My new novel Pattern City is due 2025. An animation made from the illustrations is in the ‘Drivers’ exhibition at the Computer Arts Society, BCS Moorgate London.
Multiple versions of illustrations were used for the animations. The animation uses variable grids, colour overlays, and displays blending and flickering images.
‘Circular River’ – part one of the novel – will on here first, so get an alert by emailing geoffdavis5 at gmail com
Geoff with Pattern City animation ot CAS 'Drivers' exhibition - Mudzone scene - Photo credit - Catherine Mason @CathComputerArt
Pattern City animation ot CAS 'Drivers' exhibition - Escape scene
Email to get art merch and memorabilia when it is launched – geoffdavis5 AT gmail DOT com
@microartsgroup @geoffdavisukart @authorgeoffdavis #patterncity
More about the Drivers exhibition here
AI research, etc. – please visit geoffdavis.org
Micro Arts Group – pioneering computer and conceptual art
Fiction and educational books
I’m an occasional author living in London UK. Please see below for more about various publications. I also make digital art, some of which is text-related. I am getting too much spam on the contact form so please use geoffdavis5 at gmail com
AI Creative Writing and Art Anthology, 2024
SECOND EDITION – free – launched at Computer Arts Society February 21, 2024.
THIRD EDITION out by end 2025
Leopard Print Publishing LPP, London. Ebook ISBN 978-1-913584-17-7
Artist & Authors FREE ebook – latest edition v. 2.7
This 400 page book is free, get a copy at https://geoffdavis.org
With Ana Caballero, Sasha Stiles, Kevin Abosch, Patrick Lichty, James Bloom, Johnny Dean Mann, Iqra Iqbal, Corinne Whitaker, Herbert Franke (fiction) and many more, plus 20 stories from 1st edition.
The First Edition, 2023, is included with the Second, but is also avalable in the original.
20 writers share how to use computer tools. Stories plus author notes on their creation. This book is included in the Second Edition above.
First Edition cover below
PEN New Fiction Anthology
Quartet Books Ltd/Namara Group 1984. ISBN 0704324539
African Story – short story in PEN International New Fiction, 1984 (Quartet). Included Ben Okri, Deborah Levy, Clare Boylan, Meira Chand, Tom McCarthy, Iain Sinclair. Edited by Peter Ackroyd. At the time no-one was particularly well-known. PEN still do important work for writers under political persecution.
Story Generator – Micro Arts MA4
Cow Boils Head – text generator software, 1985 (Micro Arts MA4). Released on national Prestel teletext (a text pre-internet for nerdy TV watchers). Cow Boils Head generated versions of the ‘seed’ text such as Lizard Inflames World, Snake Boils Hair, Wolf Marinates Lips etc. The original short story was about BSE (mad cow disease) and a vengeful cow. The computer text generator was exhibited (set up in a gallery) and reviewed at the time. It was part of my extensive computer art output from 1984-85 under the name Micro Arts, see Micro Arts Group site.
Micro Arts Group History
2019 book with memoirs, full details of generative art releases, contemporary reviews etc.
Micro Arts History – Geoff Davis – many formats
Micro Arts Magazine – editor, writer, 1984. Page scans on the Micro Arts website
Nnn Goes Mobile
Novel, Juma Print/Forbidden Planet
ISBN 1872204155
Nnn Goes Mobile – novel, 1993 (Juma Print). Cyberpunk, mildly satirical. Distributed by Forbidden Planet. Came with a computer game on disk, coded in Macromind Director by Robert Mettler, a Myst-type game set in a future Paris (where the story starts). It was distributed on an Arts Council Hub multimedia disk.
Game from Nnn Goes Mobile Geoff Davis 1994 Arts Council Hub
Death in the Bubble World – Em Foundation
Death in the Bubble World – novella , 1997-2000 (Em Foundation). Serialised in book/music periodical Em One, Two and Three, edited by Karl Sinfield. A literary book series (like Granta) with a music cassette and later CD of new bands etc. Also included Hanif Kureishi and others. There was also an online Bubble World animation by the artist Paul Greenleaf.
In this story I invented an electronic currency Easy Money Units EMUs, a cryptocurrency (stored in ‘handbags’) used for universal basic income UBI (free basic amount of money for all, not means tested). This topic is the background economy of my new novel which will be serialised 2024-2025.
There is also a site for Easy Money Units.
Death in the Bubble World Flash animation by Paul Greenleaf
Em ISSN 1366-3755
Calm as a Dead Clam – multimedia fiction, 2003 (Middlesex University). Demonstration of zooming interface (ZUI) software developed in my research Masters in Electronic Arts. See here for more on the zooming interface design. This ZUI software was later commercially released as Story Lite (and later Story Turbo) and Notes Story Board v2.2 (current) – see www.notesstoryboard.com
Calm as a Dead Clam – Non Linear Narrative research, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts, Middlesex University, 2003
This was a Masters research project that included Non Linear Narrative and Zooming Interfaces. It led to the apps Story Lite, Story Turbo and Notes Story Board, see Story Software.
The Green Eco Building Book – Ecotist/DN Developments
The Green Eco Building Book: I was a founder member of the Sustainable Development Commission, a UK Government advisory body, after I had a big project developing eco houses. This is a fully illustrated book on green and sustainable (and other) building techniques, energy saving, etc., 2009. This book was eventually converted into the large website Building & DIY which has a lot of information, if interested.
Non-fiction – various other books written or edited (various How To… books, The Green Eco Building Book, Interior Design manuals, commercial software user guides etc.) and copy for websites on many subjects, plus shorts and bits and pieces used in multimedia etc. Some of these are to be republished by Leopard Print Publications 2020.
Current work
Circular River (temporary title, work in progress) – a novel due eventually. Uses the electronic currency EMUs introduced in Death in the Bubble World as the basis for a future Universal Benefit System (UBI). Various adventures with a family of constantly changing size in this future world. This is to be serialised by Leopard Print Publications in late 2024-2025.
Not fiction
I have a background in computing, the web, and computer graphics teaching at Universities in the UK. I was the first web manager at NESTA (now called Nesta) London.
Music
I lived in Sheffield for a while was involved in the Now Society in the late 1970s-1980, putting on concerts with friends. We promoted groups The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Vice Versa (later ABC), Thompson Twins, ClockDVA, Throbbing Gristle, The Teardrop Explodes, They Must Be Russians, The Extras, Art Objects (later Blue Aeroplanes) and many more. I wrote the title song ‘Loot of the World’, arranged Nigel Pulsford (later of Bush) and released on Loot! the first solo album by Ian Burden of the Human League (Homar label – HOMCD 6603, 1990). I’ve been in a few bands, and made soundtracks for various art films when I was working with the London Film-Makers Coop in ther early 1980s. I still have a small studio.
I’ve made music for some of my recent digital art releases such as Piano Bar Red from Expanded Art Berlin 2023. I worked with musician Patrick Jaworski on my “Abstract Originals” Cube series from elementum Zurich 2023. There is a new band ‘Metavista’ which is in development.
Loot! album with Ian Burden, Martin Rootes and Ian Elliott is shown below.
