When I first began writing my short story ‘Rupture’, I didn’t intend to work with artists I’d never met to produce a piece incorporating animated visuals and sound; this collaborative process came about as the project evolved. Initially, I had the fundamental elements of a primarily print-based work: I tapped into an omniscient narrator who had the capacity to access the psyche of my two primary characters, both of whom seemed to be facing emotional and psychological challenges. Specifically, I envisaged a mother figure, Janelle, who was struggling with her marriage and the responsibilities associated with parenting. There was also Jeffery, her twelve-year-old son, who—for some reason to which I was not immediately privy—had developed mutism. As I connected with Janelle and her son more deeply, it became evident that Jeffery’s condition was the result of a traumatic event he and his mother had witnessed: a violent bank robbery. Although Jeffrey was unable (or unwilling) to speak, I discovered that he often chose to draw as a means of expressing himself; thus, it made sense to have the story illustrated. Images, I believed, would add a level of depth and texture to the work, while also providing Jeffery with a ‘voice’ and, therefore, an opportunity to communicate directly with readers. So, almost by chance, the first step towards creating a multimodal piece was taken.

When considering ideas for illustrations (image, style, and composition), I knew I wanted simple, stark lines with a substantial amount of block, contrasting colour. This approach, it seemed, would fit with Jeffery’s age and so lend the story greater verisimilitude. Yet, I also needed the images to be sophisticated and emotive. After trawling the Internet, I found the art work of Baltimore-based artist Joe Maccarone. I reached out to Joe, then anxiously awaited his reply. I heard back a few days later and was thrilled to learn he wanted to collaborate. As serendipity would have it, Joe is also highly accomplished in the field of digital animation. After ‘watching’ some of his work online, it occurred to me that we could use animated visuals (GIF’s) as a means of creating a more immersive reading experience. Joe agreed and began transforming the eight initial illustration proofs into animated image files. At this point—given such files require a computer and/or mobile-based operating system in order to be run—‘Rupture’ entered the realm of born-digital narrative.

Importantly, born-digital works cannot be transposed to another medium without negatively impacting some aspect of their aesthetic or artistic features. Further explanation is provided by the Reading Digital Fiction website:

Rather than existing as a digital version of a print novel, digital fictions are what are known as ‘born-digital’—that is, they would lose something of their aesthetic and/or structural form and meaning if they were removed from the digital medium. For example, they may contain hyperlinks, moving images, mini-games or sound effects. (https://readingdigitalfiction.com/)

The above definition is fitting for ‘Rupture’ which, when confined to the realm of print, loses digital-oriented aesthetics generated by the use of animated visuals and sound. Significantly, the move to an electronic medium opened up a realm of creative possibilities; we were suddenly able to have the images move and morph in a way that might intensify their impact and even amplify meaning. Take Image Four from the narrative, for instance (see below):

Image 4 – Jeffery and his Demons

The above visual accompanies a scene in which Jeffery has been asked by a psychiatrist to draw whatever comes to mind when ‘you think of that day at the bank’. Evidently, the image depicts a wolf-like figure quivering over Jeffery’s shoulder, almost breathing done his neck, so to speak; this implies he is in the process of recalling a frightening presence and/or occurrence. Indeed, the visual is deeply connected to Jeffery’s recollections: the men who held up the bank were wearing wolf-masks to disguise their identities. In this way, the image literally ‘paints a picture’ of Jeffery’s thoughts, providing insights into the source of his internal trauma. The visual is also designed to pique readers’ interest in terms of what happened when he and his mother were at the bank; it works to foreshadow the traumatic and violent nature of the bank robbery, an event that is revealed via a flashback later in the narrative.

The next visual to appear in the story not only works to illustrate the scene of an unfolding counselling session attended by Jeffery, Janelle, and two psychiatrists, but also to deliver a multilayered message. (See Image 5):  

Image 5: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

When the above image file runs, the face of one of the psychiatrists transforms intermittently into a wolf, symbolising Jeffery’s ongoing anxiety, along with the tendency of wolf-like men to haunt his psyche. If this image were static, it would not represent Jeffery’s thought processes with the same degree of emotive impact and thematic resonance as that achieved via the GIF. Hence, it can be argued that animation adds a layer of complexity to the visuals; it allows them to transmit a sense of heightened emotion and immediacy, while also prompting readers to search for deeper meanings.

As I viewed the complete catalogue of animated visuals set to accompany ‘Rupture’, I wondered what other digitally-oriented features could be utilised. How else could we provide immersive aesthetics designed to enrich the reading experience? This led me to consider the incorporation of music and sound effects, or, more specifically, to have each GIF accompanied by an individual soundtrack. Another Internet search followed—this time for a music composer/sound engineer. During my investigations, I stumbled across Stu Campbell’s award-winning webcomic ‘These Memories Won’t Last’. I observed how, as I scrolled, the music changed, deepening the sensory experience while echoing alterations in setting and scenario. After perusing the ‘credits’ of the webcomic, I discovered the composer and sound design artist responsible for the soundtrack was a gentleman by the name of Lhasa Mencur. A quick Google search led me to Lhasa’s website. I fired a message through cyberspace explaining the nature of my project and, again, waited. Lhasa responded promptly and, much to my delight, said he was happy to come on-board.

In composing the tracks for ‘Rupture’, Lhasa deployed sound design techniques previously used in his commercial sample libraries (which includes sound for video games) to create looping ambiences with minimal memory footprint. He produced a total of eight music-based soundtracks—one track for each GIF—all of which have been optimised for HTML5. The industrial ambient feel of the music is intended to reflect the narrative’s serious, sombre tone, as well as amplify alterations in mood and tension. In addition, carefully constructed sound effects kick in at certain times, lending yet another layer of drama and texture to the narrative. Ultimately, the soundtracks complement the animated visuals in such a way as to bring the storyworld to life for readers, intensifying their immersive experience. To complete the narrative’s audio features, Lhasa worked upon an audio narration (where I read the story aloud), which has been over-laid and synchronised with the eight soundtracks mentioned above. The audio narration function ensures that visually-impaired site visitors can listen to the story, as well as the music and/or sound effects associated with different scenes and visuals.

