Matthew Mella

Dreams in concrete

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 08:01:06 +0100

I took a tour round Park Hill last month as part of Site Gallery’s Brutalist Speculations and Flights of Fancy book launch. Led by writer Owen Hatherley, we traipsed around the old, new and abandoned bits of Europe’s largest listed site.

The was an odd romanticism to the whole affair, and a deep sympathy for the unloved and unwanted. The mythical past of these concrete giants is slowly receding into history, and their once functional forms are now abstract angles and blocks on the skyline.

They’re endangered, too. This week, Preston’s brutalist bus station was added to an “at risk” list maintained by the World Monuments Fund. This status, however, won’t be enough to save it from its planned demolition. But is this surprising for a form of architecture considered eyesores by many? The philosophical and social vision behind these buildings is often forgotten or rejected as a failure.

Dreams encased in concrete.

You can read more about my tour of Park Hill and the Brutalist Speculations… book launch in my post for The Culture Vulture.

Overlap's second live event: The Secret Agent

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:26:57 +0100

Tuesday 11th October sees Overlap’s second live outing, as we discuss narrative and choice in videogames with a session mysteriously entitled The Secret Agent. Guest host Russ Stearman will take us on a meander through point-and-click adventures, spy thrillers and movie dilemmas in search of what level of freedom games really give us. Russ gives a brief introduction to his talk on the Overlap blog.

It takes place at Brezza, Sheffield and kicks off at 7:30pm. Oh, and it’s free. You can reserve your place on the Overlap site.

Overlap investigates new and forgotten storytelling, covering everything from the SMS gaming to nineteenth century episodic fiction. We’re currently running a pilot season of events in Sheffield, UK as well as our blog.

The Empty Mirror – A Short Story

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:17:00 +0100

My good friends at Irregular Magazine celebrated their second birthday in July with a special issue themed around nineteenth and twentieth century pulp fiction. In keeping, I submitted a rather shlocky and blood-curdling tale in the tradition of Victorian penny dreadfuls with a dollop of Hammer horror on the side. I later discovered that “The Empty Mirror” is also the name of a rather odd sounding film about Adolf Hitler. I doubt the two have much in common.

The story (X-rated for violence and supernatural menace!) is available to read after the jump… if you dare (Bwahahaha)…

*****

THE EMPTY MIRROR

A MACABRE TALE OF MURDER AND SUPERNATURAL MYSTERY
BY M. T. MELLA

The old drunk struggles as I straddle his chest, my left hand tight around his throat. He thrashes against the cold cobbles of the alley, grasping for salvation. It does not come; This place is as far from the early morning bustle as I could find. I press against his stubbled neck with all my weight, losing my hat as I lean closer to the wretch. For a moment I worry that it may become sodden in the puddles, but then I smell the stink of spirits on the man’s failing breath and my mind returns to my gruesome endeavour. Sweat drips from my brow. My teeth are tight and bare like a dog. The old wound in my left leg throbs, goading me as I take his life. His face greys as he gasps and rattles, lungs empty. It is dreadful. The thumb and forefinger on my right hand force his eyelids open – an awkward task that becomes easier as the fight subsides. He will see me – he has to see me, otherwise the risk of conducting this experiment in daylight hours will be in vain. He frees an arm that flails limply towards my face, but it is a token effort from a beaten man. The drunk’s life evaporates. I stare him in the eye as his fear gives way to peaceful vacuity.

Only silence follows. The anticlimax stalls me in horror, but I need to work quickly on the second part of my grim work. Although the morning fog conceals the alley and all is quiet, I am terrified of being disturbed while I perform the surgery. Besides, I wish to be away from this dead thing as soon as possible. I remove the tools from my bag: a silver spoon stolen from the kitchen of my landlady and my shaving razor. And it is with these primitive instruments that I carefully remove the man’s eyes – first the left then the right. I place them delicately in a small silk bag and slowly pull the thin drawstring shut. For a moment, I consider the bag and its fragile contents with reverence and almost triumph, but these are not trophies. They are worth far more to me.

