Richard Holeton's Writings & Art
About the 1970's Counterculture, Drugs, and Pigs

Exhibit Content
38 works of art and other artifacts from The Richard Holeton Collection

First Shelf
On Top of Cabinet
Left Side
Large Beach Ball, 2001, inscribed by magic marker with nine story elements, used by the artist in early performances of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid to engage the audience interactively in selecting navigational links. After demoing the default path, he would release the beach ball into the audience to toss around, with whoever caught it selecting the next way to navigate from the choices written on the ball. In an email with Charlie Bennett he attributes the idea for this to Diane Greco, who may have gotten the idea from someone else.
Second Shelf
Top Shelf
Left Side
Two postcards of “Ralph the Swimming Pig,” circa 1950s, Aquarena Springs, San Marcos, TX

Original drawings of pigs by Miranda Holeton, pencil and crayon on paper, 2000

Text version of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid

“Streleski on Findhorn on Acid,” Grain Poetry & Prose, Winter 1996. This short-short was the genesis for Figurski. It was the First Prize winner in the Grain Postcard Story Contest.

Announcement card, Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, from Eastgate Systems, Inc., 2001
Third
      Shelf
Second Shelf
Left Side
Encountering Cultures: Reading & Writing in a Changing World, 1st Edition, by Richard Holeton. NY, NY: Prentice Hall, 1992

Encountering Cultures: Reading & Writing in a Changing World, 2nd Edition, by Richard Holeton. NY, NY: Prentice Hall, 1995

Instructor’s Manual for Encountering Cultures: Reading & Writing in a Changing World, 1st Edition, by Richard Holeton. NY, NY: Prentice Hall, 1992

Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community, Knowledge in the Electronic Age, by Richard Holeton. Ny, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1998

Thirteen Ways of Killing a Scrub-Jay. CD-ROM. Digital version (.jpeg images) of the boxed book, Thirteen Ways of Killing a Scrub-Jay, by Richard Holeton, 2008

Thirteen Ways of Killing a Scrub-Jay. CD-ROM. Digital version (jpeg images) of the boxed set, Thirteen Ways of Killing a Scrub-Jay #3 of 20, by Richard Holeton, 2008
Fourth Shelf
Fourth Shelf
Left Side
The Fish Anthology 2007, edited by Jock Howson, containing Holeton’s “Calling Fruits and Vegetables”

IF, edited by Jessica Grim and Gordon , 1984, containing Holeton’s “Read Carefully”

Five Fingers Review No. 5, 1987, containing Holeton’s “A Short History of Floss Ferguson”

Alchemy, 1986, containing Holeton’s “Bare-Bones Description of a Story Called ‘Cats’”

Indiana Review, Volume 28, Number 2, (unopened) containing Holeton's "Thanks for Covering Your Lane"

Mississippi Review: A Journal on Contemporary Literature, Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2, 2007, containing Holeton’s “Product Placement”

Zyzzyva: The Last Word: West Coast Writers & Artists, Winter 2004, Volume XX. (unopened) containing Holeton's "Understanding Hypertext"
Fifth Shelf
Fifth Shelf
Left Side
Alchemy Fiction, 1987, containing Holeton’s Teenage Girls in Panties

The Vassar Review 2017, “Camp & Kitsch: Modes of Cultural Appropriation and Resistance,” containing Holeton’s “Postmodern”

The 8th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition Collection, 2008, containing “Year of the Pig”

Black Ice, Volume 3, 1987, edited by Dale Shank, containing “Bare-Bones Description Of A Story Called ‘Cats’”

Transfer 51, Spring 1986, containing Holeton’s “The King’s Summer Palace”
Sixth Shelf
Sixth Shelf
Right Side
Small beach ball, 2002, Inscribed by magic marker with navigational choices, used by the artist in early performances of Figurski to engage the audience interactively in selecting navigational links. After demoing the default path, he would release the beach ball into the audience to toss around, with whoever caught it selecting the next way to navigate from the choices written on the ball. In an email with Charlie Bennett he attributes the idea for this to Diane Greco, who may have gotten the idea from someone else.

Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, 2001, CD-ROM, self-published

Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, 2001, CD-ROM, Eastgate Systems, Inc.

Announcement card, Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, from Eastgate Systems, Inc.
Seventh Shelf
Seventh Shelf
Right Side
Storyspace: Getting Started with Storyspace for Windows version 1.75

Storyspace: Getting Started with Storyspace for Macointosh

Storyspace: User’s Manual for Windows version 1.75

Storyspace: Getting Started with Storyspace for Macintosh

Apple G3 iMac “Blueberry”
Eighth Shelf
Eighth Shelf
Right Side
Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, flyer for publication and performance

Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, copy for Eastgate Systems, Inc. promotion page

Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, copy for Amazon.com promotion page

Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, Time Lines, planning document
Ninth Shelf
Ninth Shelf
Right Side
Picasso Macintosh Accessory Kit, 1984, for Apple Macintosh 128K

Live Stream Traversal Coming!

Join us for a Live Stream Traversal of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, performed by Richard Holeton, on Friday, February 22, 2019, from 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Curated by Dene Grigar, Electronic Literature Lab
Assisted by Mariah Gwin and Austin Fields

“Well, pigs, I guess.” –Richard Holeton

This is the first line of Richard Holeton’s list of 11 “things I want to write about,” found among his papers, dated from 1993-1998, for his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree at San Francisco State University.

The list is a collection of topics that includes the counterculture of the early 1970s; relationships between brothers as well as between fathers and sons; Star Trek (“both original and Next Generation plots”); and the murder by Theodore Streleski of his dissertation director––all of which end up in Holeton’s epic hypertext novel, Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, published in 2001 by Eastgate Systems, Inc. The work remains one of the only comic works of hypertext fiction of the period, relying on absurdist humor to relay the cultural experience of 1970s when social experiments, drugs, and the Viet Nam War challenged American power structures and acceptance of capitalism and social morés.

The exhibit contains artifacts from The Richard Holeton Collection, donated to the Electronic Literature Organization by the author for the Electronic Literature Archives. Along with the author’s notes, text version of the novel, promotional materials developed by the publisher, and CD-ROMs of two versions of the work, visitors to the exhibit will also find the two beach balls Holeton used during his performances of Figurski; postcards he collected of "Ralph the Swimming Pig;"" the original story about Streleski that Holeton published in Grain Poetry & Prose in 1996 (and for which he won 1st place in the journal’s Postcard story contest); and many of his other works of fiction and writings he published over his 35 year career. We have also included software he used for producing the various iterations of Figurski, including Storyspace and the Picasso Macintosh Accessory Kit, circa 1984) and a shell of the Macintosh G3 iMac, the computer model the work would have been used to read the novel upon its release.

The author will perform his novel in a Traversal on February 22, 2019 live on YouTube and in the MOVE Lab (VCLS 3), located on the Washington State University Vancouver campus.