Last Tumbarumba First Lines, #11 and 12: Tim and Heather

Just in time for the launch of our Tumbarumba add-on, my collaborator Benjamin Rosenbaum wrapped up his list of the first lines of the twelve stories included in the project:

The first lines of Tim Pratt's Tumbarumba story, "A Steadfast Tin Soldier":

The first thing the dead man spoke to was big rock. Big rock wasn't so big in absolute terms, but it was the biggest rock in that little copse of pines, and understandably proud of its place. "Hello?" the dead man said, in the soundless way of unliving things. "Hello, hello?"

"Yes, hello," big rock said. "How nice to hear from you! Such a pleasure to have new company!"

Tim writes, "I've always been fascinated by stories where inanimate objects have secret lives, from the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams to the Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Anderson to Thomas Disch's Brave Little Toaster and the painted stick, can of beans, dessert spoon, and dirty sock from Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins. But one day it occurred to me: dead bodies are inanimate objects, too, aren't they? What if they had secret lives?"

And here are the first lines of Heather Shaw's story, "Little M@tch Girl":

A new shipment of Tweak must have hit the Mission over the weekend. Em kept her eye on the woman in front of her who was shaking and staggering across the sidewalk. At a distance, the woman almost looked as if she were listening to some experimental music, her erratic movements accompanied by unheard notes, brilliantly interpreting the difficult tonalities. But as Em got closer, the absence of headphones and the glazed eyes shattered the illusion.

For those who don't know it, Heather and Tim are co-creators of Flytrap, the illustrious "little zine with teeth". Flytrap, in which Tim and Heather published my story "Night Waking", is issuing its last just in time to advertise Tumbarumba: it has been crowded out of the nest by another of their co-creations (and as much as I loved Flytrap, I am forced to approve).

Tim and Heather claim that it is entirely coincidence that their Tumbarumba stories are both Hans-Christian-Andersen-themed.

Next entry: Tumbarumba!

Tumbarumba goes live!

After quite a few months of development, Benjamin Rosenbaum and my Tumbarumba Firefox extension has launched! Please take a moment and install it on to your browser.

Thanks to Ben, all of our participating writers (Haddayr Copley-Woods, Greg van Eekhout, Step0hen Gaskell, James Patrick Kelly, Mary Anne Mohanraj, David Moles, John Phillip Olsen, Tim Pratt, Kiini Ibura Salaam, David J. Schwartz, Heather Shaw, & Jeff Spock), and Jo-Anne & Helen at Turbulence.org for commissioning the project.

Incidentally, Turbulence is having an end-of-the-year fundraiser right now, so why not send them a donation?

Tumbarumba First Lines, #9 and 10: Jeff and John

Tumbarumba launches tomorrow! Here's the penultimate teaser from Ben, my collaborator on the project:

Hmm, well, I missed yesterday, and also it may be that I cannot exactly count. So: two today, and two tomorrow.

The first lines of John Phillip Olsen's Tumbarumba story, "Birthday":

Neil wants to drive faster, but the troop transport truck in front slows him down. In the back of the truck, the young soldiers point and laugh at Neil and his passengers.

And that of Jeff Spock's, "Of Love and Mermaids":

In the morning sun coming hard off the sea the two children are profiles, jumping and laughing on the sand. The seagulls circle above the palms, hunting unwary clams or unclaimed French fries.

We sit at a table on the hotel's terrace right by the edge of the sand, sipping coffee. My left hand lies atop her right, holding hands with the practiced indifference of people who have held the same hands for ten years or more. It is a comfort, a reflex; as re-affirming--and exciting--as pulling on an old pair of shoes or re-reading your favorite book.

I snagged these two (along with Stephen Gaskell's) at Villa Diodati 3 in Nice.

Tumbrumba ships tomorrow. I can't wait!

Tumbarumba First Lines, #8: Dave S.

Oops, in a tryptophan stupor, I forgot to repost this yesterday:

The first lines of David Schwartz's Tumbarumba story, "MonstroCities":

SEND ONE

Not the NEEDLEBOARD races on Dillinger Four or the SCISSORBALL playoffs in the Solomon system; not the solar sled slaloms of the Andromeda Games or Cosmos Flanagan's run at the smartdisc passing record. Not even the mag-hot excitement of the Team Orgy Invitational is this week's biggest sporting event. No, MAXFANS, the most-wanted assignment this week here at the mothernet is the BIG BIG BIG BATTLE ROYALE of the Second Moon Fighting League, and who do you suppose is Sending from a Wormcruiser burrowing its way towards the Jocelyn system? Me, GEIGERTRON GOGOMEZ, the most beloved chronicler of sport since Tolkien scrawled The Iliad on a papyrus scroll.

Three more days!

Tumbarumba First Lines, #7: Greg

Today's teaser from Ben about our Tumbarumba project (due to be released on December 1st):

The first lines of Greg van Eekhout's Tumbarumba story, "Temp":

On Monday she wears Spandex and black leather. Unfortunately, her mask covers only her eyes, so after the bank robbers use spasm gas, she spends the rest of the morning with facial twitches. Later, her grappling gun comes apart in her hand, and crooks in a helicopter make off with a Michelangelo.