I pull myself off the drunk and hastily grab my battered briefcase. My gut twists as my fear begins to rise, and I fumble as I store my things away. The drunk’s head lolls to one side as I leave, a slow line of blood trickling from the pit where his left eye once was. I pray that the windows to his soul will become the mirrors to mine.

*****

I developed my “affliction” six months ago following one of my dark moods. The monstrous clouds that fell heavily over my head and insides incapacitated me, and I spent their duration caged in my lodgings. One evening I raised myself to look in the small, cracked mirror above my bed, intending to curse myself and my maladies or some such self-punishment. And there it faced me – the void. That horrifying empty glass, hollow, forsaken and dark where my familiar features should be. I exclaimed, recoiling from the impossible absence. My reflection was no more. I panicked, looking frantically about myself and confirmed that I could still see my own body. It occurred to me in my confusion that I may be dead and perhaps this was the afterlife. I ran into the street and accosted some stranger – a stout lamplighter – to confirm that I could be seen by others. The man pushed me aside and frowned at my agitated state. It seemed that I was visible to the human eye and very much part of the physical world, however my reflection was absent. In mirrors, windows and even the puddles on the dark street all that stared back at me was emptiness.

At first, I denied my affliction. I turned my gaze rather than face the void, but my heart guarded hopes that I would at any moment raise my head and see my image returned. Every nervous glance was received with the same nothingness. Through experiments, I ascertained that I could not be captured by photography. When the photographs developed I was nowhere to be seen, rejected by paper and glass. After months, my memories of my own features began to grow indistinct. The idea that they had in fact changed in some way began to disturb me, as did the idea that my recollections had become warped. I no longer knew for certain who I was to the world. It was shortly after this episode that I devised my experiment.

My father was a scientific man – something which I myself aspired to but never achieved. In a fit of despair caused by young and foolish heartbreak, I abandoned my studies and joined the army. I spent a short time in service until I received my leg injury – the injury that stabs at me as I go about my murderous business. I hope in some way Father would be proud of me now, that he would see the logic in my experiments, and that he would have some understanding and pity for what I am compelled to do. It was, after all, science that set me on this journey. I had read that during the Jack the Ripper case of last year the police photographed the eyes of the murderer’s victims. A theory existed that the last image that a dying person sees is preserved on the corpse’s retina and the police hoped the image of the killer was recorded there. I reasoned that if the human eye can detect my presence, then maybe at that moment of death my elusive form may be captured in the same way. I laughed so hard when the idea first occurred to me. It was crazed and perfect and the only hope I had. The hysteria gave way to a dark obsession, and I began to plan my first experiment.

This drunk was not the first, nor was he the second. I was interrupted during the first (a woman of low morals) and the second (another drunk) had looked away at the vital moment. Those occasions met with crushing failure, but not this time. This time, all conditions were met.

*****

As I leave the alley, two figures emerge from between the curtains of fog. I know instantly from their silhouettes that they are police officers and I avoid their gaze as I walk straight by. They pay me no attention but I know if they turn down the alley and find the cadaver they will realise my involvement and give pursuit. My leg still throbs from the struggle to subdue the drunk and I know my only chance of escape is to gain as much ground as possible – to try and lose them in the shrouded streets. Walking stiffly and slowly, I glance over my shoulder and see the two officers turn down the alley. My heart stops as I prepare to run. I must time my escape perfectly; run too soon and I will arouse suspicions, but too slowly and I will still be here when they find the body. Some other part of me takes control as my nerve breaks, and I feel myself stumbling forward through the mist, not knowing if the police are in pursuit.

My legs feel like wheels spinning beneath me as I tumble across the damp streets. Pain stabs at my left thigh again, but I do not slow. I am a spectator to this scene. I enter the market area by the docks where florists and fruiterers are unpacking their wares in the dim morning glow. Throwing myself behind a flower cart in an attempt to stay hidden, I hear the whistle and cries of the policemen in pursuit. I stop for a moment and peer through the slats of the cart. They see me. The whistle blows again as they push through traders. I resume my dash and instinct guides me through the maze of alleys and yards. A left, then a right, then a left, then another right. I hope to lose my hunters but still that whistle blows behind me. My lodgings are close. I pray I am undetected as I slip inside and fly up the stairs to my room. I shut the door and listen. They have followed, and all I can do is wait.