As the project proceeded, it became evident that I would need somewhere to ‘hold’ and display the work— i.e. a website. I contacted a few web programmers, but found the cost of their services to be prohibitive. Then, acting on a hunch, I emailed Shekhar Kalra, a computer science lecturer at the Royal Institute of Melbourne Technology. Shekhar graciously agreed to organise a small group of fourth-year RMIT computer programming students to build the Rupture site under the supervision of Amir Homayoon Ashrafzadeh. The students —Dae Yong Kim, George Hanna, and Jiajun Zhu—constructed and coded the website using the Heroku platform, an integrated data service system designed to deploy and run modern applications. The students designed all aspects of the site, including its full screen layout, the dynamic (moving) homepage, and colour scheme. They also established internal links that lead to separate webpages associated with Teaching Notes for the story and a list of creative credits.  Finally, the students embedded the GIFs into the site and ensured the soundtracks were correctly matched to each image which, as I have been informed, was not a particularly easy task.

The finished product is a work that incorporates different communication modes, prompting readers to deploy skills associated with multiliteracy—as we all do when accessing and navigating the digital medium. If you’d like to immerse yourself within the multimodal aesthetics of ‘Rupture’, then head to http://rupture.net.au/story. I hope you enjoy the experience.

Recently launched, ‘Provocare’ is a multimedia verse thriller created by Meg Vann, writer; Mez Breeze, interaction designer; and Donna Hancox, research lead for Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). It is the first work to be commissioned and produced for ‘Queensland Writers on the International Stage’, an Arts Queensland funded programme created by QUT and The Writing Platform.

‘Provocare‘ is based on ‘Provocation‘, a short story by Meg Vann, that has been adapted and made into a multimedia verse thriller by the writer working in collaboration with Mez Breeze and Donna Hancox. The work explores themes of female agency and violence against women at a time in Australia when sixty-three women have been murdered by their intimate partners or ex-partners in 2015 alone.

Readers can explore both works online. ‘Provocare’ is available here, and ‘Provocation’ is available here. Writer, Meg Vann, has also shared her experience of collaborating to create digital work of fiction in this article on this site.

Said writer, Meg Vann:

“Like most women, I live with the effects of violence. Memories of abuse, and ongoing vigilance against harm creates core beliefs and behaviours that often cast women as having victim mentalities. But I believe it makes us survivors. Dedicated to a young woman who lost her life to a stalker, ‘Provocare’ explores this premise: the main character is a survivor of anorexia nervosa. She develops dysfunctional habits that, while self-harming in relation to her illness, are adapted to become tools in her battle for survival against the pernicious and unrecognised violence of a workplace stalker. Surveillance is also a theme in ‘Provocare’ as I am increasingly concerned about the misuse of surveillance technology – designed to improve public safety – in the abuse of women. Providing digital collaboration opportunities, and welcoming all-women teams, is vital in voicing women’s lived experiences, and challenging the predatory viewpoints so dominant in normative cultural narratives”

Interaction designer, Mez Breeze, commented:

“At a time when violence against women is at such catastrophic levels, working with this all-gal ‘Provocare’ team on the first commissioned production for ‘Queensland Writers on the International Stage’ has been a thoroughly rewarding experience. It’s been a privilege to have been invited to design and develop this collaborative digital fiction project with the potential to critically reflect upon such crucial social issues. With Donna at the Project Management helm, Meg the consummate wordsmith, and with the support of The Writing Platform, this has been one of the most successful international teams with which I’ve had the pleasure of working.”

About Queensland Writing on the International Stage

‘Queensland Digital Writing on the international stage: QUT and The Writing Platform’ is an Arts Queensland-funded programme which supports collaborations between writers and interactive designers to develop works for exhibition on The Writing Platform.

The second work created for ‘Queensland Writers on the International Stage’ will be an audio adaptation of the short story ‘Crawl Space’ by Krissy Kneen which will launch later this year.

Said Donna Hancox, research lead for Creative Industries at QUT:
“This project, which is focused on bringing together writers and designers to re-imagine how stories can be crafted and shared, is a really important way of increasing knowledge and skills around digital writing.  The future of writing is collaborative, and the creative works created through this project showcase the benefits of collaboration. The ongoing partnership between Queensland University of Technology, The Writing Platform and Arts Queensland is crucial in delivering information about new forms of writing to writers at all stages of their careers.”

Joanna Ellis, co-founder of The Writing Platform, commented:
“We are delighted to be working with our long-term partners, Queensland University of Technology, to create this opportunity for Queensland-based writers and interaction designers. As well as providing opportunities for the artists directly involved we are able to share their experience of creating digital stories, and of the collaborative process itself, with our wider community of writers and technologists.”  