Four more days until your computer is infected with these intrusions.

(Did I mention Tumbarumba is sponsored by Turbulence and, apparently, funded by the Jerome Foundation? Apparently it is.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tumbarumba First Lines, #5: Kiini

The first lines of Kiini Ibura Salaam's Tumbarumba story, "Bio-Anger":

rattling. rattling snaking around in my ears. echoes of rattling erupting in my temples. I hear a pop like the little explosions of air that punctuate my ear canals when I'm nearing the ocean floor. reflex. by reflex, I try to turn toward the sound, but my head is tethered in one position. the rattling dies out with a slithering hiss. sharp parallel bands of light cut across the room. my head jerks back when light hits my eyes. behind me, somebody lets loose a low, raspy laugh.

Six more days.

Tumbarumba First Lines, #4: David M.

I'm very excited about the upcoming release of Ben Rosenbaum and my Tumbarumba Firefox add-on project.

I really love this project! It's rare for my own work to surprise and delight me (usually that's an experience I try to give the viewer, but have to satisfy myself with just a sense of accomplishment), but this one does. I'm also finding that it effects the way I read text--and not just online.

Another teaser from Ben about our Tumbarumba project (to be released on Dec 1st):

The first lines of David Moles's Tumbarumba story, "Martian Dispatches":

There was a map of Mars on the wall of my apartment in Helium, souvenir of a previous tenant. Some nights, coming back late to the city, I'd just lie there staring at it, too tired to do anything but take off my breather and kick the compressor into gear. The map had been printed on Earth, in London; maybe fifty years ago, maybe more, like that first edition of Burroughs I saw an AFP stringer carrying in the rocketport on Phobos. The ink on the map had faded and the paper had gone brittle and shiny after years in the dry Martian air, laying a kind of veil over the cities and canals it depicted. On it Mars was still divided into its old territories, names like Bantoom and Okar and Jahar, and down at the bottom under the word MARS the cartographer had printed BARSOOM.

When he was guest-blogging at Jeff Vandermeer's blog, David explained the trick for generating story ideas out of discrete elements. See if you can guess what X and Y are, such that X po Y = "Martian Dispatches".

Seven more days.

Tumbarumba First Lines, #3: Mary Anne

Ben Rosenbaum has been blogging about the upcoming release of our Tumbarumba project:

The first lines of Mary Anne Mohanraj's Tumbarumba story, "Sequins":

"Sara?" Her husband stuck his head around the door of her studio. "Can you pick up Gaya from dance class this afternoon?"

"What?" Sarala blinked twice from behind her glasses, jarred from the image she'd held in her mind, the image that stubbornly refused to come out into the paint on her canvas. There was a body, she knew -- a body, and wings -- but more than that. Not as trite as a woman turning into a bird, seeking flight, freedom, escape. Along with the wings were powerful haunches, poised to leap, muscles tense and yearning. And claws, sharp and long; teeth, red at the tips. All caught at the moment of shifting, transformation, in that liminal space where every possibility hangs, glorious, waiting.

I asked Mary Anne for something in the spirit of her novel-in-stories, Bodies In Motion, "an interconnected narrative spanning two continents, two families, and four generations." "Sequins" picks up two of its minor characters. Mary Anne writes: "readers may enjoy tracing the sometimes hidden connections from one text to the other."

Eight more days until the intrusions begin frolicking...

Tumbarumba First Lines, #2: Jim

Another Tumbarumba teaser from my collaborator's website:

The first lines of James Patrick Kelly's Tumbarumba story, "Painting the Air":

"I'm sick of dusting her fans!" Jaya stepped out of her pants and tossed them at Hool, her djinn lover. They fluttered across the room and spun to rest under his bed. "Grinding pigment for that old crow's paint. Lugging bolts of silk from the market." She unstrung the laces of her shirt and let it fall from her shoulders. The damp, smoky air of the room seemed to cling to on her skin. It was a relief to be naked.

Nine more days.

Did I mention, by the way, what a tumbarumba is? It is a tmesis, as per the John O'Grady poem.

Tumbarumba First Lines, #1: Haddayr

I'm busily finishing up the Tumbarumba project, so my blogging may be a bit thin through the end of the month. Benjamin Rosenbaum (my collaborator on the project) is giving teasers about the project on his blog, so I'm going to just shamelessly crib from him:

The first lines of Haddayr Copley-Woods's Tumbarumba story, "Listen to Me":

Does it really matter how I got here?

I got shot.

Haddayr writes:

Dora Goss told me that her piece The Belt was an ugly story, so she wanted to tell it in the most beautiful way possible. I decided to write a beautiful story in the ugliest way possible.

Ten more days until you can get Tumbarumba'd; and then you'll be able to find Haddayr's story.

Maybe.

(It will help if you're lucky, intrepid, and perceptive....)

