Jellybone (2017)

“Jellybone” is the first of Pullinger’s smartphone novels. It’s a ghost story focused on a London Gen Zer, Florence Evans, who communicates with the dead through her phone. The story is told in 10 episodes, each taking ten to twenty minutes to read. The first-person narrative is combined with text, audio and video messages that arrive on the reader’s phone and Flo’s public journal in the form of an Instagram account. With the technology enabling readers to receive messages from ghosts on their own phones, “Jellybone” was a highly immersive work, drawing readers into the story by blurring the boundary between reality and fiction. Oolipo’s Dorothea Martin summed it up, claiming they were “breaking the fourth wall”.

“Jellybone” was created with the team behind the German start-up Oolipo and was available for free on Android and iOS. However, shortly after the start-up’s launch, Oolipo lost its primary backer; the platform was closed and all works published on it were lost . As well as publishing works by well-known artists (including Pullinger) Oolipo had also planned to offer a platform and toolset for creating smartphone stories.

You cannot experience the work now, however you can see a short video of how it used to work.

You can also listen to Kate talking on “Jellybone” in the oolipo’s podcast here or find the main character Flo’s instagram account here.