If you would like to find out more about ‘Provocare’ – including speaking to the artists involved – or ‘Queensland Writers on the International Stage’, please contact:
Joanna Ellis: joanna[at]theliteraryplatform[dot]com

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Meg Vann is an emerging crime and thriller writer with an interest in exploring lesser heard voices. Meg founded the Queensland chapter of Sisters in Crime and regularly presents workshops on writing, editing and publishing, with an emphasis on digital innovation. Meg is the former CEO of Queensland Writers Centre, and currently works with Brisbane Writers Festival and The University of Queensland. Her writing has attracted development awards, and is published in Australian literary journals.
Meg’s Blog | Twitter | Facebook 

Mez Breeze‘s award-winning digital writing and games have helped shape interactive genres, internet art and online literature. In August 2015, Mez – along with fellow collaborator Andy Campbell – was awarded both the Tumblr International Prize and The Space’s “Open Call” Commission for their in development transmedia project “Pluto”.  Mez was also shortlisted for both the 2015 Thiel Grant Award for Online Writing and the 2015 “Games Development” Category of the MCV Pacific Women In Games List, which profiles the:  “…most influential women across all facets of the Australian and New Zealand Games Industries.” Mez is a Senior Research Affiliate with The Humanities and Critical Code Studies Lab, was a Judge of Bournemouth University’s 2014 New Media Writing Prize, and is in the process of developing a comprehensive career archive with Duke University’s Curator Collection team. This archive (titled “The Mez Breeze Papers”) is to be housed at the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Mez’s Website | Twitter | Facebook 

Donna Hancox is the research leader for the creative arts at Queensland University of Technology.  Her background is creative writing and media studies.  Her research and practice focus on the role of storytelling and digital technology in social change.  In 2013 she was a Leverhulme Visiting Fellow at Bath Spa University and is currently the chief investigator on two Arts Queensland projects exploring the digital futures for writing and writers.

About Queensland University of Technology:

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a highly successful Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, the university has a global outlook, some 44,000 students, including 6000 from overseas, and an annual budget of more than AU$872 million.

Unique to QUT is the Bachelor of Creative Industries, which equips graduates with diverse knowledge, creativity and professional skills across a range of industries and practice.  Located in the Creative Industries Precinct, alongside research centres and creative enterprises, the QUT Creative Industries Faculty is not only training the creative workforce, but working with industry and government to grow the sector.

The Creative Industries Faculty’s offers specialist degrees across a range of creative study areas include the Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Entertainment Industries, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Media and Communication degrees. Staff and students of the Faculty are noted for pushing disciplinary boundaries and many are producing bold experimental work in the digital and live domains.  Emphasising practice-led research has resulted in national and international recognition for the Faculty, and QUT is changing and evolving the modes of creative communication through its research.

About The Writing Platform:

The Writing Platform is a website and commissioning programme dedicated to providing inspiration and information for writers and creative technologists on new forms of storytelling. It was launched in 2012 by The Literary Platform and writer, Kate Pullinger, and operates in partnership with Bath Spa University and Queensland University of Technology.

Website | Twitter

Violence against women is endemic, while the creative expression of violence against women in crime fiction is popularly skewed towards ‘murder porn’, where threat becomes titillation. Can digital and transmedia literature enable crime writing to challenge predatory viewpoints and express lesser-heard voices?

As a feminist crime thriller writer who loves producing (and consuming) dark and twisty stories, I purposefully create dramatic tension and narrative interest through subverting victim viewpoints into characters embodying strength, especially those of young women or women from culturally diverse backgrounds.

‘Provocare’ (pron. Prov-oh-car-ay), enabled me to adapt a domestic noir novelette into a multimedia verse thriller. Working with collaborators Mez Breeze (design and web development) and Donna Hancox (project manager), ‘Provocare’ was an opportunity to develop practical skills in digital literature, as well as to investigate emerging issues in feminist literary theory.

Provocation: man-made and natural disasters

‘Provocare’ is adapted from an original work, Provocation, a novelette commissioned by experimental digital literary journal Review of Australian Fiction. The piece grew from a couple of ideas that kept haunting me.

Firstly, the story is dedicated in loving memory of a real-life young woman who was killed by covert violence. Her stalker had been court-ordered to keep his distance from her, her house, and her workplace. But she was dependent on medication for a chronic illness, and he put two and two together, loitering around her neighbourhood chemist. She spied him, ran home, and died there alone, literally gasping for relief. Her death was not recorded as murder. As far as I can find out, no charges were laid, and no action taken.

The other major idea arose after the 2011 Brisbane floods, a devastating natural crisis causing heartbreaking deaths and damage, which also brought out strengths and bonds in my home town that older residents compare with community responses to WWII.

My place of work in the State Library of Queensland was inundated and displaced during those floods, as were many friends’ homes and workplaces. During the clean-up, I learned the library is connected to neighbouring galleries by subterranean loading docks. Together, these docks formed a massive underground whirlpool when the Brisbane River broke its banks. Security cameras kept rolling as industrial bins were swept away like tin cans, ramming into the huge portable walls used in galleries. Fish, furniture, trash and rubble were carried from the basement of one building and deposited in far reaches of the next. Fascinated, I conducted informal staff interviews and made unauthorised tours of those docks. The destruction, the surveillance, the recovery: this became the focus for how I dealt with the trauma of the flood event.

Combining the ideas of stalking and surveillance, I created the premise for ‘Provocation’: A young woman recovering from anorexia nervosa is covertly stalked by a security guard at the premises of her dream job. This middle-aged man has access to her every move, and an array of rationalisations to justify his increasing surveillance. Her uniquely disordered thinking becomes her best defence. But the stress triggers deepening psychosis, leading to an endgame where meaning and motive are as murky as the depths of a river in flood.

The original text of Provocation by Meg Vann

Domestic Noir

‘Provocare‘ draws on two main schools of writing: crime thrillers, and digital narratives.

The crime and thriller genre includes stories that explore morality, justice and society through the kaleidoscopic vision created by breaking legal or ethical norms. ‘Provocare’ draws strongly on the Second Golden Age of crime fiction, as well contemporary crime fiction, especially domestic noir.

