Duel (2012)

“Duel” is a digital fiction thriller created by Pullinger in collaboration with Andy Campbell (as designer and producer). It is an advanced multimedia, non-interactive project created in Flash, described by authors as a work of digital fiction that “uses text and open source multimedia technologies to tell a story”. It is strongly related to some other Pullinger’s print and digital writings. The story follows Harriet and Jack, her teenage son, two characters from Pullinger’s “Landing Gear” print novel, a digital antecedent of which was “Flight Paths: a networked novel”, which Pullinger co-authored with Chris Joseph and other participants. “Duel” focuses on the moment when mother and son are in a car, pursued by a psychotic driver linked to the woman’s past. The full version of “Duel” was not created due to funding constraints, although fragments were presented at conferences and festivals.

In a blog dedicated to the project, Pullinger emphasised the novelty of the situation when she simultaneously worked on two big inter-related fiction projects (the book “Landing Gear” and “Duel”). She enjoyed that experiment and summed up that “Duel” is a “complete digital fiction that can stand on its own”, but it also can be seen as a chapter of the “Landing Gear” novel.

“Duel” was planned to be accessible for all platforms (PC, tablets with touchscreens and mobile phones) and as a digital work that could be monetised. With digital paratexts around “Landing Gear”, which not only included “Duel” but also an interactive map for the novel created by its Canadian publisher as well as other works created during a hackathon (Publishing HackDay) organised on 26th October 2013 in San Francisco during the Book in Browsers conference, Pullinger hoped to trial a new model of introducing digital fiction to the market.

This project was never officially published. However, you can see the trailer.