at the 6th International Biennial of Media Art.[17]
In 2010, she presented a TedXTransmedia talk on Dare to Design.[18]
Awards
Dena has won interactive writing awards from the Australian Writers' Guild and WA Premier's Book Awards for (AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS).[17][14]