The Second Golden Age stems from the early 1980s when Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton published ‘something in a new key’ [1]: books that belong both to the classical noir tradition of the crime novel and to the then emerging trend of women’s feminist fiction. Like their male counterparts, central characters are tough, poor, and flawed. But as women, they value friends and (non-traditional) family, relying on an interconnected network of relationships to survive and solve the crime at hand [2]. In resolving crimes, they problematise ‘good’ and ‘bad’ through challenging assumptions based on socio-economic inequalities and cultural stereotypes: these feisty female protagonists deliver social as well as legal justice.

Contemporary crime fiction encompasses many different sub-genres, whose writers use and subvert generic traditions to critique and challenge contemporary society [3]. The long-standing popularity of crime fiction foreshadowed contemporary cultural preoccupations with violence and criminal insanity [4]. In a world filled with terror, the psychology and deduction of the contemporary crime fiction novel challenge and comfort the reader against a background of social realism [5].

Domestic noir is one of the newest subgenres to emerge from this tradition. Gillian Flynn’s bestseller ‘Gone Girl’ is probably the best known, but I refer you to Flynn’s earlier works for a better demonstration of well-crafted thrillers based on the notion that we do our worst to those we love best. Featuring women-centred narratives set in homes and workplaces [6], domestic noir is a potentially powerful sub-genre to express and explore violence against women and children in thrilling narratives that can also serve to agitate for community safety and social justice.

Collaboration and transformation

Digital fiction is well-established but in constantly shifting nascency across artform and platform, providing stimulating constraints for the development of new work. The cultural production process for this piece was based in collaboration and transformation.

In weekly meetings, Donna, Mez and I identified a suitable piece, brainstormed possible narrative structures and publication/gaming platforms, and agreed on a design brief. The collaboration process was inclusive, flexible and decisive. Donna, Mez and I knew and respected each other’s work and talents, which made for a great project team. We aligned with the goal of producing a beautiful feminist narrative playing with the notion of ‘book’ to challenge thriller narratives through exploring lesser-heard voices.

Even with prior experience in managing and producing digital literature experiments through if:book Australia, as a writer, adapting a medium-form literary piece to a short-form multimedia environment was a creative challenge. My approach to the writing process was to:

Condense the narrative

• Reduce the word count from 10,000 to 600 words
• Strip out subplots and secondary characters
• Clarify the main storyline while preserving complexity (create a scene map to play around with)
• Compress the backstory for each character
• Move backstory to the front, providing a brief and compelling motive for protagonist and antagonist actions to follow
• Simplify viewpoint: minimise and consolidate point-of-view changes into verse structure (one POV per verse, instead of one per scene)

Respect the context

• Strip anchoring and orientation details out of the text because they are carried by design elements (I encourage you to check out Mez’s artwork in ‘Provocare‘)
• Build paratextual signposts to narrative shape (a ‘traffic light’ system signalling both surveillance areas and escalating stakes)
• Consult with relevant peers for critique: realising the new piece was developing into verse thriller form, I sought critical feedback from a respected poet who deals with domestic noir themes, Julie Beveridge
• Allow for post-production edits, but keep them to a minimum: post-design edits can be time-consuming for designers, so limit post-design edits to only non-substantive changes, e.g. removing dead conjunctions or inelegant repetitions (that often only become apparent in design proofs)

You can’t make this shit up

In choosing the format for ‘Provocare‘, I was guided by Mez’s research and Donna’s experience. We initially explored gaming platforms and reader-driven branching narratives, but assessed these as embedding a reader too deeply in the point-of-view of a stalked character. Surveillance and stalking crimes are so common, and the incidence of PTSD around these experiences are so prevalent and often poorly managed; we needed a narrative structure that provides a safe fictional framework. We decided to adapt Flipbook software to create a linear, text-based multimedia narrative, where agency vests in the protagonist, not the reader, who can then experience the cathartic thrill of identification without the threat of direct conflict.

Provocare, a digital work, created by Meg Vann, Mez Breeze and Donna Hancox.

Two years after publishing Provocation, and only two months prior to the ‘Provocare‘ commission, this article was published in Brisbane Times:

Whistleblowers say the State Government is stalling million-dollar sexual harassment claims from female State Library of Queensland staff after many women have been identified in 2784 secret close-up photographs of breasts and cleavage discovered on a government-issued iPhone and iPad in 2012.

The photographs, showing close-ups of the cleavage of women SLQ staff, women from the public and young female high-school students, were taken by a senior State Library of Queensland staff member on that staff member’s government-issued iPhone and iPad…

The Queensland Industrial Relations Commissioner has questioned why a state library worker secretly taking photographs of six co-workers’ breasts in 2012 was not considered sexual harassment. [7]

So, while I was writing ‘Provocation’, unbeknownst to me, a senior staff member was using work-issued devices to surveil and objectify women, including school-aged girls. Once discovered, the perpetrator was moved on with his anonymity mostly intact. This perpetrator is known to me; I’ve attended meetings and work functions with him. He has a miniscule online footprint, but a deep web search turns up one reference where he lists his current employment as ‘free soul’.

The protagonist of ‘Provocare‘ is a young woman who survives a life-threatening dismorphic disease, then confronts a stalker in the workplace. Both threats to her life and well-being arise from surveillance: physical, cultural, psychological, technological. In subverting these forms of surveillance, women have the potential to take control (for example, of the means of data production), empowering ourselves against the normative, pernicious, and unrecognized violence perpetrated against us.

The kaleidoscopic end-game of ‘Provocare‘ is borne of the protagonist’s psychosis, but demonstrates the sanity of her response, given the endless, invisible work women conduct to keep ourselves safe.

As an emerging writer exploring lesser-heard voices through non-traditional narratives, my pathway to readers relies on digital spaces. Both ‘Provocation’ and ‘Provocare‘ came to life through projects that are experimental across many aspects: technology, business model, creative process, narrative structure, and subject matter. Investment in experimental digital writing, such as that from QUT and Arts Queensland, is crucial in developing experimental literature to challenge predatory viewpoints and to voice women’s narratives.

