JCHutchins Dot Net

J.C. Hutchins’ new supernatural thriller, Personal Effects: Dark Art is now available in bookstores and for purchase online. A recent starred review by Publisher’s Weekly called the novel a “stellar first.” Library Journal’s review deemed Personal Effects a work that “may herald the future of modern fiction.”

Created by Jordan Weisman and published by St. Martin’s Press, Dark Art combines the experience of a traditional thriller novel with a multimedia-fueled “out of book” narrative. Clues in the novel — and items that come with the novel, such as ID cards and photos — propel readers into an online experience where they become protagonists themselves.

Personal Effects: Dark Art follows the extensive notes of art therapist Zach Taylor’s investigation into the life and madness of Martin Grace, an accused serial killer who claims to have foreseen, but not caused, his victims’ deaths.

Zach’s investigations start with interviews and art sessions, but then take him far from the hospital grounds — and often very far from the reality that we know. The items among Grace’s personal effects are the keys to understanding his haunted past, and finding the terrifying truth Grace hoped to keep buried…

• Call the phone numbers: You’ll get a character’s voicemail.
• Google the characters and institutions in the text: You’ll find real websites.
• Examine the art and other printed artifacts included inside the cover: If you pay attention, you’ll find more information than the characters themselves discover.

Personal Effects: Dark Art is the ultimate in voyeuristic storytelling, representing a revolutionary step forward in changing the way people interact with novels.

You can follow #JCHutchins on Twitter or check out the website recommended for clones.

Dorkbot Melbourne Sun Feb 1, Richard Allen & Cagatay “Chatai” Goncu

Dorkbot Melbourne 25
>>> people doing strange things with electricity <<<
4pm, Sunday 1 February, 2009
Level 1, 124a Johnston St Fitzroy 3065 (just east of Brunswick St), Melbourne.

Dorkbot Melbourne once again brings together inspired and inspiring minds from across the known universe. Everyone with an interest in doing strange things with electricity is invited to come along and check out the presentations and participate in lively discussion. Doors open at 4pm, presentations start at 4.30 sharp. Bring your friends. Bring drinks and nibblies of your choice. Scheduled talks are outlined below.

::: LalaLullaby :::
Richard Allen

Richard Allen (aka Chi Chi Fibonacci) will discuss the maiden voyage of  “Lalalullaby” – a weird and wonderful immersive musical sculpture created with Pippa Willison and Paul Irving.

Fresh back from experimenting with punters at the Rainbow Serpent festival, Richard will attempt to explain what it’s like to sit inside a giant cosy knitted egg, swinging inside a five metre tall pyramid, being pushed by two costumed creatures while your motion generates a multilayered, synthesised,
quadraphonic soundscape…

::: Diagramming For the Blind :::
Cagatay “Chatai” Goncu

Diagrams are important components of educational materials. They can be found in various media. Printed media, such as text books, have traditionally been the most commonly used media for educational material, however online electronic resources, such as web pages and e-books, are becoming increasingly popular sources of educational content. Online materials include static diagrams, like text books, but may also include dynamic content such as animations and components that can interact with the user. Unfortunately, these types of content are not easily accessible to blind people.

While there has been considerable research into generation of accessible diagrams, there is still no generic technique for automatically generating accessible diagrams from a standard input format such as SVG or image. Developing such a generic technique is the aim of this project. This generation should preserve the same semantics and pragmatics as its visual representation as far as possible, and be appropriate to users, tasks, devices and presentation media.

Cagatay (Chatai) Goncu is a PhD student studying at Clayton School of IT, Monash University. He is in his second year now, and working on presenting diagrams to blind people by using different modalities such as tactile, audio, and tactile/audio.

::: OpenDorks :::

P.S. Check out our mailing list and wiki to hear about future dorkbots…
http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotmelbourne
( dorkbotmelbourne@dorkbot.org ) if you’d like to present something at a future dorkbot.

Darlo by Rowan Hagen

Synopsis
It’s the 1980′s and Darlinghurst (Sydney) is home to the truly cool and those just keeping it together, to the up and coming and the down and out.

In the gaudy whirl of ‘darlo‘, Matthew looks no further than the bottom rung, aided by the occasional bottle, while Melanie is steering clear of drugs one day at a time. With help from Jesus, a local eccentric who makes the worst coffee in the world, Melanie and Matthew find each other. Cautiously feeling their way into a relationship, they struggle to learn to trust again.

Meanwhile ‘darlo’ is changing around them, as urban renewal brings in a brittle, cashed-up, cosmopolitan air to the seedy, seamy streets of a close and vibrant community. Will Matthew and Melanie make it, or lose it?

darlo by Rowan Hagen, is a truly Australian love story. Its rich cast of desperately hopeful characters are as real and present today as they were in the 80s.

About the Author: Rowan Hagen has been writing since she learned to form a sentence, drawing on her own life experiences to breathe life into her complex, hopelessly hopeful characters. She writes for all the usual high-minded, creative reasons and, also, because it is hellishly good fun. darlo is her first novel and she is busy on her next.

darlo is distributed in Australia by Dennis Jones & Associates Pty Ltd and available from all good bookstores or online at A&A Book Publishing from August 19 2008.

