Dude, I was part of the precariat before it was cool.
I have been putting little income streams together for decades now while most of my peers got regular jobs. I’m well suited to it, I like the variety, and most importantly, I chose it.
Not so the Millennials.
Continue reading »My first novel launched twenty years ago today. To mark the occasion I’m publishing the first of a series I’m calling the Fallow Essays, reflective pieces on art and cultural production from the vantage point of having spent two decades walking this path. Each will be accompanied by a recorded conversation with an artist peer.
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I have a guy in my head.
I call him Niles. Picture a hulking acne-riddled teenage loser with a punk rock haircut, a white denim duster jacket and big boots, walking down the street muttering to himself angrily.
For decades, when I heard Niles behind me, I’d walk faster. Or cross the street to avoid him. I resent Niles, and he despises me. Or at least it seems like it. I’ve never talked to him.
I’ve decided to stop using the No Media Kings imprint for my work. I started using it back in 2000, and the media context has shifted drastically: things are so much weirder now. Who knew back then that the kind of print media consolidation I was concerned about would seem quaint in the face of Facebook’s billions of users? That the self-publishing game-changer would be a kinky e-book that came in 50 Shades of Grey? That Rupert Murdoch’s machiavellian publishing manoeuvres would pale in comparison to his overtly pro-Nazi mouthpiece, Fox News?
Originally I started NMK to self-publish my second novel Angry Young Spaceman. Continue reading »
Consumer Virtual Reality is kind of dead, and that’s great news… It’s as though an alien spaceship fell on earth and all the aliens died… and now we have to figure out how to use this strange technology for our very human desires. (From Stranger Playthings: Remaking a VR Counterculture)
VR is weeeird. So we made a weird game with it called Manimal Sanctuary. It’s a lurking simulator where you play a creature that’s part coral reef, part Cthulhu, who feeds off of the emotions of humans.
It’s also weird to exhibit VR games: “Hey, mind strapping this box to your head in a way that effectively blinds you and makes you look silly?” And it’s boring for the people who aren’t wearing the headsets.
We addressed those issues… by doubling down on the weirdness.
The last six months or so I’ve been writing and designing a VR game prototype:
Manimal Sanctuary is a lurking simulator. It leverages low-end VR technology to enable every player’s ultimate fantasy: to play a creature part coral reef, part Cthulhu, who consumes human emotions. Set on the Toronto Islands after the rest of the city is consumed by gibbering monstrosities, you eavesdrop on the survivors and their dramas involving things like bad potato crops and graffiti tags. And if those everyday emotions aren’t filling enough, you can always uncover some devastating secrets…
UPDATE: The free demo is available now for iPhone and Android phones that can run Google Cardboard apps.
Daily Vice did a 4 min vid on it filmed on Toronto Island.
Continue reading »
Does your mom like puzzles and historical mysteries, and own an iPhone? Why not surprise her on Mother’s Day by installing Wonderland?
Wonderland is an audio drama game set circa 1914, in Toronto’s rough-and-tumble Junction neighbourhood. The end of each chapter poses a puzzle — solve it, and unlock the next one. Stuck? Just put your iPhone in your pocket and go for a walk… every 100 steps, one of the letters in the puzzle is filled in.
Just in time for the start of prime walking season, Wonderland is free for the month of May. Walking simulators are so 2012 — take our walking stimulator for a stroll instead!