I am now doing most of my blogging etc. on a new site
My 1980s digital and computer art is at Micro Arts Group
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
Books etc.
Ai Creative Writing Anthology 2023 – I’m the editor, with a couple of short pieces. With Brian Reffin Smith, Tivon Rice, Iqra Iqbal and many others.
Previous (oldest first)
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.
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.
There is also a book about Micro Arts:
Micro Arts History – Geoff Davis – many formats
Micro Arts Magazine – editor, writer, 1984. Page scans on the Micro Arts website
Nnn Goes Mobile – novel, 1993 (Juma Print). Cyberpunk, mildly satirical. Distributed by Forbidden Planet. Came with a computer game on disk, coded by Robert Mettler. This was coded in Macromind Director and was 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 – novella , 1997-2000 (Em Foundation). Serialised in book/music periodical Em 1,2 and 3, 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. Bubble World online animation in Flash by Paul Greenfield.
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 on this site.
There is also a site for Easy Money Units.
Death in the Bubble World Flash animation by Paul Greenleaf
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
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 Spring 2020 and featured on this site.
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) when they started in Threadneedle St, City of London. I lived in Sheffield for a while was involved in the Now Society, and wrote the title song for the Loot album by Ian Burden of the Human League. I had a band Heaves a Sigh, which had several other names inc. An Alien Heat, as in the more thorough histories of Sheffield music, with Tony X Russian and Bob Eadey (top gig: The Hallamshire Hotel, Sheffield). I also played in the free-form noise/jazz band No No No in London (no relation of No or NoNoNo) (top gig: Bull and Gate, London).
