Spelarne-- The Players
by Hjalmar Soderberg translated by Jolene Armstrong
“Spelarne”- published in Swedish 1903, is a proto-modernist short story by Hjalmar Soderberg. This “deformance” argues through a re-imagination of the story through layers from text to illustration to abstraction and then finally to augmented reality, feeding lines of text to various generative AI and through hand drawn and printed imagery, to create a textual experience that deforms and oscillates from text to moving picture, revealing the way in which Soderberg was anticipating a modernist manner of writing for cinema.
How to play
This story was first published in a collection of short stories entitled Främlingarna (The Strangers) by Hjalmar Söderberg in 1903. It was translated into English from Swedish by Jolene Armstrong in 2020.
The story as presented here is layered with text, illustrations and abstract paintings, with an additional layer that will take you into the digital realm of Augmented Reality.
In order to experience the full potential of this creation, you will need to download Halo AR (it’s free) to your mobile device. Use the QR code below. Once you have it downloaded, be sure to "follow" the collection entitled "Spelarne," you will be able to trigger the Augmented Reality features in the book.
As you proceed through the book, look for a little * beside the images (there are 9) and this will let you know to scan the image with your mobile device camera to activate the AR experience.
Enjoy!
Jolene Armstrong
