Joseph Matheny's Blog, page 28
September 14, 2011
On Whistleblower Radio Tonight
I know it's late to announce this but I've been busy rebuilding my primary computer today. I'll be on Whistleblower Radio, which can be accessed at http:/projectcamelot.org tonight, Wed. Sept. 14th at 7pm PST. Come join us and listen in.
September 2, 2011
The GSpot: Kerry Cassidy
Joseph Matheny talks to Kerry Cassidy from Project Camelot.
Music by Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and New Order, in that order.
Links:
http://projectcamelotportal.com/
http://awakeandaware2011.com/
http://projectcamelotproductions.com/
http://projectcamelot.tv/
Download or listen here
August 23, 2011
The GSpot: David Jay Brown
Joseph Matheny talks to writer and psychonaut David Jay Brown about his many projects and interests.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Jay_Brown
http://www.mavericksofthemind.com/
http://www.sexanddrugs.info/aboutdave.htm
Music (in order) by Gogol Bordello, Marvin Pontiac and Japan.
August 20, 2011
August 11, 2011
Ong's Hat eBook Now on iTunes
Ong's Hat: The Beginning is now available on iTunes for your iPad, iPhone and other ePub compliant readers. It is reasonably priced at$4.99 USD.
I will also be releasing an official audiobook through Audible.com later this year.
All this is in preparation for a new Ong's Hat spin-off novel (a sort of meta-sequel) that is in the works for release early next year.
In the meantime, enjoy the "beginning" in your favorite format.
August 8, 2011
The GSpot: Hal Hefner
Hosts Joseph Matheny and Julieta Randall talk about upcoming shows and then speak to Hal Hefner of Gates.
Music by The Three Dog Night and Zager and Evans
August 3, 2011
The Surprising Online Life of Legends
A very interesting article/review of Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong's Hat.
From The Chronicle of Higher Education: Now, from the you-can-learn-something-new-every-day files, comes Michael Kinsella's Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong's Hat.
Read it here: http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/the-surprising-online-life-of-legends/29221
From the article:
The response of Joseph Matheny to Legend-Tripping Online suggests the success of Kinsella's read on the Incunabula Papers. On his Web site, Matheny wrote that Kinsella "did an excellent job and only missed the mark with two or three of his conclusions," which Matheny said he would clear up by writing a complementary account.
In the context of the Incunabula Papers and Ong's Hat, something about that statement echoes beguilingly. Is Matheny offering to perpetuate the project, despite closing it down?
Or perhaps he never did shutter it. In 2001, his announcement of the termination of the project said that he and a colleague "decided today to publicly announce in the near future that the Ong's Hat Project has now concluded." Not only do the tenses in his statement appear slippery, but he also tantalizingly mused that he did think the Incunabula Papers "would still make a good book from a cultural anthropology perspective."
Is Kinsella's Legend-Tripping Online not only that book, but also, unwittingly, another phase in the whole, crazy Incunabula Papers caper?
Kinsella allows: "When you're dealing with this…this thing, there are trickster qualities and pranks and hoaxes, and fact and fiction are so blurred that it's really hard to make sense out of it."
July 25, 2011
THE BUSINESS OF STORYTELLING: PRODUCTION OF WORKS, POACHING COMMUNITIES, AND CREATION OF STORY WORLDS
Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
A paper [PDF] that uses copious quotes from This is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming and has section about the Ong's Hat project.
I found it rather interesting.
July 15, 2011
Thriving Underground Website Anonymously Markets Illegal Drugs
I'm cited as an "expert" in this article by my old friend David Jay Brown. It's about Bitcoin and Silk Road.
To learn more about Silk Road, and about the Bitcoin economy that fuels it, I interviewed transmedia writer/artist Joseph Matheny, who is an expert on computer encryption and the underground Internet economy. According to Matheny, ordering from Silk Road is generally safe, if you know what you're doing and take the proper precautions.
July 5, 2011
Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong's Hat
Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong's Hat
My review: I was expecting to hate this book, but I didn't. Michael Kinsella did an excellent job and only missed the mark with two or three of his conclusions. Of course, this is forgivable since he wasn't in possession of all of the facts from behind the scenes. As a remedy to those few slight errors, and in interest of keeping the record straight I will issue a free companion guide to this book in a few weeks. Since the book is primarily about myself, my friends, my project and my methods, I do admit to being somewhat close to the subject. However,what colors my decision to release the guide is simply that I'd like the record to be as clear as possible if this is to become a subject of "study" by academia.
Other than a few forgivable gaffs (and I do mean a very few), this book is quite enjoyable, insightful and entertaining. I'm glad someone in academia was able to decipher many of the the objectives and methodologies of this project and I highly recommend it (with the soon to be released companion guide, of course). If you choke at the price of $55 USD, you may want to wait for the paperback (if they publish one) or the inevitable ePub that's sure to show up in the wild.
Description: On the Internet, seekers investigate anonymous manifestos that focus on the findings of brilliant scientists said to have discovered pathways into alternate realities. Gathering on web forums, researchers not only share their observations, but also report having anomalous experiences, which they believe come from their online involvement with these veiled documents. Seeming logic combines with wild twists of lost Moorish science and pseudo-string theory. Enthusiasts insist any obstacle to revelation is a sure sign of great and wide-reaching efforts by consensus powers wishing to suppress all the liberating truths in the Incunabula Papers (included here in complete form).
In Legend-Tripping Online, Michael Kinsella explores these and other extraordinary pursuits. This is the first book dedicated to legend-tripping, ritual quests in which people strive to explore and find manifest the very events described by supernatural legends. Through collective performances, legend-trippers harness the interpretive frameworks these stories provide and often claim incredible, out-of-this-world experiences that in turn perpetuate supernatural legends.
Legends and legend-tripping are assuming tremendous prominence in a world confronting new speeds of diversification, connection, and increasing cognitive load. As guardians of tradition as well as agents of change, legends and the ordeals they inspire contextualize ancient and emergent ideas, behaviors, and technologies that challenge familiar realities. This book analyzes supernatural legends and the ways in which the sharing spirit of the internet collectivizes, codifies, and makes folklore of fantastic speculation.
From the Inside Flap
How the Internet crystallizes fringe theories into amazing realities
