Deck of cards
Item
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Title
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Deck of cards
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Description
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Deck of Cards is 52 'cards' constituting a textual and visual description of a single spring moment in Pittsburgh. The 'cards' are 'readable' in any order and should be shuffled before each reading. The narrative operates in the interactive present- the present because the 'now' is the only form of time in which action occurs with an unknown outcome; interactive because the reader, by rearranging the sequence of the text, involves in the creation of the narrative. From a narrative perspective the 'past' or 'future' lack one of those attributes- the narrative outcome must be known or it must be predetermined. Deck of Cards, involving the reader as co-author of the text, seeks also to participate the reader in the narrative as one of the characters experiencing the described events. These events are treated as occurring simultaneously in the lives of five characters: at the moment Julie steps on board her bus, Paul is already almost downtown on an earlier bus; Richard is awakening; Enid is visiting her psychiatrist and Dora is getting dressed. Because the 'real time' are simultaneous, the order of presentation is irrelevant. The characters, however recall their interlocked pasts with recollections developing a 'plot' leading to the described moment. The order of the immediate and recollected experiences is determined by the reader who, having shuffled the 'cards', has created a text which only that reader has made. -- Author's note.
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Creator
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Beaman, Peter H.; Whiteley, Elizabeth; Freeman, Brad
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Date
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1989
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Publisher
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[Pittsburgh] : P. H. Beaman, [©1989] (Washington, D.C. : Pyramid Atlantic)
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Elizabeth Whiteley
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Rights
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All rights reserved
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Subject
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Visual literature
Conceptual art
Toy and movable books
