Jack the Twitter: Volume One
Sadly absent from the Turner Prize nominations for 2010 is the work of artist Marcus Brown.
In particular, Marcus' most recent creation Jack the T. Witter aka Jack the Twitter (sic) - his most fully formed narrative to date.
For those not familiar with Jack, a brief description.
'He’s been called a demon and a monster. He’s actually a psychotic Twitter stalker who likes Prokofiev and fried liver. If you are on twitter, he might just be following you and if he’s doing that, well, then you just might meet him in a dark, cold back alley of twitter.'
Jack the Twitter is a transmedia-esque narrative that 'tangles itself into the real life stories' of individuals using social networks such as twitter and foursquare to document their places and interactions.
This entanglement is then replayed in Jack's own grisly (to use an apt etymology) narrative which is published using those same real-time update tools, google maps (the darkest alleys of twitter) and Jack's own blog, Jack the Twitter.
Like that other reknowned 'Jack', his principle playgrounds are the east end streets of Ye Olde London Towne, and 'tis the 'prostitutes'of the twitterati whom have fixed his wrath.
'For twitter's whores are naught but bores especially in east London'
Marcus' storytelling uses the internet and it's myriad of tools as his medium, with his subject matter being essentially a critique of society and culture, as played out on the internet, akin to a mash-up of Adorno and Benjamin with a dash of Warholian detachment, the characters, in effect, describe how we are living today.
For the full story, so far, The Jack 'encounters' are now available as a limited edition 'souvenir' edition paperback book and digital download, entitled 'Jack the Twitter: Volume One' from Lulu.com.
I strongly advise you to purchase a copy lest Jack follow you out into the streets of London in order to avenge his terrible past and fulfil his prophecy...