All three creators of Provocare will be taking part in ‘Collaboration Nation’,  a panel session at Story +/ Brisbane Writers Festival, on 4th September 2015 at 1.30pm. Tickets can be booked via the Brisbane Writers Festival website. 

[1] Edgar Allen Poe, referring to his first work of detective fiction, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, published in 1941

[2] Nicole Décuré, “V.I. Warshawsky, a “lady with guts”: Feminist crime fiction by Sara Paretsky”. Womens Studies International Forum, 12: 2, 1989

[3] Susannah Thompson, Complex and Complicated Journeys: A Feminist Reading of Australian Crime Fiction. Masters Thesis. Melbourne: Monash University, 1994

[4] Sally R. Munt, Murder by the Book? Feminism and the Crime. Routledge, 1994

[5] Susannah Thompson, Op Cit

[6] Julia Crouch, Genre Bender http://juliacrouch.co.uk/blog/genre-bender

[7]http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/secret-photographs-scandal-rocks-state-library-of-queensland-20141222-12ceyg.html#ixzz3gU6WQikk

Kelly Jones and Linda Sandvik are one of two teams we are supporting through the 2015 Writing Platform Bursary Programme, in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Writer, Kelly, and technologist, Linda, applied to the programme as individuals and were paired by the selection panel because of their shared interests, complementary skill and their openness to collaborating with someone they had never met. 

Kelly’s and Linda’s project is inspired by Kelly’s parents meeting on illegal CB Radio and uses physical computing to explore the ideas of connection and intimacy, ephemerality and permanence.  

We spoke with Kelly and Linda about how 1.4 for Copy came into being, the collaboration process and where they will go from here.

You can read their previous diary entries, here and here.

Tell us about your project 1.4 for copy – what is it, how does it work, and where can people experience it?

Kelly: The initial idea for 1.4 for copy came from myself being inspired by the story of how my parents met on an illegal CB radio in Dagenham in 1981. CB is a great piece of kit, the first R&D (NTW Waleslab) I did on the piece we just played with CB radio to test it capability as a performance platform. There is something so beautiful about the static of CB, you can spend hours just waiting for a voice to appear, it’s quite mesmerizing.  CB is still very much alive in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. I met their local CB guru and we spoke about the science of radio waves and the technical side of how CB works. I think that’s informed the work.  The piece we have made for MIX is an interactive sound sculpture, that’s aim, is to connect the audience through out the conference space. Using the real sound clips of my parents and some written scenes performed by voice actors, the audience will have to work for the story.  The less people that fill the space the more distorted and fragmented the story becomes, there are CB radios in the space so they can radio other audience members to help them out.

Linda: We are using PIR sensors and arduinos on the entry and exit doors to count how many people are in the room, the more people the better you can hear the story.

What story are you telling through 1.4 for Copy and what do you hope to inspire or provoke in people?

Kelly: 1.4 for Copy is about connection. As a society I feel that we are quite disconnected from each other. Politically now is very much a replica of what was going on in the 1980s, tory government, recession, mass unemployment. In times of hardship we should be sticking together and helping each other out but this doesn’t seem to be the case. We very rarely help each other out anymore. The piece aims to take us away from our phones and social media and make us talk to one another. I hope to make people form new relationships and speak to people they may never have thought about. It’s not just about the story of two people meeting, I’d love the audience to share their own stories with each other.

How has the project evolved from when you first started working on it to the final piece?

Kelly: Originally when myself and Linda began to talk about the project we knew we didn’t want to make a website. Both myself and Linda have a love of immersive theatre gaming shows, which meant we were both thinking something a bit more audience participatory.  Originally we thought we’d make something a bit like a CB radio chat roulette. Each audience members getting CB licenses, booths being placed in different locations enabling them to talk to each other. However we both realized quite quickly that it was essentially just Skype and didn’t say what both interested us about the project. We met up to discuss the heart of the idea, why we liked the project, what interested us the most and what we liked. Which is when we came up with what we are doing for MIX. I think projects always naturally become through process what they were always meant to be.

You applied to the programme as individuals and were paired by the selection panel, what was it like embarking on an artistic collaboration with someone you had never met, let alone worked with? Did it throw up particular challenges and how did you handle them?

Kelly: At first I think I found it hard. It can take a long time to get used to a collaboration and because I live in Wales and Linda lives in London, every time we saw each other there was no time for testing each others working practice we just had to get down to business.  I think the collaboration found it’s own rhythm and actually as it worked out, we were well matched. In hindsight I think it may have been good to have arranged a workshop by an external party for us to get used to making together prior to actually making together. I don’t think the partnership didn’t work, actually myself and Linda have plans to continue working on the project together, I just wish we had more time to establish each others working process.

Kelly you applied as a writer and Linda, you applied as a technologist, what was your working process? Were their clear demarcations around who did what or was it more fluid than that?

Kelly: I’d say the process was quite a fluid one. After the initial meeting we kept chatting and batting ideas back and forth. I think for me and Linda this worked very well. It meant between meetings we had time to reflect back on what we had discussed and sift out anything that we felt didn’t work for the project.

I think my role in the project changed. I feel I started out being the writer but that quickly adapted to writer/maker. I think this helped us pull together our ideas. In my practice I am both a writer and maker so was happy that I got to use those skills. I also work quite visually and this comes from my maker background, this helped us look at the project from a different angle and imagine what the piece we were to make might look like.

What did you learn from making 1.4 for Copy? And what will you take away from your collaboration?

