Tom McCarthy rewires Satin Island with live coders

Twice Man Booker-shortlisted novelist Tom McCarthy is to premiere a new collaborative performance as part of a series of live events from live literature producer and independent publisher Penned in the Margins.

McCarthy will read selected texts from his novels Satin Island (Jonathan Cape) and C (Vintage) in collaboration with live coders Shelly Knotts and Alo Allik. The performance is part of The EVP Sessions – a series of live events from alternative literature producers Penned in the Margins and Mercy.

Fusing experimental literature, new music, spoken word and video art, The EVP Sessions is inspired by parapsychologist Konstantin Raudive’s observations of ‘Electronic Voice Phenomena’ – ghostly murmurs and vocal glitches heard in radio and tape players. Artists drawn from across the UK and Europe will respond to Raudive’s provocation, asking how technology is changing the human and what happens when our digital pasts come back to haunt us?

Founder of the International Necronautical Society, McCarthy has a long-standing affinity with avant-garde writing practices. He has written for The Guardian on the topic of fiction in the age of data saturation.

McCarthy will perform in the "atmospheric" basement of Shoreditch Town Hall on Saturday (5th November) followed by The Bluecoat in Liverpool on 10th November. The events also feature performance artists Jennet Thomas and Alexis Milne, poet and spiritualist raconteur Ross Sutherland and Forward Prize-shortlisted Scottish writer and performer Harry Giles (London only).

Tom Chivers, director of Penned in the Margins and the project's co-producer, said: "The EVP Sessions are a chance for audiences to discover a new generation of writers and artists grappling with what it is to be human in the digital age."

Tickets to the London show are available here and tickets for the Liverpool show are available here.