Tate offered you the chance to respond to TH2058 by sharing your short story vision of 2058. Submissions closed on 1 February 2009, but you can still read all the stories here.
Six stories were selected from the entries by a panel of judges (including writer Jeff Noon and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster) to form an audiobook voiced by Christopher Eccleston. You can download the audiobook using iTunes or listen to each story separately below.
Remembrance by Neil Ayres
Listen to Remembrance read by Christopher Eccleston [mp3 download 5.1MB]
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Author Biography
Neil Ayres is the author of over 30 published short stories, including appearances in Aesthetica, Electric Velocipede, Farafina and Apex. He has written a genre novel, Vapour, with fellow writer Aliya Whiteley, with whom he also maintains a blog; veggiebox.blogspot.com, along with a literary novel all by himself. In 2005 he project managed and co-edited Book of Voices: a short story anthology for Sierra Leone PEN. He lives in Surrey with his wife, daughter and dog and works in magazine publishing.
Overclockblocked by Sumit Dam This story contains strong language.
Listen to Overclockblocked read by Christopher Eccleston [mp3 download 6.1MB]
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Author Biography
Sumit Dam trained in astrophysics, but works as a journalist and editor. In his spare time, he enjoys writing short stories about subjects ranging from female emancipation to nihilistic horror, usually at write-ins organised by A Million Monkeys, a group he co-founded. Many of these stories can be read for free at sumitsays.com. He’s also working on a novel set in London, where he lives, works and fails to sleep.
Lagan by Anthony Scott
Listen to Lagan read by Christopher Eccleston [mp3 download 4.4MB]
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Author Biography
Originally from Yorkshire, I went to University in the Midlands and now live in Surrey in a former school with my wife Lisa, our two children and our cat, Hobbes. By day, somewhat against my expectations and wishes, I am a computer programmer. By night I write dystopian stories. I am currently traipsing my novel, Hardfell, around the literary agencies of the UK. Other interests? I’m not much of a runner but I do it anyway. Each September I am part of a relay team carrying a baton around the Norfolk county boundary. We start in King’s Lynn, we finish in King’s Lynn and we generally get the baton back. More recently I have started to learn to play the ukulele, very badly. Actually I’m not learning the ‘very badly’ part: that’s just a consequence of my playing.
158 days by Rachel Stevenson
Listen to 158 days read by Christopher Eccleston [mp3 download 3.2MB]
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Author Biography
Rachel Stevenson grew up in South Yorkshire but moved to London as soon as she could. She has had work published in Smoke and other small magazines, as well as on the web. She lives in Stoke Newington but dreams of somewhere sunnier.
The Family by Bruce Stirling
Listen to The Family read by Christopher Eccleston [mp3 download 3.1MB]
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Author Biography
Bruce Stirling’s poetry and prose appear in a number of print and web-based journals. His short story Woman-Want was co-winner of the 2007 Fishing Publishing Award for Best Very-Short Crime Story as judged by the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. His short stories Screw the Pepperoni and Milk Run have been made into short films by director-producer Julian Grant. Bruce Stirling teaches English-as-a-Second Language at the University of Connecticut. To view his work, you can visit Bruce Stirling’s website.
Snap-Shots of the Apocalypse by Katy Wimhurst
Listen to Snap-Shots of the Apocalypse read by Christopher Eccleston [mp3 download 4.9MB]
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Author Biography
Katy Wimhurst, who lives in Essex, UK, somehow ended up studying for a PhD in Mexican Surrealism after initially getting an MA in Social Anthropology. She has also worked in publishing, although she now suffers from ME/CFS. She writes fiction and non-fiction, and has been published in various online publications and print magazines, including Guardian.co.uk, Serendipity, DogVersusSandwich, Kaleidotrope, GlassFire, The Abacot Journal, InterAction, and Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens.
Jeff Noon was commissioned to write for the publication accompanying the show – you can read his story Artwork 2058: Probability Cloud.
“Artwork 2058: Probability Cloud was written at the request of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, to accompany her exhibition in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. I was given no information about the exhibition itself, only the concept of the Turbine Hall in the year 2058. So, a blank canvas. Dreams and Reality are always dissolving in my stories, so I imagined a gallery where the visitor and the artworks start to merge together. It was great fun to be given such an opportunity, to explore the visual medium through words, and to imagine the future of art and the viewing experience.”
Jeff Noon