Author urges Olympics athletes to have a Full Body Orgasm

With the Beijing Olympics just about to start, author and body-psychotherapist Oscar Naval is urging our competitors to tap into all their physical, mental and spiritual powers as they strive for gold.

Releasing his book Full Body Orgasm – Your Energy To Love, Health, Wealth, And Happiness to coincide with the opening of the Olympic Games on August 8, Oscar believes our elite athletes have an excellent chance of winning more medals than ever before if they draw on the power of the Full Body Orgasm flowing through their bodies.

“The full body orgasm (FBO) is unrestrained joy and pleasure that opens the doors of peak experiences in all aspects of life,” says Naval. “In other words, if you can fully experience the energy of an FBO, then you will experience joy and pleasure in everything you do in life.”

This book takes a holistic view of the meaning and the function of the orgasm in the broader sense of the word as it relates not only to sexuality (the body) but in the mind and spirit as well. The FBO is your life force energy. It is a rich, personal, spiritual connection with yourself, everyone, and everything you experience in life.”

Oscar says his newly-released book incorporates a catchy title about feeling that unrestrained joy and pleasure in your life everyday. “It is truly amazing to have a ‘Full Body Orgasm Lifestyle’ or what I like to call an ‘FBO Life’. I know this may sound a bit strange to call it a lifestyle BUT that’s the best description for really feeling that good.”

His personal growth book equates the living of an uneventful life to that of a quick sneeze, “… the orgasm may be analogous to a sneeze-a pelvic sneeze, if you will. There is a slight build up and then, “Ah-choo!” It’s over – and so goes your life.”

Oscar says that an FBO life is true wealth. Gerry Robert, the best-selling author of Millionaire Mindset and president of LifeSuccess Publishing, one of the publishers of the FBO book, commented that: “having the concepts of the energy of sex and money in the same book is amazing.”

US born, and now based in Melbourne, Australia, Oscar holds a Diploma of Body-centred Psychotherapy from the Institute of Core Energetics, Australia. He is also a Hawaiian Lomi-lomi massage therapist.

The book is available from the Ingram Book Group and the Australian Book Group.

The eBook version can be downloaded from www.youpublish.com/fullbodyorgasm.

The book is available online from FBO-Book.com and Amazon.com.

Solstice Carnivale

Undergrowth presents : SOLSTICE TRAILS : a solar art carnivale

DETAILS:
what is it: a solar art carnivale of free art, music and films in the park to celebrate the Solstice.
when is it: Saturday 22nd December 12 noon-12 midnight
where: The centre of Edinburgh Gardens, next to the historic missing Queen Victoria statue.
Melbourne, VIC, Australia

ABOUT:
Solstice Trails is a solar art carnivale being held in the Edinburgh Gardens to celebrate the summer solstice on Saturday the 22nd of December, (07) organised by the Undergrowth art collective. We are inviting the Melbourne community to come in creative celebration of this annual event when the earth reaches it’s apex of solar energy, so why not enjoy it out in the open air, under the sun? In this spirit, the power for the event will be supplied by the sun thanks to the Labrats Solar Powered Sound System, and the ‘renewable energy’ of Melbourne’s creative community creating an artistic carnival atmosphere. Celebrate creativity not consumption. Celebrate life from the sun – this is what Solstice represents.

As part of the carnivale, we will be transforming the park into an open air gallery for one day, from the trees we will be hanging works by local artists, Chayya Clancy, Raku Pitt, Tim Parish and Antonia Green who will also be erecting her geodesic creation as an artspace over the day. Music will be provided by Miso, Pataphysics, slam poetry jazz outfit ‘Sipher Alley’, Dub the Magic Dragon, Labrats and more, with chill dj’s until nightfalls. Finally when the sun sets there will be a selection of consciousness raising films including shorts, animations, the Ministry of Truth radical media tv pilot, and the official launch of ‘Tales from the Ghetto’ by Izzy Brown, MC of Combat Wombat about her recent collaboration with Kenyan hiphop collective Sinpare while in Africa. All free.

THE HISTORY OF SOLSTICE
The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, a sacred festival for cultures all around the world, connecting the ancient pagan celebrations as it marks the period of greater fertility in agriculture. In China it is a celebration of yin, the earth and the feminine. It is the original inspiration for the date which is now Christmas, and in many cultures the ancient myths of the virgin birth of the son at this time actually relate to virgo giving birth to the sun… We believe that as environmental awareness increases around the world, so does our awareness of reconnecting our culture to the natural cycles of the world, and a revival of these ancient earth centred festivals can play a large part of that. As a counterpoint to Christmas, which has been grafted on to the date of the Solstice, we want to celebrate creativity not consumption.