The door swings open as the two policemen surge into the room. I stand rooted in the middle of the threadbare carpet with nowhere to run and no chance of overpowering them. I stare unblinkingly as the officers look under my bed and in my battered and split wardrobe. They ignore me, as if I am not here. They carefully scrutinise the things that lay on the top of my drawers and eventually locate my bag. They neither recognise nor try to open it. “He’s not here.” Says one, and they leave the room with the same whirlwind that brought them in.

Dizzy from the chase, I slump on my dilapidated mattress. A quiet, exhausted moment passes before I leap to my feet with shock, realising why the police officers let me be. A feeling of sickness consumes me as I examine myself and realise my disappearance is complete. Now not even the human eye can detect me. I look down at my hands, arms and body – all I see is the void. As I listen to the footsteps hurrying across the next landing, a movement catches my eye in the cracked mirror above my bed. With trepidation I edge toward it and there to greet me is the face of an old friend - hollow and troubled features that I had not seen in six months. I move closer until my nose touches that of my once-errant reflection. We laugh, tormented but reunited.

THE END

Videogames and performance – new post on Overlap

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:01:45 +0100

I’ve recently written a blog post for Overlap about performance in videogames. Inspired by Rockstar’s new detective game L.A. Noire (find out more and buy from Amazon.co.uk), the article covers three decades of innovation from early speech synthesis to the brand new “MotionScan” facial capture techniques.

You can read Interactive Drama and the Pixel-Perfect Performance here.

Please remember you can join us in our investigations in storytelling and help us build a community over on Twitter and also on our Facebook page. We’re currently sorting out some events here in Sheffield, and we’ll be sticking the details on there, the blog (and no doubt here) soon.

So I'm writing an iPhone game...

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:49:56 +0100

I don’t program as much as I used to. Even though I looked into Objective C a bit ago, I decided that iPhone development would be too much of an investment to learn properly and gave up. However, after dusting off Xcode and having a closer look at the brilliant Cocos2D framework, I’ve decided to go back to app development.

Yes, I’ve left this a bit late. The “app goldrush” was about three years ago and the market is pretty much saturated. But for something to do between projects, this at least has a chance of making some residual income.

The idea for the game came to me a few months ago and is a puzzle with a twist. I won’t reveal what until I have something to show and I can fully take people through how it works. “Puzzle with a twist” sounds like a billion other apps, but I reckon this will be an easy gameplay idea to sell so why not give it a go?

Interestingly, the market really seems to have moved on since I first looked at app development in 2009. From what I’ve read on forums, people appear to find less mileage in releasing a lite and full version next to each other. In the current market, it’s harder to get in the free charts due to the large amount of free apps, and it’s harder to upsell to the full version. What people report now is that they find it easier to release the paid version and make sure that’s got as much value attached to it as possible. It doesn’t look easy. However, it doesn’t seem impossible for a lone developer to make a few quid back so I’m willing to take a punt and see exactly how this thing works. I think the rule is to make your game as high quality and commercially appealing as possible, and then promote, promote, promote!

After a great start and a full gameplay prototype, I’ve slowed down completely this month as I haven’t figured out the game’s visual style yet. This will (to some extent) affect the reward structure of the game so I’d like to plan some of that as the next stage. If I was doing this for a client then I’d be busy doing market research, brainstorming and making some decisions. On a personal project it’s very easy to just wait until the idea pops into your head.

Time to lock myself away with a sketchbook I think.

Overlap: unravelling new types of story

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:39:00 +0100

I’m part of Overlap, a new project which provides a space for investigation of storytelling in a world where platform and media is a flexible thing. Terms like “transmedia” and “cross-platform” have cropped up recently, but these buzz-phrases can be vague or narrow in definition. Stories have always adapted to new formats from the introduction of the written word to television. We’re very interested in how they continue to evolve on the internet and through services such as Twitter and Facebook, and also how narratives can unfold across multiple media. It’s not just the new; there’s a host of much older ways of telling stories we can learn from and apply to newer forms of media (now, how’s “newer media” for a buzz-phrase?).

