You may have heard of the Bordertown series, a 25-year-old collection of anthologies, games, gatherings and other wonderful things surrounding a fantasy world shared by multiple authors.
Sadly, I am not involved in that particular project. (Not that I’d say no to such an offer, of course. Hint, hint…) Instead, and equally awesome, I am involved in another Border Town, a 12-week design studio hosted by Site 3, a spin-off of Toronto’s HackLab. (I should really write a whole post, with photos, about just how cool Site 3 is. It’s awesome. They have a laser. And a piano.) We meet once a week and discuss specific texts related to the issue of divided cities: how people navigate them, how borders change personal and commercial relationships, how border towns create and manifest their own unique subjectivities…it’s really no surprise that we always run late and only end the conversation when we’re too dehydrated to talk.
I mention this because our studio will be producing deliverables that stand to be exhibited at or by the Detroit Creative Corridor Center. It will be the first time that my work has been exhibited as a piece of art, and this poses a rather daunting challenge. It’s hard for me to remember sometimes that my work could be considered art. I know that other writers’ works are works of art, of course. Just not mine. It’s a cognitive bias and I understand it as such just as I fall into its trap.
I’m hoping to get over it, though, by hosting a panel related to Border Town at on Sunday the 17th at 1pm Polaris, a science fiction convention happening later this month. Considering that one of my deliverables could be a story, I want to ask SF readers what they’d like to read, and how they’d like to interact with a written piece as art. (Should I do something locative? Should I make something that people can pick up and hold? Should I make food? Because I’m pretty good at making food.)
I’m also hoping to record the panel via my computer, so that I can have good notes. I may even end up re-mixing the audio for the exhibit! So, if you attend my panel, you could become part of my first exhibited work of art!