April last year I blogged, at WRT, about a book that had an unusual online life. The ‘book’ is in a card-file type format with cool bright colours and rounded corners. It is a networked book, created by the Future of the Book. The idea is that the book is presented in a cool manner, and that people are encouraged to discuss it, whilst it is being written. The book is about game theory, indeed, it is called ‘GAM3R 7H30RY’. It is written by academic McKenzie Wark, Professor of Cultural and Media Studies at the New School in New York, and author of many books including A Hacker Manifesto. The book will be published in print format around April this year and will include comments by those online. Recently, Wark was interviewed about his online book and his game theory inside a game: Halo. He was interviewed in the ingame talk show This Spartan Life (my favourite talk show) and ended the interview with a reading of his book. A reading that many writers would either envy or fear greatly. Enjoy.
I’ve been checking out the new media initiatives that Penguin UK are running and I must say I am quite impressed. They’ve been providing audio books for a long time, and ebooks too, but they also have a blog, podcast, have a fun MyPenguin program, are now in Second Life and are running on online game to launch a book: The Malice Box Quest. The audio books provide a point of entry to stories for people who prefer or can only enjoy books aurally. Ebooks are similarly for those that prefer to read a book in that format, and want the added benefits such as searchable text. The blog keeps everyone posted on what they are doing but most importantly gets a conversation going between consumers and the company. Indeed, it personifies the company. The podcast has interviews with authors to encourage selling of books, but also provides interviews with Penguin staff to continue the conversation of the blog. MyPenguin is a great little campaign where you can buy classic books such as ‘Crime and Punishment’ that come with a different cover. No cover. Teh cover is completely blank, and you, the consumer, are encouraged to draw or paint the cover and send a picture of it back to them. They’re put the images online at the MyPenguin site and at flickr.
In Second Life (the online virtual world) they will be providing a virtual book of the Ur-text of virtual worlds: Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash. Snowcrash is the novel that inspired Second Life. At present they only have a sample of the book, but they will be bringing in a swag of Penguin books, holding reading groups and launches in there too. I’ve been speaking with Jeremy Neumann inworld, he is always happy to chat so give him a bell (IM). The Malice Box Quest looks like a cross between the Google Da Vinci Code Quest and Perplex City:
Over 30 days you must complete a series of puzzles to locate the seven sources of red gold scattered across the earth.
By accurately mapping all seven sources of red gold, the antennae grid of the Malice Box will be disabled, allowing Robert to battle and so defeat the Malice Box.
This will also trace a shape on a map of the Earth, guiding you to the location of the Malice Box – known as the FOCAL POINT.
Only when you have made your mark on the FOCAL POINT can you complete your trials and claim your power and prizes.
I’m impressed Penguin UK. Not because they’re plonked a whole lot of new media or Web 2.0 elements into the mix, but because these are executed well. Check them out:
A new peer-reviewed journal of new media art has just been launched:
Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures provides a forum for experimental new media projects (both critical and creative) located outside or across current disciplinary boundaries.
New thinking need not follow established patterns. We at Hyperrhiz oppose the idea that knowledge must grow in a tree structure from previously accepted ideas. Instead, we are interested in the creative potential of thinking as a nodal process. As our name suggests, works written in the spirit of Deleuzian approaches are welcomed but not required.
We value works that are nomadic in nature: place-less but not lost. Like the nomad, we encourage migrations into new conceptual territories resulting from unpredictable juxtapositions: of the material, the virtual, the oral, the visual, the textual, the tactile. These interleavings of words and practices, expressed as electronic meditations, are the literature of the Deleuzian technological nomad.
I’ve been checking out the new media initiatives that Penguin UK are running and I must say I am quite impressed. They’ve been providing