An Interactive Walkthrough of Richard Kostelanetz’s Library

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Version History: 1.0 

April 14, 2025

Abstract:

My project utilizes the visual novel game engine Ren’Py to create an embodied virtual walkthrough of Richard Kostelanetz’s personal library. Kostelanetz is a pioneering avante-garde artist, critic, and anthologist whose work spans multiple decades and artistic practices. This interactive experience introduces users to the astounding collection of 25,000 books that Richard has amassed in Ridgewood, Queens over his decades of publishing avant-garde literature. While scholars might be familiar with his anthologies such as Scenarios: Scripts to Perform (1980) and Texts/Sound Texts (1980), my project allows users to browse through sample pages of his original “Book Art”.

This New Media Object serves as an engaging introduction to Kostelanetz’s contributions in anthologizing visual and literary arts. Designed to inspire further research rather than provide a comprehensive bibliography, it preserves the sense of scale, relative location, and accumulation of books and art objects that Richard has amassed in his decades of publishing. Essential to the project is the integration of hyperlinks to the CUNY-hosted Manifold platform for each of these Book Art works. The aim is to foster scholarly conversation and dialogue concerning Kostelanetz’s contributions to the fields of experimental literature and visual art.

CUNY Manifold: https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/richard-kostelanetz-s-library

Github: https://github.com/martinglick/An-Interactive-Walkthrough-of-Richard-Kostelanetz-s-Library