
read “Never Very Far From What Is Happening Right Now” a review by Steven Shaviro in LARB
time machine // database // travel guide
timespace coordinates: Valheim, the tenth Norse world.
A brutal exploration and survival game for 1-10 players, set in a procedurally-generated purgatory inspired by viking culture. Battle, build, and conquer your way to a saga worthy of Odin’s patronage!

Valheim is an upcoming survival and sandbox video game by the Swedish developer Iron Gate Studio, released in early access on 2 February 2021 for Windows and Linux on Steam. It was made by five people.
The premise of the game is that players are Vikings in an afterlife where they have to craft tools, build shelters and fight enemies to survive. The game uses stylized 3D graphics with a third-person perspective and a combat system inspired by action games. Co-operative gameplay with up to nine people and optional PvP gameplay are also supported.
The game was a surprise hit. Three weeks after its release, it had sold three million copies and was one of the most-played games on Steam.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (Windows / MINIMUM): Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system / OS: Windows 7 or later / Processor: 2.6 GHz Dual Core or similar / Memory: 4 GB RAM / Graphics: GeForce GTX 500 series or similar / DirectX: Version 11 / Storage: 1 GB available space
timespace coordinates: Christmas Eve, 1920 London / 1910’s Romania
Gray Dawn is a first-person horror game from Romanian independent game studio Interactive Stone.

Embark on a terrifying adventure of a priest accused of murdering an altar boy. Gray Dawn is a psychological thriller infused with religious elements and combines story-driven quests with an artistic experience.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): – OS: Windows 64-bit, Processor: Intel Core i5-2400/AMD FX-8320, Memory: 8 GB RAM, Graphics: GeForce GTX 770 / Radeon R9 280X, Storage: 6 GB available space
timespace coordinates: Suffolk, in the east of England, 1939 – excavation of Sutton Hoo
The Dig (stylized as the DIG) is a drama film directed by Simon Stone, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by John Preston, It stars Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott, Archie Barnes and Monica Dolan.
Edith May Pretty was an English landowner on whose land the Sutton Hoo ship burial was discovered after she hired Basil Brown, a local archaeologist, to find out if anything lay beneath the mounds on her property.
imdb / wiki / archive footage / Sutton Hoo – BBC Documentary (youtube) / Smarthistory
timespace coordinates: 2010’s Moscow

Attraction (Russian: Притяжение, romanized: Prityazhenie) is a 2017 Russian science fiction action film directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk. The plot tells about an extraterrestrial spaceship that crash-lands in the Chertanovo district of Moscow. The Russian government immediately introduces martial law, as the locals grow increasingly angry at the unwelcome guest. The film stars Irina Starshenbaum, Alexander Petrov, Rinal Mukhametov and Oleg Menshikov.
According to Bondarchuk, the movie is a social allegory. The script writers stated that it was inspired by the 2013 Biryulyovo riots. (wiki)

Invasion, also known as Attraction 2 (Russian: Вторжение, romanized: Vtorzhenie), is a 2020 Russian science fiction action film directed and produced by Fyodor Bondarchuk’s company by Art Pictures Studio and Vodorod. The action of the film unfolds three years after the events described in Attraction. The film stars Irina Starshenbaum, Rinal Mukhametov, Alexander Petrov, Yuri Borisov, Oleg Menshikov and Sergei Garmash. (wiki)

timespace coordinates: Oxford > London, parallel ~Edwardian era Britain (or Brytain) // “The Trout” inn, the Priory of St. Rosamund, Jordan College

The setting is a world dominated by the Magisterium (commonly called “the Church”) an international theocracy which actively suppresses heresy. In this world, humans’ souls naturally exist outside of their bodies in the form of sentient “dæmons” in animal form which accompany, aid, and comfort their humans.
La Belle Sauvage is a fantasy novel by Philip Pullman published in 2017. It is the first volume of a planned trilogy entitled The Book of Dust and is set twelve years before Pullman’s His Dark Materials. It presents events prior to the arrival of the six-month-old Lyra Belacqua at Jordan College, Oxford.
The story follows 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon Asta, and a village girl named Alice and her dæmon Ben, who become the protectors of the infant Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, in Malcolm’s canoe, La Belle Sauvage, during a flood. Malcolm forms a friendship with alethiometer specialist Hannah Relf, allied with the secret freedom-seeking organisation Oakley Street, and is drawn into their fight against the growing strength of the Magisterium, which has learned of a prophecy concerning Lyra. Malcolm and Alice are pursued by the maniacal villain Gerard Bonneville, an ally of the Consistorial Court of Discipline (CCD), as they struggle to reach London and Lyra’s father Lord Asriel, in order to gain the protection of Jordan College for the baby. (wiki)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s sushi restaurant in a Korean fishing village

Swimming to Sea (Korean: 파닥파닥; RR: Padakpadak) is a 2012 South Korean computer-animated musical psychological thriller film written and directed by Dae-hee Lee; as of 2020, this is the only adult animated film released by CJ Entertainment to date. (wiki)