Kelly: Well, myself and Linda will be working together in the future, so the collaboration has helped shape a new creative partnership. I think I have learnt that when forming a new creative partnership it takes time and patience. It also means working around both of your workloads. Linda is very good at explaining the technical stuff to me so I have learnt a load about how to use a combination of gadgets to make a project work. A lot of the projects I work on have digital aspects, or at least I want them to, I have never had any idea how to execute them. I feel like I am now able to at least try to break it down in what needs to be in place in order to make it work and not just be an add on but an essential for the show.

Linda: I think what we have now is just the beginning and I’m really looking forward to working more with Kelly. When we started I had never even heard of CB radio, but the recordings of Kelly’s parents immediately fascinated me, and I was able to borrow a CB radio that I tried out.

What’s next for 1.4 for Copy?

Kelly: Well, I have a seed commission to write the play from NTW but myself and Linda have also been invited to apply for Experimentica Festival with the piece we are showing at MIX.

Linda: There are a lot of ways I want to improve/expand on 1.4 copy but most would require extra funding and money for equipment. A better way to count people using kinects would be good, as well as more walkie talkies/turning it into a collaborative treasure hunt game.

And what’s next for each of you – any projects in the pipeline that we should keep an eye out for?

Kelly: I am touring a show of mine THE DROWNED GIRL in Wales this autumn.  The Drowned Girl is a solo show about, unsuccessfully learning how to swim as a child vs. adult drowning and wading through life when grieving. It’s made up of stories from my life and a fusion of storytelling and concrete sound made up from the places in the story.

Linda: I am finishing my Knight-Mozilla fellowship at the Guardian, and dream of going to Antarctica or the Arctic and taking more aerial photographs with helium balloons and kites.

Victoria Bennett and Adam Clarke form one of two teams we are supporting through the 2015 Writing Platform Bursary Programme, in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. 

Victoria’s and Adam’s project uses Minecraft to immerse the player in the experience of a poem and expand the idea of what literature and video games can be.

The final work, titled My Mother’s House, is a poem-world built in Minecraft. Since starting this project Victoria has been caring for her mother who is in the last phase of her life and the subject and form of the poem reflect the process of letting go of someone you love. My Mother’s House demonstrates how writing and gaming can come together and help us explore and engage with aspects of life that are difficult to talk about in a way that is accessible and unintimidating.

If you have Minecraft installed, you can download the free playable map.

Watch the video walkthrough of My Mother’s House by Victoria Bennett and Adam Clarke

Watch Victoria and Adam’s final video diary on the making of My Mother’s House.

Adam and Victoria will be showcasing My Mother’s House, and discussing their creative collaboration, at the MIX: Writing Digital conference on 2nd July 2015. Full conference programme and booking information is available here.

Victoria Bennett and Adam Clarke form one of two teams we are supporting through the 2015 Writing Platform Bursary Programme, in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. 

Victoria’s and Adam’s project uses Minecraft to immerse the player in the experience of a poem and expand the idea of what literature and video games can be. They are documenting the evolution of their project and their collaboration through a series of video diaries recorded in Minecraft.

In this second video diary Victoria and Adam – and their chicken, Ted Hughes – take take us through the latest developments in their Minecraft poetry project, including: using command blocks to display text in different ways, using redstone repeaters to create a visual experience of how a poem might be heard, and using frames to trigger audio. They also delve deeper into the idea of the labyrinth, both as an established poetic form and as a way of creating an environmental experience or a poem within Minecraft, and share their vision of how they might pull it all together in order create an adventure for readers, players and listeners.

You can watch Victoria’s and Adam’s first video diary here, and read about the other bursary project, created by Kelly Jones and Linda Sandvik, here and here.

Kelly Jones and Linda Sandvik are one of two teams we are supporting through the 2015 Writing Platform Bursary Programme, in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Writer, Kelly, and technologist, Linda, applied to the programme as individuals and were paired by the selection panel because of their shared interests, complementary skill and their openness to collaborating with someone they had never met. 

Kelly’s and Linda’s project is inspired by Kelly’s parents meeting on illegal CB Radio and uses physical computing to explore the ideas of connection and intimacy, ephemerality and permanence. This is the second in a series of diary posts by Kelly and Linda documenting the evolution of their project and their collaboration. You can read their first diary post here. 

So what exactly is a CB radio? I had no idea until I met Kelly Jones for this project. Despite having actually watched Convoy, a terrible movie centered around the use of CB radios and trucker culture. I’ve not really done anything with radio before, I think maybe in school once they made us make Crystal radio apparatus for receiving radio during a WW2 project, but never for transmitting. My first impression is it seems a bit like a walkie talkie. You hold in a button to speak, then release. The difference being whereas a walkie talkie has a range about 2 miles, the CB radio can do 20 miles (or more, with mod-ed equipment). They also operate on different frequencies, walkie-talkies are usually paired with another device, a CB radio can talk to any other CB radio within range. People might bring a receiver with them on the move, but have a home base to broadcast from. It was very popular with truckers. Metallic frames of the cars and trucks make an excellent groundplane which improves the range of the antenna. Kelly let me borrow a car antenna to play around with. “Try putting a biscuit tin on the base to expand the range” suggested one helpful enthusiast on twitter. “And run a wire from the antenna to the base”.

I set up the radio on my desk in my bedroom and turned it on. I say “turned it on”. What I do is I stick two loose wires into the power pack. It turns on briefly but when I move one of the wires fall out. I tape it on. When turned on it immediately goes to channel 9. “Oh shit this is the emergency channel I shouldn’t be on here aaah” I think and flick to channel 4, where I get a lovely static. I’ve been talking to people on twitter about CB radios. One person tells me their father still uses it. When there are storms or earthquakes he listens out on the emergency channel in case anyone needs help. Some situations could occur when you don’t have a phone or internet. But probably a mobile phone is more reliable these days.