Often celebrated on the 21st of December, the actual date of the the longest day changes each year to the day before or after, and this is why it is often called the day when ‘the sun stands still’ before it begins to move back toward winter. In 2007 the longest day of the year will be Saturday December 22nd just after most people have finished work for the year, so what better time to come and celebrate play, and creativity than when the source of all our creation is at it’s peak in our skies?

BYO CREATIVITY
We want everyone to know that while Undergrowth is planting the seed and setting the stage with many artists and musicians on the day, everyone is invited to come and bring their own creations, set up their own space, show art, bring instruments, sculptures, theatre, picnic, whatever you want… art is a participatory activity, not just a spectator sport. Everyone is invited to come and play.

ABOUT UNDERGROWTH:
Undergrowth is an organic media art collective involved in independent publishing, utilising art to inspire environmental consciousness and evolutionary culture. Through our website Undergrowth.org we host art, writing, films, music ebooks and regular digital magazine of Australian artists, and in the real world we publish books, organise art exhibitions, work with festivals and hold events that promote conscious memes in the Australian culture.

We are all change agents.
Engage the flow and swim with it.
In it.
Become it…

{we live not Underground, but in the Undergrowth}

For more information or to get involvedcontact:
Tim Parish: – art(a)undergrowth.org
Scott Foyster: zines(a)undergrowth.org

Solstice Carnivale Website

Illogic of Sense: The Gregory L. Ulmer Remix

ALT-X PRESS ADDS “ILLOGIC OF SENSE: THE GREGORY L. ULMER REMIX” TO ITS INFLUENTIAL EBOOK SERIES

The Alt-X Online Network, a space “where the digerati meet the literati” and on the Internet since 1993, announces the release of a new Alt-X Press ebook entitled “Illogic of Sense: The Gregory Ulmer Remix” edited by Darren Tofts and Lisa Gye, and designed by artist Joel Swanson of hippocrit.com.

Illogic of Sense: The Gregory L. Ulmer Remix
Edited by Darren Tofts and Lisa Gye
Design by Joel Swanson
http://www.altx.com/ebooks/ulmer.html

Contributors include Niall Lucy, Jon McKenzie, Linda Marie Walker, Craig Saper, Rowan Wilken, Marcel O’Gorman, Teri Hoskin, and Michael Jarrett, with an introduction by editors Tofts and Gye.

“Illogic of Sense: The Gregory L. Ulmer Remix” is an exciting new ebook publication that employs theorist Gregory Ulmer’s invocation to invent new forms of electronic writing. As the ebook’s editors, Darren Tofts and Lisa Gye, write in their brilliant introduction, “Ulmer has been at the forefront of thinking about new cultural formations as the paradigm of literacy converges with digital culture.” Ulmer’s work has been central to contemporary thinking on the future of writing and his international presence as one of the leading figures in media arts discourse has influenced a multitude of disciplines from electronic literature and Internet art to critical theory, communications studies, and art history. The ebook features a diverse group of artists, theorists, and creative writers who develop new forms of hybridized “digital rhetoric.” Their inventive and audacious experiments take advantage of recent developments in the field of new media studies, and as part of Alt-X’s mission to participate in the creative commons provided by the Web, are available for free download.

This provocative collection of multi-tracked writing puts into play many of Ulmer’s breakthrough theories summed up in his most recognized hot-button terms: applied grammatology, heuretics, post(e)-pedagogy, textshop, mystory, and choragraphy. Encouraged by the example of Ulmer’s own hyperrhetorical writing style, the authors incorporate collaged imagery, mp3 soundtracks, and QuickTime movies into their innovative multimedia mix while exploring how these same extensions of “writerly performance” explode the false barrier between academic discourse and spontaneous poetics, narrative and rhetoric, and autobiography and fiction. Positing an “illogic of sense” to reclaim what Ulmer calls an “anticipatory consciousness,” designed to utilize the force of intuition as a way to invent emergent forms of knowledge, this grouping of hypermedia texts showcase how interdisciplinary writers can remix the methodological approach of an avant-garde philosophy propelled by Ulmer, one that prioritizes an ongoing process of discovery and media arts assemblage.

The ebook is beautifully designed by artist Joel Swanson of hippocrit.com, who crosses his visionary design sensibility with state of the art technology to produce an original work of ebook-art that many will view as finally fulfilling the long-promised potential of online publishing to use stimulating visual arrangement, media hybridization, and typographical ingenuity to blur the distinction between publication, exhibition, and design performance.

“Simultaneously celebrating and expanding on the writing performances located in Gregory Ulmer’s rich oeuvre of totally remixable source material, the collection of essays in ‘Illogic of Sense’ adhere to an experiential approach to creative/critical writing and in so doing teach us how to write a theory of poetics that will help us invent a new field of study that I would call interdisciplinary digital humanities.” – Mark Amerika, series editor, Alt-X Press; author of “META/DATA: A Digital Poetics” (MIT Press, 2007)

You can download “Illogic of Sense: The Gregory L. Ulmer Remix” ebook as well as other Alt-X ebooks for free at http://www.altx.com/ebooks/