in 2007, when i had just started my masters, i went to a conference on theatre and intermediality, in montreal and quebec. i gave a paper titled “UpStage, Cyberformance and the Intermedial Audience” (or something like that), which later became a chapter in my master’s thesis. after the conference, i was invited to contribute my paper to a book being compiled by jean-marc larrue, one of the organisers of the conference. the book was to be in french, so my paper would be translated into french.

time passed and i received emails from time to time about the progress of translations and preparation for publication. i finished my masters and moved on to other things and other places. every now and again i’d remember about the book, or an email would arrive about it. then a couple of years ago came another email, this time saying that publication was getting close and asking me if could update my chapter to include some more recent work. i did so, including make-shift as it is a very good example of my idea of the intermedial audience, then off it went to the translator and eventually to the publisher.

and last week, a little over eight years after the conference, i received in the post a lovely shiny copy of “Théâtre et intermédialité”, which includes from pages 355-381 my chapter, “La plateforme UpStage, la cyberformance et l’assistance (intermédiale)”. there are lots of other interesting-looking chapters as well, but alas i can’t read a word of any of it. it’s not the first time i’ve been published in a language other than english – the first time was an article i co-wrote with patricia jung about UpStage, published in german in “Video: Wiedergabe, Bearbeitung und Streaming unter Linux” in 2005. it’s quite a strange feeling, being unable to read your own chapter. perhaps i could read the german one now – if it wasn’t in storage in new zealand.

and there will be more book chapters: i’m supposed to finish the first draft of one by the end of the month, and another that is due at the end of the year. it’s great to be invited to contribute and i enjoy the writing process, but unfortunately it’s never with renumeration.