Long Relay

Long Relay (Alternate Worlds) was conceived and led by Tim Etchells and Adrian Heathfield. The project was a continuous online writing experiment involving a group of 8 writers over a 24 hour period taking place during the Serpentine Gallery 24-hour Experiment Marathon, from 1pm Saturday 13 October until 1pm Sunday 14 October 2007.

The project aimed to generate alternate versions of a single text that would evolve over time, being constantly transformed and reinvented in different ways as a result of the writers’ interventions. The public was able to follow the live writing process and view each finished text through a dedicated online space hosted by the Serpentine Gallery website in both the Pavilion and remotely during the 24-hour Experiment Marathon.

Exploring concepts surrounding experimental fiction under the creative constraints of duration, the project focused on remote and collaborative writing processes.

Participating writers:

Saturday 13 October

13.00-16.00: Tim Etchells in Bergen, Norway
16.00-19.00: Tom McCarthy in London
19.00-22.00: Deborah Levy in London

Sunday 14 October

22.00 (Sat)-01.00: M. John Harrison in London
01.00-04.00: Shelley Jackson in New York
04.00-07.00: Fiona Templeton in New York
07.00-10.00: Simon Bayly in London
10.00-13.00: Adrian Heathfield in London

Long Relay was published in Experiment Marathon, ed. Olafur Eliasson, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Koenig Books, 2009.

Read the web record of all the finished texts below

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Long Relay