Sporkworld gets a Makeover

Sporkworld has undergone a thorough renovation without, we hope, changing the basic character of the site. Formerly orphaned works now have links, and the diverse authorship of Sporkworld's content has been made more explicit. The changes may not be obvious at first, but further exploration will reveal that there are several new sections, dead wood has been removed, and the design of the site has been made more consistent.

Please visit the new video and gallery sections.

We have also recently started a new sister site, the Sporkworld Microblog, to publish spontaneous visual and textual experiments by the Sporkworld Team, along with book, software, and music recommendations. We will add new material to the Microblog several times a week, so please bookmark it and check frequently for updates. You may also view the Microblog (except for videos) on a mobile phone at http://sporkworld.tumblr.com/mobile.

In addition to the Microblog, this Community site, and the Sporkworld Bookstore (where you can buy books and other items reviewed on Sporkworld), Sporkworld now has its own YouTube Channel. In an effort to participate in new advances in web interactivity, we expect to add more sister sites as opportunities become available. We welcome suggestions of new kinds of web publishing; please send your ideas to Sporkworld. If we act on your advice, you will be eligible to receive a genuine Unicorn as a reward for your contribution to the site.

"There are lots of faces like this in old churches – faces made out of leaves. Some of them are in wood and some in stone. They're always called Green Men.”

“Why does this one look so horrible?”

“I believe they're supposed to represent the plight of an immortal soul when it's forced to live in a mortal body..."

Dora starts to find out about the first clue. She converses with a vicar. One of the cards is stolen. The black beetle reappears.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/puzzlebox/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

Poet, editor, mIEKAL aND blew into town from Wisconsin last week, accompanied by boxes of enticing Xexoxial publications and a companion with an enviable hat and a serious camera. He took the poetry scene by storm. Between gigs, he declared himself pleased to spend some time in sunny Buffalo after suffering record-breaking day-after-day snow in Wisconsin and the physical miseries that go along with it.

New on The Hyperliterature Exchange for March 2008: a review of 'The Way North' by Joel Weishaus.

"The page as a whole... is giving off all sorts of different signals about its content, and the experience of reading it is dominated by moments of transition, from one voice to another, one type of discourse to another, and one text-style to another. The overall impression is that this is not the kind of smooth, homogenous discourse we are used to reading in print, but the text equivalent of a collage."

To read the whole review, go to http://www.hyperex.co.uk/reviewthewaynorth.php .

The Hyperliterature Exchange is an online directory and review of new media literature for sale on the Web. More than 120 works are now listed. Please visit and browse at http://hyperex.co.uk .

- Edward Picot
personal website - http://edwardpicot.com

"She opened the lid. The inside of the box was divided into two halves, and each half contained cards. On the left hand side were red cards with yellow lettering on them, which said 'Help'; and on the right hand side were blue cards with red lettering on them, which said 'Clue'..."



Just what has happened to Dora's dad, exactly what is the present he left for her, and who is that strange boy who keeps appearing and disappearing so mysteriously? The second of 12 chapters.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/puzzlebox/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

"She went up the stairs to her Dad's room, just in time to see something terrible happen. Her Dad was sitting at his desk. To his left was the wall, and there was something black on it. At first Dora thought it must be a big spider; then that her Dad must have somehow splashed ink or black paint onto the wallpaper; but then she saw that it was moving and growing bigger..."

A mysterious boy, a mysterious box, and a mysterious black beetle. The first of 12 chapters.

http://www.edwardpicot.com/puzzlebox/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

Sporkworld is attempting to enhance its brand by embracing Web 2.0 and the new mobile internet (buzzword alert :-)), so please check out our new microblog:

http://sporkworld.tumblr.com/

If you have a mobile phone which can view web pages, try viewing the microblog at the link:

http://sporkworld.tumblr.com/mobile

-Sporkworld Webmaster aka Millie Niss

Sporkworld sends its friends a New Year's Greeting in the form of a puzzle topologically related to the Rubik's Cube. We will send (via snail mail, as we traffic only in real fake Unicorns, not virtual fake Unicorns) a Unicorn to the first person who sends an explanation of how to solve it to men2@columbia.edu , with or without explicit group theory… For a solution to count, it must be clear enough to allow Sporkworld's resident naive beta tester to solve the puzzle from any initial solvable state.

http://www.sporkworld.org/webart/newyear.html

"Bluedolph the blue-nosed reindeer
Didn't have a shiny nose..."

A mildly anti-festive animated parable about one of the less successful reindeers. In Flash, with sound (and sprigs of holly). Happy Christmas!

http://www.edwardpicot.com/bluedolph/

- Edward Picot
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website

Thanks to the New York Civil Liberties Union, the 20,000 people who signed the online petition at www.pictureny.org, and everyone who sent negative feedback to the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting, the City of New York has decided to withdraw its proposed rules governing permits for photographers and film-makers working in public places in New York City. They now plan to redraft a new set of rules based on the public feedback they have received, and to have a new 30-day public comment period to allow people to comment on the new set of proposals.

According to the New York Times's "City Room" blog:

After an outcry from videographers, filmmakers and still
photographers — including a satirical rap video and an online
protest petition that has gathered more than 20,000 signatures —
the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting announced
this afternoon that it would “redraft” proposed rules that would
have restricted how images can be recorded in New York City, one
of the most filmed and photographed places on the planet.
....
The city appears to be modifying its position — if not backing
down entirely — as a result of a settlement from a recent
lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The civil
liberties group had threatened to a file a new suit over the
proposed rules. (See the text of the proposal as a PDF.)

I really do think there need to be rules to apply to large commercial film shoots and television broadcasts, because my own neighborhood in New York City (Morningside Heights, near Columbia University) is a fairly frequent film location, and when the film crews come, they do tend to take over. They stop pedestrians from crossing the street or walking down the sidewalk, park in places where there should be no vehicles, and do various obnoxious things such as produce fake rain (this happened right in front of my building and it was real water and a lot of it!), fake violence, and unpleasant flashing lights. I remember one film shoot that involve wolves which scared me as a six-year-old, even though the wolves were being put through their paces behind a chainlink fence. This kind of activity should require a permit. But independent artists making video art or still photography, bird watchers, and citizen journalists should not be restricted at all so long as they do not break any existing laws about obstructing sidewalks or disturbing the peace.