Breathe (2018) [single-component output with contextualising information]
- Submitting institution
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Bath Spa University
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 3379
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- A novel-length work of ambient literature with contextualising information.
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2018
- URL
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https://doi.org/10.17870/bathspa.c.5243348
- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Breathe is a ghost story for the smartphone. It was commissioned as part of the AHRC-funded project, Ambient Literature, which asked how can situated literary experiences delivered through pervasive media systems produce new forms of literary experience? The research looked at the history of the book to establish how the physical situation of the reader has effected the nature of the writing itself.
In keeping with the long literary tradition of haunted technology, Breathe tells the story of a young woman, Flo, who can communicate with the dead through her phone. Using three APIs (application processing interfaces) - weather, time, and location - the story accesses data on the reader’s phone in order to subtly alter the story for every reader. Through the use of conditional text, the story changes in line with the temperature, the season, and the place it is being read. This use of personal data draws attention to the phone’s potential use as a tool of surveillance. I chose the genre of the ghost story in order to make the most of the uncanny effect the use of personal data has on the reader; for example, the ghost in the story knows where the reader is located and the text includes a series of nearby locations. In addition to the APIs, the story also uses visual effects to represent the ghosts, making the most of the haptic qualities of the smartphone screen as the reader interacts with the book through swiping, rubbing, and tilting.
Breathe is accessible, free of charge, via smartphone; it resides in the browser and does not require a download. Breathe builds on the work Pullinger has done on creating fictional forms native to the internet, smartphone, and computer as well as her previous literary work on reimagining supernatural tropes in fiction.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