I talked to a few CB radio enthusiasts about the rise and fall of CB. Newer technologies replaced it. In some cases IRC (internet relay chat, actually created well before the height of CB). Some said IRC was less intrusive. There’s a log you can read if you’re not there at the time. If you’re busy you can catch up later. There are some things they missed though. The voices. The mystery of not knowing the real name. If it’s just text on a computer screen you can’t really know for sure if you’re talking to a human. Talking over CB radio is more Snapchat-like. You have to be there, in the moment. I like that.

Most of the people I talk to on twitter who still use CB radio are drivers or truckers or live in the countryside in the US and spend a lot of time driving, across their ranch for instance. They mostly talk to other drivers. I guess traveling can be lonely. Unlike cellphones, there are no laws against using a CB radio while you’re driving.  The only people I’ve managed to talk to so far from my bedroom setup have been truckers. There are more channels busy in the early morning than in the evening. It’s interesting and strange to talk to them because I am a cyclist in London and trucks are the enemy. It feels weird to listen in to their chatting. That’s something you can do by the way, just listen without saying anything. Sometimes you may want to let people know you are there just by clicking your button quickly, without saying a word.

A friend told me her aunt and uncle met on CB radio, like Kelly’s parents. It’s probably equivalent to “we met on the internet”. But you’re a bit more likely to meet someone who lives close to where you live. I like that too. We can reach the whole world now but we have forgotten how to talk to those physically close to us. I live in London so of course I don’t know my neighbours or talk to people in my neighbourhood. I talk to people on twitter instead.

A few people tried to encourage me to get a ham radio license. They used to do CB radio before ham radio took over. All the cool kids are using it. I’ve been at the London Hackspace when they’ve tried talking to the ISS. Yes, even the International Space Station has a ham radio.

So how do we preserve the rich history and culture of CB radio for the future? Will archaeologists of the distant future be able to make receivers that can pick up these radio waves that are still floating around? What will they think of us?

Victoria Bennett and Adam Clarke form one of two teams we are supporting through the 2015 Writing Platform Bursary Programme, in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. 

Victoria’s and Adam’s project uses Minecraft to immerse the player in the experience of a poem and expand the idea of what literature and video games can be. They are documenting the evolution of their project and their collaboration through a series of video diaries recorded in Minecraft.

In this first diary Adam and Victoria share their early ideas for the project – how they might go about building worlds from words, how players might experience and play with story in Minecraft, and draw interesting parallels between writing and building. As Victoria says:

“we started talking about how does that blank world relate to the blank page? As a writer, when I approach a blank page, I’m thinking, ‘what am I creating here?’ Each word that I place down is like a block, and this relates to how we create a world block by block within Minecraft”

We are also supporting Kelly Jones and Linda Sandvik through the bursary programme. Their project is inspired by Kelly’s parents meeting on illegal CB Radio and uses physical computing to explore the ideas of connection and intimacy, ephemerality and permanence. You can read their first diary post here.

Kelly Jones and Linda Sandvik are one of two teams we are supporting through the 2015 Writing Platform Bursary Programme, in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Writer, Kelly, and technologist, Linda, applied to the programme as individuals and were paired by the selection panel because of their shared interests, complementary skill and their openness to collaborating with someone they had never met. 

Kelly’s and Linda’s project is inspired by Kelly’s parents meeting on illegal CB Radio and uses physical computing to explore the ideas of connection and intimacy, ephemerality and permanence. This is the first in a series of diary posts by Kelly and Linda documenting the evolution of their project and their collaboration. 

After a rainy journey up (or across) from Cardiff myself and Linda met today for the  second time since finding out that we were awarded the Writing Platform Bursary. Our initial meeting happened at Warren Street station, with both myself and Linda awkwardly eyeing each other thinking, ‘Is that the writer? – Is that the technologist?’ Thankfully, she was the technologist and I, her writer. Quite quickly it became apparent why we were paired to work together. With a shared interest in immersive theatre games and a love of tea, we began brainstorming ideas and exploring a way of pairing narrative with an interactive technological experience.

Today we’d arranged to meet by a statue outside a London train station, that’s coincidentally surrounded by statues, a clever idea , like saying – I’ll meet you over by that bit of water to a goldfish. Obviously if that Goldfish isn’t in a bowl of water at the time he needs to meet the meet-ee, their ‘meeting’ would be much easier than mine and Linda’s was. Eventually finding each other we spent the day in The British Library, sharing our developments with the project and trying to log onto the Wi-Fi.

When I applied for the Writing Platform the idea that I included on my application was for a project called ‘1.4 for copy’. ‘1.4 for copy’ is a play about how my parents met on an illegal CB radio in Dagenham in 1980. After a period of research and development it transformed into a piece no longer just based on how my parents met, but about connection. Specifically, how in 2015 it’s much easier to be connected, but we rarely do, our heads always down, looking at a screen. The other most interesting part of the project for me is the science, radio waves infinitely travelling through space, the signal eventually fades but when you think about it those stories of the past, especially on CB, are floating right above our heads. Very romantic. These are the things that Linda and I are looking at with our project. Can we make the audience connect and leave a lasting, yet fading impression of those connections they’ve made?

At the moment we are trying to find someone to build us two booths or sheds to test the idea that we have. The idea, yet vague, is something we are both very excited about. We would like to pitch up a CB booth in two different locations, probably Cardiff and Hackney, to test. After an introduction to the world of CB through the stories I am writing the player is moved onto the booth. They are given a CB license number, CB dictionary and instructions, after logging on (through the power of WI-FI) they connect to the person who is in the other booth. They won’t be able to see each other, just hear their voice, and at the end of their conversation they will be given a task to do that will get pinned to the other players CB license number, building up a library, a constellation of connection. We further need to explore the role of the voyeur and text/script within this project and how as a writer I can satisfy the requirements to not just have a great tech/theatre project, but that also has narrative and words. More on this in the next post.

