“Anthroptic” is an edition of 80 hand-made artist books that represents the collaboration between new media artist Ethan Ham and writer Benjamin Rosenbaum. The book contains 8 folios that pair one image with one “chapter” of the story. The images were taken from Ethan’s online project “Self-Portraits” in which he trained a facial recognition program to his face before unleashing it onto the internet photo service Flickr. While searching the millions of photos on Flickr for its creator, the computer program sometimes made mistakes, identifying inanimate objects as Ethan. These mistake images became the starting point for Benjamin’s short short story. Benjamin weaves these images into an exquisitely interconnected tale that can be read in any order. (Read the full text. . .)
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Ethan Ham is an artist living in New York. His work often uses new media (computers and/or the internet) as well as mechanical and sculptural elements. He is particularly interested in generative and emergent art. His recent projects include commissions from Rhizome.org (the New Museum of Contemporary Art) and Turbulence.org. Ethan is Assistant Professor of New Media at City College, CUNY.
Project sites:
www.turbulence.org/Works/self-portrait
www.emailerosion.org
www.drunkenboat.com/db8/panlitvideo/ham/
Personal site:
www.ethanham.com
Reviews and critiques:
New England Journal of Aesthetic Research blog
Missing Links (news.com column)

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Benjamin Rosenbaum is a writer living in Northern Virginia. His works have appeared in Asimov’s, F&SF, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, Strange Horizons, Infinite Matrix, and other fine venues. Benjamin’s stories have been nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards and has been included on a number of recommended & “best of” lists.

Other Cities short, short story collection:
Strange Horizons
Personal site:
www.benjaminrosenbaum.com
complete bibliography

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