iOverture is

[In place of introduction, a gathering of places. Appearing in tonight’s show in the role of Writing, the artform otherwise known as Code. Compile and run in Inform 7, www.inform7.com. Props to Lebling and Blank, mages of Zork II. Life is a carousel.]

Section – Place of Origin

i0verture is a room with description “Code is hyperlinguistic yet still the words come trippily off the tongue, mouthpiece now answering to implicate orders moving through unseen dimensions. The man says poetry makes nothing happen but there is something happening here, or many things and all at once. Dualities and false dichotomies. Recognitions. Page and screen. Shadowplay, collide-o-scope, convergence… conjury. A voice here calls us up from flatland and urges on to other screen events, all those places you can go once you get off the plane. Consult the rose then follow your nose, away!”

[but]before going when player is in i0verture:        move the player to a random adjacent room;        stop the action.

[and then]before going when the player is not in i0verture:        move the player to i0verture;        stop the action.[though of course the action never stops…]

Section – The Places You’ll Go

INVISIBLE GAME is north of i0verture. “JASON NELSON says the printed page will be poetry, and when you click through to the game, all you have is a white screen with the character/hero/ moving-guy standing on a word in the upper right corner. The idea is the poetry in the printed page is the map for the invisible game.”

ALTER EGO WORKSHOP is southwest of i0verture. “JOSEPHINE ANTSTEY invites you to attend a performance lecture that purports to be a scholarly account of human cognition from 2.5M BCE to 3,000 CE, but first you have to workshop your Alter Ego.”

HOUSE OF USEABLE DUST is northeast of i0verture. “NICK MONTFORT offers three systems of expression with remarks and comment. USE OF LIGHT BY THE SEA: SING A LIGHT BY PEOPLE WHO SLEEP. Also other random pages from the Library.”

TIME JITTERS SQUARE is southeast of i0verture. “JODY ZELLEN splashes luminosity across a picture plane. Figures move through a mysterious space. Time winks and jitters.”

ROSE GARDEN is east of i0verture. “DEENA LARSEN will teach you to sing in Rose, a new language. ‘Against all odds I now find God in its infinite wisdom refuses to exist in my mind.’ Now everybody.”