Recuerdo el día en que mi papá se murió. Mientras se elevaba, creí que me estaba sonriendo. Había volado por un momento, justo como dijo que lo iba a hacer, como Dédalo con altas de plata. De repente todo terminó, y él cayó a la tierra, desplomándose y girando como un pájaro herido. Vi todo porque, en medio de la gritería, a mi mamá se le olvidó taparme los ojos.
So begins the Spanish translation of my short story “Wings for Icarus,” which was read at a conference on innovation, technology and mobility in Medellín, Colombia this past month. The tale was originally published in Daily Science Fiction in 2011, and was picked up by the Fractal Project. So a story written in Brooklyn inspired by my Trinidadian father falling out of a tree in Houston, Texas was read and listened to by students in Medellín, Colombia. Now that’s sci-fi globalisation from the bottom up! More to follow…
Organized in Medellín by Hernán Oritz and Vivi Trujillo, the Fractal Project describes itself as a non-profit project aimed at bringing arts and sciences closer to people, as well as promoting creative thinking in Latin America. This is done primarily through science fiction, where at its annual conference the organization invites speakers–from cyborg anthropologist Amber Case (yes, that’s a thing) to augmented reality specialist James Alliban–to discuss technology, storytelling and futurism. This year, the Fractal 2012 Conference invited participants to consider “how would people live and work in a near future where almost everything can be programmable,” and featured several notables, incluing prolific science fiction writer Paul Di Fillipo, designer and filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda and more.
After the conference, the organizers held a Descarga–a public reading of short stories with live illustrations, space decorations, music, etc. that fit the theme of Fractal 2012. The purpose was to inspire digital animators to create short videos on the future of urban mobility and transportation; the videos will participate in a contest organized by the program for innovation in Medellín, Ruta N, for grants to international animation workshops.
So I was postively *geeked* when one of the conference organizers contacted me out of the blue, requesting “Wings for Icarus” be among those selected for reading after finding at Daily Science Fiction. You can find the Spanish translation here, and the original English version here. Also read and check out photos of Fractal 2011 by participant/presenter James Alliban on his blog.
The picture above was art completed by Oscar H. González; his live digital drawings of the story can be found here and there are photos from the Descarga here.
Below, organizer Hernán Ortiz, artist Oscar H. González and participants discuss how several of the short stories inspired their digital art on futurist mobility and technology. Mine’s the one with wings, naturally…
Phenderson Djèlí Clark 