We are calling for works that defy traditional publishing platforms.
IRL.OBJ seeks to publish digital objects that could not take shape elsewhere.
Writing that exceeds the page.
IRL.OBJ responds to a speculative query: how might digital objects find expression in lived experience beyond the screen?
Games that don’t play with Steam.
IRL.OBJ responds to a platform problem: where might emerging experimental creators publish digital works?
Digital art that refuses ownership.
IRL.OBJ responds to an economic concern: how to value cultural labor without locking down digital content?
We aim to materialize, publicize, & accessorize meaningfully inventive works of media play.
IRL.OBJ publishes literary, ludic, & aesthetic digital objects alongside correspondent material artifacts for use in real life.
IRL.OBJ is a monthly publishing platform based in LA, launching one freely available digital object alongside a correspondent material artifact for purchase. In response to currents that seek to produce value for digital works via identifiers built into contractual blockchain encryption, IRL.OBJ instead aims to produce value via attendant “real” objects: things you can hold, or wear, or place on a shelf.
Each freely available digital object published by IRL.OBJ will be accompanied by a real-world material artifact — designed in collaboration with our team of editors. 100% of the profits of these material artifacts will go to published creators. This hybrid publishing system aims to develop new ways to pay creators of digital works beyond models built on artificial scarcity, advertising dollars, or monthly patronage.
Fandom talisman, collectible rarity, dangerous supplement: these material objects will be issued in variable editions, subject to the contingent demands of the work in question.
We seek works that break genres, that invent novel forms, that challenge category.
For the opening months of IRL.OBJ publication, we invite rolling submissions of short proposals, works-in-process, or recently completed works for consideration. We accept projects inhabiting all digital forms and genres—the more surprising the better—with a keen interest in expanded or experimental approaches to poetry, art, and games. We especially encourage creators from underrepresented communities to find a home for their works here.
Please email proposals and submissions to irl.obj.fyi@gmail.com
— Danny Snelson & Michael Luo, 2024