We’ve got some live, storytelling-themed events coming up in Sheffield, so if you’re interested in those or just want to follow what we discover on the way, check out our brand new blog:

http://www.overlap.org.uk

We have more news coming very soon. In the meantime, you can also find us on Twitter or Facebook for updates or just a natter.

Sensoria

Fri, 06 May 2011 21:29:41 +0100

This weekend you can catch the tail-end of Sensoria in Sheffield. I recently wrote a preview of the film, music and digital festival for northern arts blog The Culture Vulture. You can read the full preview here.

Do check out http://alisonloves.tumblr.com/ – lots of great...

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:52:09 +0000

Do check out http://alisonloves.tumblr.com/ – lots of great comics and other random bits like this…

My entry in Don't Panic's Tron Legacy-themed postcard compo

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:20:30 +0000

My entry in Don't Panic's Tron Legacy-themed postcard compo:

Click the link to see it on the site and vote for it if you like it! :D

Well, what do you know? 50,000 words in 30 days can be done...

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:48:00 +0000

Well, what do you know? 50,000 words in 30 days can be done (50,071 for my story to be exact). I’m not sure if I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo again. It makes November a rather intense month and it’s not easy to stick to the 1667 words-a-day average. I will be doing a short story for a magazine early next year so I’ve already got an excuse to keep writing.

Definitely looking forward to a month where I can spend a little bit of time away from the MacBook!

50,000 words of madness

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 10:35:00 +0000

I’m participating in this year’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The annual event challenges budding writers to create a 50,000 word novel (or something that closely resembles a draft of one) in the month of November. That’s an average of 1,667 words a day.

Currently I’m on track, however November is shaping up to be a busy month. I’m hoping to stay ahead of my targets and fully intend to reach the 50k by midnight on November 30th.

My subject matter is quite straight-forward; a group of friends who go out, drink, date and balance growing up together with the threat of growing apart. It will be complete bobbins of course - I’m trying to write a novel in 30 days. But that’s not the point of NaNoWriMo. The point it for people who have talked writing but never done it to put their money where their mouth is and finish something. Even if it’s rushed and a total rubbish. I’m hoping there might be something in there worth editing or rewriting to a more complete draft though.

This year, the lovely people at GIST in Sheffield have organised a series of workshops called Write! Lab which have been a great support. The lab is not only great for NaNoWriMo authors like me but also anyone who wants to commit to writing anything in any format over the month of November. I’ll be recording my progress in the challenge on the GIST Write! blog as well as on Twitter.

Only 35,458 words to go…

I recently designed and built a web site for Absolutely Sales, a...

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 10:15:00 +0000

I recently designed and built a web site for Absolutely Sales, a training consultancy in Oxfordshire. Chris Burch, who runs the company, sent me a few kind words of recommendation:

“Matt was responsible for designing my new website… I found him to be extremely knowledgeable and professional at all times. He has a very good eye for design and I was particularly impressed by how quickly he understood and interpreted my original brief.”

It was great working with Chris too! You can check out the site at http://www.absolutelysales.co.uk.

After Burner: Retro games-inspired, Saturday afternoon noodle....

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:20:00 +0100

After Burner:

Retro games-inspired, Saturday afternoon noodle. The shapes are designed to echo shapes found in the F-14 Tomcat, featured in the game.

Put another record on: I’ve started recycling some old...

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:46:00 +0100

Put another record on:

I’ve started recycling some old lyrics by using them as inspiration for some typographic bits and bobs. This is a work in progress but I think I’ll leave it alone for now.

"Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.” That sounds sort of naive but it’s true."

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 23:58:55 +0100

““Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.” That sounds sort of naive but it’s true.”

- Paul Rand (paraphrasing Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

Oh, and here’s one of Stonehenge while I’m at it. It...

