by Abe Golam

May 17, 1997

Press Release

http://www.grammatron.com

They said the Internet would change the way we read and write fiction...

They said that hypertext was the genre of the future...

They said that contemporary culture was becoming a simulation of the real...

And they were right...

Announcing the much-anticipated Internet release of novelist Mark Amerika's web-based hypermedia project GRAMMATRON!

From the introduction:

The GRAMMATRON project is a "public domain narrative environment" developed by virtual artist Mark Amerika in conjunction with the Alt-X Online Publishing Network [http://www.altx.com], the Brown University Graduate Creative Writing Program and the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Graphics and Visualization Center as well as with the support of many individuals without whom none of this would be possible.

The project consists of over 1000 text spaces, 1700 links, 40+ minutes of original soundtrack delivered via Real Audio 3.0, unique hyperlink structures by way of specially-coded Javascripts, a virtual gallery featuring scores of animated and still life images, and more storyworld development than any other narrative created exclusively for the Web. Future versions will integrate state-of-the-art Virtual Reality languages for a more immersive, collaborative experience...

The GRAMMATRON site, which was featured in the M.I.T. Media Lab's "Portraits In Cyberspace" juried exhibition as part of their 10-year anniversary, also includes a companion theory-guide called Hypertextual Consciousness 1.0 and soon there will be available a downloadable text called *Work-In-Progress: The Making of GRAMMATRON*, an elaborate critifiction of 135 pages with 70 footnotes, many of which are narrative digressions detailing Amerika's involvement with the Black Ice Books series, the Alt-X Online Publishing Network, the Brown University Graduate Creative Writing Program, and the National Science Foundation's Graphics and Visualization Center located at the Brown University Computer Science Graphics Laboratory.

The GRAMMATRON World Tour has already taken Amerika to various conferences, festivals and universities including the Brown University Freedom To Write conference, the Softmodern(e) Festival in Berlin, The Word Bombs Conference in London, the Duke University "Assault: Radicalism In Aesthetics and Politics" Conference, the Northwestern University Center for Writing Arts Lecture Series and Rutgers University. Upcoming presentations in the summer and fall of 1997 will take place throughout Europe, Australia and North America.

For more information or to contact the artist, send inquiries to:

The GRAMMATRON Project

POB 241

Boulder, CO 80306-0241

USA

fax: 303-499-2507