Steve Tomasula: The Art and Science of New Media Fiction 4/5/2013

full name / name of organization: 
David Banash / Western Illinois University
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This edited collection will investigate critical approaches to Steve Tomasula's innovative contemporary fiction, non-fiction, criticism, and multimedia art. In books including _IN & OZ_, _VAS: An Opera in Flatland_, _The Book of Portraiture_, and _TOC: A New-Media Novel_, he has reimagined the form of the book and reengineered the possibilities of narrative. Beyond his major books, Tomasula has also published remarkable short fiction, non-fiction, essays, criticism, and original works of music and visual art that develop, explain, or demonstrate new possibilities for the forms of narrative fiction. His major theme is perhaps the evolving relationship between art, science, and being, and his works plot the ways in which contemporary discourses and technologies of science create new problems, meanings, and futures for the forms of humanity, art, and, particularly, the art of fiction.

Possible Topics: This edited collection seeks papers on any aspect of Tomasula's work, from his major novels to his ephemeral performances. These topics include but are not limited to:
*Tomasula, evolution, and biology
*Tomasula and the sciences
*Tomasula, new media, and /or digital life
*Tomasula, epistemology, representation, and constructions of reality
*Tomasula, ontology, and the problem of life
*Tomasula's novels and the book as medium
*Tomasula's fiction and the archeology of language
*Tomasula's fiction and its relation to his nonfiction / criticism, especially bio-art writing
*Tomasula and comics, games, or other forms and genres
*Tomasula and narrative
*Tomasula's short fiction
*Tomasula's critical work
*Tomasula's music or visual arts
*Tomasula's performances

The book will also include an interview with the Tomasula and a complete bibliography / discography / catalogue of his fiction, non-fiction, audio work, and visual art produced to date.

Length: Essays should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words.

Deadlines: Abstracts are due by April 5th, 2013. Send a 500-1000 word abstract and a brief biography to d-banash@wiu.edu

About the editor: David Banash is the author of _Collage Culture: Readymades, Meaning, and the Age of Consumption_ (forthcoming, Rodopi). He is co-editor with Kevin Moist of _Contemporary Collecting: Objects Practices and the Fate of Things_ (forthcoming, Scarecrow). He teaches contemporary literature and film at Western Illinois University.