Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw by Donna Leishman

     I completely misunderstood this piece while interacting with it. When I went through it the second time to take a screenshot, I found other sections that I did not find the first time. At first, I believed it was about a girl with a terrible relationship with her family who had a type of mental disorder she was dealing with. The piece was extremely dark and a bit disturbing. It is interactive and had no real order to go in. Once a certain section of the piece was completed, another part of the piece would pop up or the scene would change.
     The setting was a landscape with various buildings. One seemed to be a hotel with the sign, "Blue Lagoon" on top of it. There was a church in the distance, trees that would shake and drop objects out of them, and a big (what appeared to be) television or movie screen taking up about 1/3 of the piece at the top right corner. On almost every section, there would be flowers or a tree that when touched with the mouse, would bloom or shake it's leaves.
     The main character, Christian Shaw, could be found hiding behind buildings or trees. When the piece focused on her we found out strange things. She had a book which had a few pages describing who she was, like a diary. Then the pages all had a huge square cut out of them as if to hide things in the journal. Her journal had insects taped on the pages and when the mouse touched them, they would run away. When the screen showed Christian Shaw, she was often spaced out, staring at things. She could also be seen flying, vomiting, bent at odd angles, and sleeping.
     In one scene, she is at a doctor's office with her father, while another she is naked with marks all over her body. When the mouse touched certain parts of the screen, a creature would appearing next to her, it's arms outstretched as if connected to Christian.

     After finishing the interactive piece, the viewer has the ability to read the text explanation. The interactive piece is not meant to be understood completely or even at all. The explanation discusses a young girl, Christian Shaw, who was said to be possessed by a demon. She exhibited many of the characteristics of the accounts of the Salem Witch Trials which were four years before Shaw's accounts were documented. The report was anonymous but in them it states that Shaw would often move things towards her without touching them, she could fly across rooms, she would often be in a trance-like state, she would vomit up strange objects, and her body would bend at strange angles. The screenshot I've included shows the interactive section of the work where Shaw is vomiting up strange objects. There was another creature that was all white and when the mouse touched him, he split open to reveal his red, pulsing insides. A small gray creature appears and crawls out of the hole down his middle. I am still confused as to what part of the story this signified.
   I greatly enjoyed this piece because it seemed to be a modern description of this demonic possession from the late 1600's. It was confusing and disturbing, especially with the music that accompanied many of the more creepy images that appeared. While I think it was smart to have the text accompany the interactive piece, I find works like this are more effective when they are less confusing. Perhaps there should have been more journal entry type sections where the viewer could understand a bit of the intended story.

To view the piece by Donna Leishman click here:

Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw