It is midnight. A woman stands before a well-illuminated electronic kiosk in the courtyard of a museum, now closed. She has only been in this city for a day, and tomorrow she will leave it on an early-morning train.

“Welcome! Language?”

She selects “English,” and is prompted for her name and password. The display flickers, and words appear:

“….is the question everyone, everywhere should ask.”

She types, “Our paper hats were so tiny, that the generals spent all Tuesday looking for us in an enormous haystack. We came back on Saturday, only to discover that ants had swarmed over the field and made off with our cheese.”

“Thank you for your contribution. If you would like to add to another work in progress, please select the enter key. If you have finished, please select the arrow key. “

Later that week, she will receive a message containing the full script that she and other writers have created together:

“Why not be spectacular?” is the question everyone, everywhere should ask. Our paper hats were so tiny, that the generals spent all Tuesday looking for us in an enormous haystack. We came back on Saturday, only to discover that ants had swarmed over the field and made off with our cheese. “The hell you say!” he said, she said, but really he’d only had the words come like diamonds in a dream, from which he awoke gasping. The waters had receded at last, but he still felt damp and cold. He rose from his makeshift bed in the corrugated aluminum tunnel, and set off for the woods. A crow alighted on the path in front of him, and cocked its head, regarding him with a beady eye. Gazing once (blink), gazing again, the pastures bloomed and the dream ended.

Let us build a series of kiosks located in places of culture throughout the world. Writers everywhere can collaborate with others, regardless of location or time. Your account allows you to select a pre-selected group to work within, or add your words to the work of strangers by chance – you decide. Each completed work (dictated by length and number of contributions), will be accompanied by a list of the kiosk coordinates involved.

Here’s to absent friends.
-- brenna, Mar 25 2003

EXQUISITE CORPSE http://www.exquisit...com/definition.html
[brenna, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

LETTERBOXING http://www.ruthannz...terboxing/about.htm
I put this in the title for a reason. [brenna, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Stream of Consciousness http://www.futurebi...m/stream/index.php3
futurebird baked something very much like this for phoenix's "www.StreamOfConsciousness.com" idea. [waugsqueke, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

www.StreamOfConsciousness.com http://www.halfbake...sciousness_20_2ecom
phoenix's idea that spawned the above. [waugsqueke, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

The Stream of Conciousness II http://soc.fov120.com/words.php4
Another version by another HalfBaker. [phoenix, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

"Because it says so in the script" http://www.halfbake...n_20the_20script_22
[phoenix, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Collaborative Poetry http://www.halfbake...laborative_20Poetry
[phoenix, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

help me! I can't get enough of this thing!!! http://bluestem.hor...edu/ecs/default.htm
[futurebird, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

I like.
This exquisite corpse thing sounds very much like a hardcore version of "consequences" - a story game I played as a nipper. Who'd've thunk my old man was trying to art me up?
-- my face your, Mar 25 2003


Never heard of "letterboxing" before. This could only have come from a place that also gave us trainspotting.

+ for the idea.
-- snarfyguy, Mar 25 2003


I think I saw letterboxing on Sesame Street once. It was A vs E. A won by KO in 2 rounds. Not to imply interference in the match by K or O. There was even a muppet Don King.
-- bungston, Mar 25 2003


I'm imagining that woman is so hot. See, you've already roused my 'imagination'.
-- sambwiches, Mar 25 2003


Wouldn't an internet cafe do that for you? Many are open 24 hours.
-- Freelancer, Mar 25 2003


[Freelancer], certainly, if I am only in it for the product. This is about the experience quite as much as the resultant art.
-- brenna, Mar 25 2003


Fair enough, just asking *Smiles*
-- Freelancer, Mar 25 2003


I'm fairly sure we've done this. I've linked to a couple similar ideas, but can't find the one I'm looking for.
-- phoenix, Mar 26 2003


As has been pointed out, the progressive story has been around since Grog and Bonk were bored one night around their brand new shiny fire.

The concept of having a dedicated contribution input device in public places that may inspire the soul is a wonderful twist and gets you one twisty bread thing from me.
-- ato_de, Mar 26 2003


For the last time, and then I'll be silent: A rose by any other name...
-- phoenix, Mar 26 2003


...might be an apple.
-- bristolz, Mar 26 2003


I'm waiting for a very special link. The one that demonstrates someone has already built a series of devices exclusively dedicated to Exquisite Corpse and scattered them around the world.

This idea is not a website proposal like the links to your left. This requires dedicated devices, as [ato_de] notes above. They are placed in interesting locales, to be found by those who seek them, or chance passers-by.

I combined an electronic version of E.C. with letterboxing for a reason. Letterboxing involves discovering a physical object, and leaving your mark upon it for others to find. None of the (wonderful) ideas linked to here correspond to my idea in this respect.

I have absolutely no problem with people disliking my ideas, or adding links to ideas that share a commonality with mine. I do, however, see no evidence that my idea, in its totality, as described by me above, currently exists. Ergo, my idea is not baked.

"Do we call a small dog a cat?"
-- brenna, Mar 26 2003


Free public web browsers which can only be used to input short lines of prose. I like it! Very dada. But you know that well lit kiosk will be full of bum pee by midnight. Not that I am against bums.

Next to this machine should be a player piano, and a passerby is allowed to play one note, after which it will be silent. When enough notes have accumulated, the player piano plays back this communal music.
-- bungston, Mar 26 2003


Next to that is a box where people drop a piece of what they're eating. At the end of the day a culinary delight.
-- Worldgineer, Mar 26 2003


Mmmmm, Primordial Soup. Well. No worse than bums peeing into the kiosk, eh?
-- brenna, Mar 26 2003



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