Literature is the last stronghold for the modernist ideal of “originality.” (as if any artist creates tablula rasa.) I think the Internet is changing this. The amount of content available and the way we process information—hypertext, multiple layers of image, text, and sound, even font choice and “cut and paste” editing is changing how we write and read. In the future, the novel will exist in multiple iterations. The written work will function both as stand-alone art and entertainment and as an engine that drives the creation of work in other media.
Like the hardcopy novel, the website uses “found” objects (sound, image, text) and combines elements of sci-fi, poetry, historical fiction and the detective novel to tell the story of the Russian Futurist poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, in a radically different way.
For this novel, I’ve been collaborating with a wonderful artist named Pelin Kirca, who, believe or not, I found through Craig’s list. Together, we created the animation, and a graphic version of my manifesto. We’re also collaborating on a modular multimedia space for book readings. And, I have a plan for curating a gallery exhibition around the text of my novel.
If you enjoy it, I hope you’ll pass it on and/or review it on your literary website/blog. Thanks.
