EX MACHINA – CALL FOR REMIXES

When Jonathan Ball published his first book, EX MACHINA, he issued it under a Creative Commons license that allows for non-commercial, unauthorized derivations.

So far, elements of the book have been remixed into other poems (by Colin Smith and Ryan Fitzpatrick), a children’s book (by John Toone), industrial music (by Patrick Short of Electric Candles), and a graphic fiction chapbook (by GMB Chomichuk).

BookThug, EX MACHINA’s publisher, is considering an anthology of further remixes in some form. This notice serves as an open invitation for artists of all stripes to engage with the text of this open source, open-ended book.

EX MACHINA has been called a “very unique long poem ... exploring the interface between man and machine” (Calgary’s FFWD) that “complicat[es] in a real and tangible way our relationship to the book” (Ryan Fitzpatrick, author of Fake Math). Governor General’s Award-winning author Robert Kroetsch has called Ball “one of our most exciting young poets” and EX MACHINA “fresh, daring, [and] original.”

Submissions to jonathan@jonathanball.com by November 4, 2010.

More information:

About EX MACHINA

www.bookthug.ca/proddetail.php?prod=200915

A long poem at the fringes of the Canadian tradition, EX MACHINA is a latticework of poetic and philosophical statements concerning the symbiosis of humans, books, and machines. A series of three intertwining sequences, the reader is encouraged to move back and forth from statement to statement, seeking development but meeting frustration. The reader thus becomes a larval stage in the poem’s development, forging connections between its disparate parts during the course of this mental processing, as the text evolves over multiple readings.

About Jonathan Ball

www.jonathanball.com

Jonathan Ball holds a Ph.D. (English) from the University of Calgary and teaches creative writing in the city of Winnipeg. He is the author of EX MACHINA (BookThug, 2009) and the forthcoming CLOCKFIRE (Coach House, 2010). His film SPOONY B appeared on The Comedy Network, and the independent feature film SNAKE RIVER is based on a screenplay he co-wrote. He is the former editor of the literary journal dandelion, and the former short films programmer of the Gimli Film Festival.

Comic Chapbook remix of Ex Machina

GMB Chomichuk (of Alchemical Press) remixes Ex Machina as an endless chapbook: http://comicalchemy.blogspot.com/2010/06/doompilot-mobilis.html

The comic loops -- the physical book is a single page, double-sided, and you keep turning the book over and over as you read.

Review in Hand + Star

Ex Machina received a kind review in Hand + Star.

Ex Machina .... for kids?

Poet/children's author John Toone and his family have put together a children's book version of Ex Machina: it's the first children's book I've ever seen to feature pictures of human skulls.

Thanks

Thanks to GMB Chomichuk, John Toone, Colin Smith, and Patrick Short from Softcops for your excellent responses to Ex Machina.

The event last week was exciting and the new works, inspired by the book, will be posted up here eventually (I'm on it). In the meantime, why not get to work on your own stuff, and send it to me?

rEmiX MACHINA - Winnipeg, Aqua Books, Feb 24, 7pm

When Jonathan Ball published his first book, Ex Machina, he issued it under a Creative Commons license that allows for non-commercial, unauthorized derivations. On Feb. 24, 7:00 p.m., at Aqua Books, four artists will present their own creative work remixing or drawing inspiration from the book, in an event titled rEmiX MACHINA. The invited artists are GMB Chomichuk (writer/illustrator/publisher of Alchemical Press), John Toone (poet/children’s author), Colin Smith (poet), and Patrick Short (singer/songwriter for Softcops).

Ex Machina has been called a “very unique long poem . . . exploring the interface between man and machine” (Calgary’s FFWD) which “complicat[es] in a real and tangible way our relationship to the book” (Ryan Fitzpatrick, author of Fake Math). In an interview for Winnipeg’s Uptown (where he writes the “Haiku Horoscopes” humour column), Ball said that the book is about “how machines have changed what it means to be human.” Robert Kroetsch says "[Ball is] one of our most exciting young poets, and Ex Machina is a fresh, daring, original take on the us of us."

Ex Machina is published by BookThug, a Toronto press known for innovative, unconventional books. The book was launched at McNally-Robinson in January and spent two weeks as the only poetry book on the local bestseller list.

Mission Statement

This site exists to host announcements and "remixes" of Jonathan Ball's poetry book Ex Machina (BookThug, 2009).

The book is published under a Creative Commons license that allows for attributed, non-commercial, sharealike derivations. Click here for all the details. The basics of what this means:
1. You can buy a copy of Ex Machina and "remix" it -- use the book as a jumping-off point to fashion your own creative works.
2. The works you create must acknowledge Ball and Ex Machina as a source of inspiration.
3. You cannot make money off of the works you create (without Jonathan's permission) but you can distribute them by any non-commercial means.
4. The works you create must be licensed similarly.

Last, but not least -- make stuff, and send it to me! I'm at jonathan@jonathanball.com.

Thanks to BookThug, Jay MillAr, and Jenny Sampirisi for making all this possible.