[Nettime-bold] Virtual Excursions: Miami / L.A.

You are invited to explore the first installment of Virtual Excursions: Miami / L.A. (http://www.beyondwriting.com), an imaginary travelog by Leah Prada, the fictional narrator who revisits selected passages in her life as she prepares to enter the twenty-first century. Spectral dancers guide Leah, the sightseer, through multimedia dreamscapes. Along the way, she traverses stages that reconfigure space and time, history and memory, fact and fiction.

Leah's personal history begins in Miami during the early 1950s. By the turn of the century, Leah resides in L.A. The virtual excursions that she recounts instigate convergences in her mind between Greater Miami and Greater Los Angeles. By thus bringing together her impressions of these places and the memories they inspire, Leah redesigns her ongoing self-portrait for a new era.

A range of writing and communications technologies looms in the background, colored by the inaugural years of network television, the emergence of independent video, the proliferation of international cinema, the appearance of personal computers, and the evolution of the World Wide Web. Starting with childhood diaries, Leah spends a lifetime experimenting with ways to "write" differently. The experiments continue.

The text remains a work-in-progress, so check back periodically for updates, new links, and additions to the database. Please send your comments to Elayne Zalis at elaynez@beyondwriting.com .

Virtual Excursions: Miami / L.A. (An Imaginary Travelog)

http://www.beyondwriting.com