Deep Simulator – aaajiao, AG (51 personae)

Deep Simulator is a cyberdrama-novel with layers of stories generated through reader interaction. Based on a namesake video game, it is a collaborative experiment between artists aaajiao and the author Ag, which began during the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020. The novel and the video game have different focuses and nuances in their sensory workings and content, but both stem from themes related to player identity, the multiverse and the breaking down of interdimensional walls. The exposure of karmic chains, the ideological rupture between various movements, melancholia, death, the final struggle, accelerationism, the inability to distinguish between the real and the imaginary, all foreshadow an ominous sense of change looming ahead.

Like the virtual meta-game experiment that came before it, this book is hard to define. Ag blends myth, science fiction and multi-media reality into a seemingly unconventional spatio-temporal dimension. Upon opening the book, the reader becomes the player, and in the experience of reading-wandering-selecting, engages in an indeterminate journey of in-betweenness.

Deep Simulator is an organic, living, long-term project, and this publication is one of its reincarnations on its transition through the next dimensional wall – from a whimsical, pie-in-the-sky script to an outlandish indie game, then to a virtual game which was made into a physical book written in two languages with a unique design.

Size: 110 × 160 mm
Pages: 296
Language: Chinese & English
Binding: thread-sewn soft cover
Co-published by Tabular Rasa Gallery (London) and 51 personae (Shanghai)
First edition, August 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5272-9632-9

Author: Ag
Editor: Chen Yun
English Translator: Jude Keeler
English Proofreader: Cathy Keeler
English Editor: Gigi Chang
Book design: Mira Ying
Display typeface: Dinkie Bitmap, designed by Willie Liu
Assistant Producer: Chi Mian

《深模拟》 是一部网络戏剧小说，其多层次的叙事通过读者互动生成。它基于同名电子游戏，由艺术家 aaajiao 与作家 Ag 合作创作，项目始于 2020 年新冠疫情爆发期间。小说与游戏在感官机制与内容上各有侧重与差异，但均源自对玩家身份、多重宇宙以及维度边界崩解等主题的探讨。因果锁链的显现、各种思想运动之间的断裂、忧郁、死亡、终极之争、加速主义，以及现实与虚构之间难以区分的状态，皆预示着某种不祥的变局正在逼近。

如同此前的虚拟元游戏实验，这本书也难以被定义。Ag 将神话、科幻与多媒体现实交织成一个看似非常规的时空维度。读者一旦翻开书页，便化身为“玩家”，在阅读—漫游—选择的过程中，踏上一段不可预设的“中间态”之旅。

《深模拟》是一个有机、活着的长期项目，而这本书是其穿越下一个维度之墙过程中的一次“转世”——从一个异想天开的剧本，到一款超现实的独立游戏，再到一部以双语呈现、设计独特的纸质书。

尺寸：110 × 160 毫米
页数：296 页
语言：中文 & 英文
装帧：锁线软壳
联合出版：Tabular Rasa Gallery（伦敦）& 51 personae（上海）
初版时间：2021年8月
ISBN：978-1-5272-9632-9

作者：Ag
编辑：陈云
英文翻译：Jude Keeler
英文校对：Cathy Keeler
英文编辑：Gigi Chang
书籍设计：Mira Ying
展示字体：Dinkie Bitmap，设计者 Willie Liu
助理制作人：池棉