Kristopher Funk is a mixed-media installation artist born and raised in the Bay Area. He creates puzzle-based experiences that tackle questions of identity and access, specifically dealing with their experiences navigating the world as a transgender crip. Funk synthesizes sculptural, interactive, and spatial practices to critique topics of gender, identity, disability, and access.

Education 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ: Digital Arts and New Media MFA, 2024 

WHITTIER COLLEGE: Comparative Media Studies BA and Game Design Minor, 2021 

✾ Arduino ✾ Raspberrypi ✾ 3D Printing ✾ Blender ✾ Digital Illustration ✾ Puzzle Design ✾ Large-scale Fabrication ✾ Micro-electronics ✾ Bambu Studios ✾ Narrative Design ✾ Environmental Storytelling ✾ Laser Cutting ✾ Prototyping ✾ Experience Design ✾ Storytelling ✾ Creative Writing ✾ Prose ✾

Projects

Facades of Ingress Live Interactive Sculptural Game

Alice in Genderbend Escape Room

Decrypting Freak Performance Art

Will You Follow Me? (Escape Room) Escape Room Adaptation

Will You Follow Me? Live Action Narrative Game

Cryptic Conceptions Table Top Role Playing Game

Transfixed Podcast about transgender game designers

Promare is Gay Video essay

Lost in the Woods Queer RomCom disguised as a Bigfoot Mockumentary

Invasion Cooperative Board Game

The Crypt Comedy Cryptid Radio Show/Podcast

Alt Bops Alternative Music Radio Show

Exhibitions

✾ Indiecade Game Nights, Facades of Ingress, November 2024

Embodiment: UCSC Digital Arts and New Media Exhibition, Facades of Ingress May 2024

✾ UCSC Digital Arts and New Media Open Studios, Facades of Ingress (In Progress) December 2023

✾ UCSC Digital Arts and New Media Open Studios, Decrypting Freak June 2023

Impermanence by Liminal Space Collective, Alice in Genderbend March 2023

Northern Lights by Liminal Space Collective, Alice in Genderbend January 2023

✾ UCSC Digital Arts and New Media Open Studios, Will You Follow Me? (Escape Room Edition) March 2023

Publications

✾ MFA Thesis: Facades of Ingress, Published through Proquest June 2024

✾ The Greenleaf Review Issue 34: Voices in Color, Bonfire Breeze Spring 2021

Talks

✾ Dystopic Presents and Speculative Futures for Queer and Disabled Bodies in Games (In collaboration with Elliot White)

✾ Monstrous Game Environments: Dystopic Presents and Speculative Futures in the Medical Industrial Complex (In collaboration with Elliot White)

Events and Conferences

✾Queerness and Games Conference 2025

✾ Indiecade 2024

✾Festival of Monsters 2024

✾Festival of Monsters 2023

Press and Interviews

Experience

GAME MASTER at Clockwise Escape Room Pleasanton, Summer 2024 -Winter 2025

TEACHING ASSISTANT for Performance, Play, and Design at UCSC, Fall 2022 - Spring 2024

ASSISTANT COURSE DEVELOPER for ARGT 50g Play as a Radical Endeavor at UCSC, Fall 2022 - Spring 2024

COURSE DESIGNER for DANM 50-10 Gayming: Intro to Queer Theory at UCSC, Winter 2022

DESIGN TEAM LEAD and GAME MASTER at Red Door Escape Room Concord, Summer 2021-Spring 2022

GENERAL MANAGER at KPOET Radio, Spring 2019 - Spring 2021

EVENT COORDINATOR at KPOET Radio, Fall 2018- Spring 2019

References

PATRICK MICHAEL BALLARD: Assistant professor of Performance Play and Design; pballard@ucsc.edu

MICHAEL CHEMERS: Chair and professor of Performance Play and Design; chemers@ucsc.edu

GEOFFERY LONG: Director of Miami Worldbuilding and Narrative Design Research Lab; glong@geofferylong.com

ELIZABETH SWENSEN: Assistant professor of Performance Play and Design; eswensen@ucsc.edu

CYNTHIA LING LEE: Assistant professor of Performance Play and Design; clee185@ucsc.edu