If you can help Kelly and Linda build the booths they need you can reach out to them on Twitter @TheDrownedGirl and @hyper_linda or email us at hello[at]thewritingplatform.com and we’ll pass it on. 

We are also supporting Victoria Bennett and Adam Clarke the bursary programme. Their project uses Minecraft to immerse the player in the experience of a poem and expand the idea of what literature and video games can be. You can watch their first video diary here.

The Writing Platform launches 2015 Bursary Programme, in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Writer Naomi Alderman and Google’s Tom Uglow join selection panel.

There are two bursaries available for writers and technologists to embark on exciting collaborations.

Application forms and eligibility criteria are available here. The deadline for applications is 5pm GMT on Thursday 4th December 2015.

The Writing Platform Bursary, which supports experimentation, collaboration and learning between writers and technologists, announces its 2015 Programme delivered in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

The Writing Platform will be making two bursaries of £4000 available. Each bursary will be awarded to a team made up of one writer and one technologist to work together on a writing project over a period of three months.

The programme is open to individual writers and individual technologists, who will be paired by the selection panel according to shared areas of interest, and to ready-made teams of writers and technologists.

A selection panel made up of Tom Uglow, Director Google Creative Labs; Naomi Alderman, writer and professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University and Joanna Ellis, Partner at The Literary Platform, co-founders of The Writing Platform, will award the bursaries.

Tom Uglow, Creative Director of Google Creative Lab says:

“My paperback may have been usurped by my phone (just like everything else) but, in my idle moments I’m still reading avidly, against the lure of streams and news. It is wonderful to be involved in supporting a new generation of writers experimenting and exploring the novel forms that these devices promise. Bursaries like The Writing Platform are amazing in allowing writers to openly challenge our preconceptions and show us nascent forms of literature’s next incarnation.”

Naomi Alderman, Writer and Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University says:

 “The digital revolution is even more profound and significant than the print revolution of Gutenberg which kick-started the Reformation. We have no idea where the next 200 years will take us in terms of what writing and creativity can produce, become, and mean. What we know is that experimentation is vital, and giving creative people the opportunity to explore their boldest ideas is the best way to find out what works, and what doesn’t! I’ll be looking for ideas I haven’t seen before – ways of using technology that really push the bounds of the possible. And I’m excited to see what we find!”

Joanna Ellis, co-founder of The Writing Platform and Partner at The Literary Platform, says today,

 “The Writing Platform is dedicated to supporting writers in the digital age and we are delighted to be able to provide this opportunity to writers and technologists to collaborate, experiment and learn with each other and make work they would not be able to make on their own. We were thrilled with the projects created by our 2013 recipients and I can’t wait to see what emerges this time round”

For more information please contact Joanna Ellis: joanna [at] theliteraryplatform [dot] com

NOTES TO EDITORS

• About The Writing Platform

The Writing Platform is a website and programme of live events dedicated supporting writers in their creative practice and career choices.

The website is a free online resource for writers who are looking for information and inspiration about writing in a digital age. It also serves as a platform for writers to reflect and share insight about their own practice and experiences.

The Writing Platform launched in spring 2013. It is run by The Literary Platform and Kate Pullinger in association with  Bath Spa University and Queensland University of Technology

The Writing Platform Bursary Programme 2015 is funded by Bath Spa University and the National Lottery, and supported by Arts Council England (Grants for the Arts).

• About Bath Spa University

Bath Spa University (BSU) is a leading university for creativity, culture, enterprise and education. Based in the world heritage city of Bath, it hosts one of the UK’s leading centres for teaching creative writing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Creative Writing Department, within the School of Humanities and Cultural Industries, recently appointed 10 new teaching and research professors — all highly acclaimed in their creative fields — to join a distinguished team of practitioner researchers. Two of these appointments, Kate Pullinger and Naomi Alderman, reflect the vital role and priority BSU has given to questions of writing and digital technology, as well as the digital future of the writing industry more generally.

•  Judges Biographies

Tom Uglow, Director at Google Creative Lab, has worked at Google for nearly 8 years, starting Google’s Creative Lab in Europe and, since 2012, building a Creative Lab in Sydney, Australia. His team work on experimental projects that help connect people and that use Google, Android and YouTube’s products in creative ways.

Previous projects include Hangouts in History, Dream40 with the RSC, buildwithchrome.com, Web Lab, Live in a Day, and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Most of his projects are collaborations with charities, agencies and cultural organisations around the world that help artists and creators explore new forms of creative practice using digital tools.

Tom speaks on innovation around the world; tweets, posts and blogs on digital creativity; he is a trustee of D&AD and AWARD and has judged, presented, and enthused on TV, online, and in print. He is a Sunday-coder, a traditional creative, and a fuzzy strategist. Occasionally he knits.

Naomi Alderman, Writer and Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University

Naomi Alderman is a novelist, broadcaster and games designer. She’s won numerous awards for her literary fiction which includes Disobedience and The Liars’ Gospel. She broadcasts regularly on BBC radio, and has a regular monthly column in the Observer. She is the co-creator and lead writer of the best-selling smartphone fitness game Zombies, Run! In 2012 she was selected by Granta as one of their once-a-decade list of Best of Young British Novelists, and in 2013 she was picked for the Rolex Arts Initiative as the mentee of Margaret Atwood.

Joanna Ellis is Partner at The Literary Platform, a consultancy that specialises in the publishing sector and which is also the founder of two programmes for writers: The Writing Platform and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. Before joining The Literary Platform Joanna worked in publishing for 14 years, most recently as the marketing director at Faber & Faber.

Download the press release.