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:36:00 +0100

Oh, and here’s one of Stonehenge while I’m at it. It was more than 18” tall by the way - that’s just perspective. There was no Spinal Tap-style mix up! :)

I took these when I recently visited Avebury in Wiltshire, the...

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:56:00 +0100

I took these when I recently visited Avebury in Wiltshire, the site of one of the oldest and largest stone circles in Europe. The complex of circles, banks and avenues dates back 5,000 years to the Neolithic era (or New Stone Age), and it’s a little bit older than Stonehenge. It’s also a short walk from Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in prehistoric Europe.

The site has suffered damage from both natural erosion and deliberate destruction; local farmers broke up a large number of stones during the 14th - 18th centuries. However, many stones still survive and the scale of the construction is still apparent, with several stones having been re-erected and markers indicating the position of those that have been permanently lost.

I also visited Stonehenge on the same trip - we were passing through Wiltshire and decided to break up the journey north. With the purpose of both monuments long forgotten, they give an incredible and intriguing glimpse into ancient Britain and it was great to see them both.

Getting into Objective C for iPhone

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:00:12 +0100

Recently, I’ve started programming a bit of Objective C for iPhone. Historically, I’m an HTML, PHP and Actionscript kinda guy, so moving into a lower level, C-based language has been a bit of a challenge.

Other than the differences in syntax, one of the main hills Actionscript and web developers have to face is memory management. Although automatic garbage collection is used for some objects, anything you want to keep in memory you’ll have to manually get rid of later. It’s not as bad as it first looks though, and running the app with Leaks module of Instruments is a key to spotting errors here. In fact, it’s so easy to forget to release variables of forget to autorelease returns from functions that doing this regularly during build is invaluable. Don’t wait until the end of development to fix your memory leaks.

Another interesting thing you’ll have to eventually contend with is possibly the least helpful error message in the world: “Confused by earlier errors. Bailing out.” This can be easily got rid of when it appears alongside the said “earlier errors”. However it will occasionally appear on its own and can take a bit of detective work to fix. This is where you need to get the breakpoints and the debugger working for you!

When you’ve got used to the basics and the workflow in Xcode, you’ll find Interface Builder easy to pick up and have basic, working apps in no time.

It’s a satisfying language to program in. Quite verbose, but if you like object oriented programming and enjoy the level of detail required you’ll be fine.

Oh, then you’ll have to deal with code-signing and certficates to get your app on devices. This is a bit of a art but, usually, following the instructions on the Apple Dev site does the trick. Ironically, the process to upload the thing to the App store is involved but fairly painless. As long as it gets accepted in good time! Apple publish an estimate of review wait times in their developers portal, so while not a guarantee, you’ll at least get an idea on how long it will take for them to pass verdict.

I’ll try and post something more than just general ramble soon - especially when I start making proper apps!

Songs to listen to #7

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:20:06 +0100

Songs to listen to #7:

“Boom Boom” - John Lee Hooker (via Spotify)

There’s a lot of background music, but some songs are there to be listened to.

Legend - The Best of John Lee Hooker on Amazon.co.uk

I thought I’d share my custom Epiphone Dot I put together...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:15:00 +0100

I thought I’d share my custom Epiphone Dot I put together last year. I was fancying a semi, and a Bigsby, so thought I’d combine the two. I bought the guitar brand new and used pictures of Gibson ES 335s from the early 60’s as the reference for the mods. I added:

Bigsby B70 and roller bridge
Grover Vintage tuners to replace the chrome ones
Gold reflector knobs and steel pointers
Cream switch tip
A pickguard that’s a bit closer to a ES335
Gibson-style “custom made” plaque

The guitar plays nice and it looks great. The Epi Dots really are a bargain, and I’m happy with it for the money. The one thing I’d consider adding are Gibson 57 Classic/57 Classic Plus pickups, but that would add a big chunk to the overall cost - especially as I’d get that done professionally. It’s never going to be a 335, but they cost well over a grand more. This will do me for now!

Epiphone Dot 335 Vintage Sunburst Electric Guitar on Amazon.co.uk