Tumbarumba

My posting quality will probably dip a bit for the next couple of weeks while I finish up Tumbarumba, a project I'm working on with Benjamin Rosenbaum.

Keep an eye on Ben's blog for details about the project (which premieres on December 1st)... Ben recently wrote:

Ethan Ham and I have a new art project (cf. Anthroptic, or last one), which we will be rolling out on the first of December. It essentially takes, on one level, the form of an anthology of short stories -- at least, the work I've been doing on it, especially this last month, is essentially the work of editing an original anthology. On another level, it is a conceptual artwork, kind of a ubiquitous web installation... well, you'll see. It is called "Tumbarumba: a frolic of intrusions". More here soon on that topic.

Social Networks, Privacy, and Self-Portraiture

Media N, the journal of the New Media Caucus, just published my essay Social Networks, Privacy, and Self-Portraiture.

Opportunity: write for "Networked"

Yesterday I received this announcement from the great folks at Turbulence:

Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art)
A Juried International Competition
Call for Proposals

Deadline: December 15, 2008
http://turbulence.org/networked

Five writers will be commissioned to develop chapters for a networked book about networked art. The chapters will be open for revision, commentary, and translation by online collaborators. Each commissioned writer will receive $3,000 (US).

Networked Committee:
Steve Dietz (Northern Lights, MN) :: Martha CC Gabriel (net artist, Brazil) :: Geert Lovink (Institute for Network Cultures, The Netherlands) :: Nick Montfort (Massachusetts Institute for Technology, MA) :: Anne Bray (LA Freewaves, LA) :: Sean Dockray (Telic Arts Exchange, LA) :: Jo-Anne Green (NRPA, MA) :: Eduardo Navas (newmediaFIX) :: Helen Thorington (NRPA, NY)

Networked Partners:
New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) :: newmediaFIX :: LA Freewaves :: Telic Arts Exchange

"A networked book is an open book designed to be written, edited and read in a networked environment." - Institute for the Future of the Book

Networked Goals:

1. To commission five chapters and publish them online using Wiki/blog technology to enable the public to revise, update, debate and translate them
2. To present public forums to publicize the online book and solicit participation in its development.

Networked Objectives:
:: To develop and publish an online, trans-disciplinary book that will address recent artistic developments made possible by computers, networks, and mobile connectivity

:::: To present the book in an open, participatory and social form

:::::: To document:

:::::::::: the collapse of the traditional distinction between artist, art work and audience

:::::::::: the shaping of creative practice that is open, contingent and participatory

:::::::::: the building of virtual communities which, in the words of Howard Rheingold, "becomes inevitable wherever computer mediated communications technology becomes available to people anywhere." (The Virtual Community, 1993)


We invite contributions that critically and creatively rethink how networked art is categorized, analyzed, legitimized -- and by whom -- as norms of authority, trust, authenticity and legitimacy evolve.

"Networked" proposes that a history or critique of interactive and/or participatory art must itself be interactive and/or participatory; that the technologies used to create a work suggest new forms a "book" might take.

We hope to spark a conversation between researchers and practitioners, curators, artists, and academics in the fields of art (music, sound, dance, e-lit, visual art), architecture, convergence, mapping, urbanism, games, sociology, visualization, cultural studies, and environmental studies.

In keeping with the transdisciplinary nature of the book, authors may consider, but are by no means limited to, themes such as:

:: cyberspace and identity

:: ubiquitous computing - surveillance, politics, and privacy

:: avatars, wearables, bioart and embodiment

:: collective storytelling, audio narratives and sound art

:: virtual worlds, mixed realities

:: locative media - place, mobility, augmented reality

:: massively multiplayer online games - networked play

:: responsive architecture and relational environments

:: social networks

:: nomadism, psychogeography, and the city

:: tactical media - performance, agency and activism

:: open source and crowdsourcing

:: Originality, copies, remix, mashup

All papers will be reviewed by our international committee.

Commissioned chapters, as well as contributions by collaborators, will be subject to the Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0/Unported: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Once the chapters are published online, registered users will be able to revise, add to, and translate the existing texts. There is no end date for the project. When "Networked" has attracted substantive participation, we will consider publishing a print version of the project, which may itself be updated over time.


GUIDELINES:

Submissions must be based on original, unpublished research. They should include:

1. Name, address, URL, email and one page CV of author.

2. A 1000 word proposal that should be accompanied by an abstract of no more than 250 words and a list of keywords to indicate the subject area of the chapter. [Each of the commissioned chapters will contain text, images, videos, and/or audio.]

3. Three networked writing samples. Samples may include a blog entry, a Wikipedia article the applicant worked on extensively, or samples from any other participatory project (send URLs).

Acceptable Submission Formats: Either a web page (send url in an email) or a single text document (send as an email attachment)

Final chapters must be no less than 5,000 words.

Submissions and Questions should be sent to: jo at turbulence dot org


IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for Proposals: December 15, 2008
Notification: January 31, 2009
Deadline for Complete Chapters: April 30, 2009
Online Publication Date: July 1, 2009

Join our Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82123410550

Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.