While it's slightly old news by now, I am delighted to report that I Dreamt of Something Lost won Best Demo at the MediaFutures Annual Meeting 2023. I was not remotely expecting to win; my mind was primarily on the talk I was giving the next day. And yet, evidently, people liked it. Neat!
It's a very odd experience standing next to people while they consume the art you made - maintaining a delicate balance between 'giving them space to experience it' and 'being on hand to answer any questions'. This is kind of the eternal dilemma when it comes to authorship, in my opinion. I've read Barthes; I know how this works. Once my work is out there in the world, it is no longer solely mine.
At the same time, though, being its creator gives me insights into it no one else will have, because that is a relationship to the work that no one else will have. This is doubly true for IF/electronic literature, because there are specific technical concerns that I am meaningfully an expert on.
Besides which, I don't want to live in a world where authors never comment on their work. I like author interviews and DVD commentaries, I think they're fascinating. I do wish we could give such things a little less authority. Genius auteurs are great and all but my personal feeling is that art is located and contextual and - in many mediums - fundamentally collaborative. Isn't that the beauty of it?
In unrelated news, I recently released some of the zines I've been making on itch.io. Those can be found here - and the cool thing is, any that I make in the future will be accessible via this link too. If you enjoy my work and want to give me a tip and get some zines into the bargain, check them out!