Far South

Abstract

Multi-platform novel with web-based components at www.far-south.org, www.realandpresent.org http://farsouthproject.tumblr.com/ Far South: Gerardo Fischer is a theatre director who has disappeared from an artists’ colony in the sierras of Cordoba in Argentina in January 2006. Juan Manuel Perez is an ex-cop, now a private investigator who is hired to find him. His investigation leads into the dark heart of Argentina’s recent past, and into hitherto unknown parts of his own. The text is made up of Perez’s casebook, witness statements he records, a diary in the form of a graphic novel drawn by one of the witnesses, and is supplemented by web-based documents including film, image and text. The life of the novel continues via websites, blogs and Twitter. To reflect the collaborative nature of the development of the form and content, the author is named as David Enrique Spellman, the translator and editor of Juan Manuel Perez’s evidence and notebooks. Altogether, around forty people participated in the web-based materials including actors, musicians, photographers, and web-designers. Chance and found objects played a major part in the development of the plot.