This weekend saw the final unveiling of the the See No Evil project in Bristol; Europe’s largest street art exhibition. It is, to say the very least, an extraordinary, breathtaking achievement. Graffiti artists not just from Bristol but around the globe descended on Nelson Street, transforming the whole area from drab, urban decay into what feels like a new – almost virtual – space. It is truly something that needs to be experienced, but hopefully some of the photos I grabbed (along with the many on the official Flickr page) will give you some idea of its scale and raw beauty.

My own interest in graffiti art dates back to my first introduction to hip-hop culture in the mid 1980s, when the first images of New York subway art started to make their way over the pond. Apart from their raw visceral energy, both art-forms struck me as intensely science-fictional. Both are about the appropriation of technology to create something new – hip-hop taking samplers and turntables to generate new sounds they weren’t designed to make, and graf taking car repair paint and the very architecture of cities to create new visual spaces and canvases. They are, perhaps, the most literal expression of William Gibson’s famous cyberpunk-defining phrase ‘the street finds it own use for things’.

Even before cyberpunk, the city has long been one of the defining settings of science fiction for those that dare to look beyond the standard tropes of spaceships and alien worlds. Science fiction frequently views the city as a machine, with those of us that live within it variably as components, parasites or even unwilling prisoners. Graffiti becomes one of the most visceral, immediate statements of rebellion for us urban inmates; a bold, organic riot of colour against our drab, sterile prison.

The science fictional aspect of See No Evil becomes even more heightened when you consider the history of Nelson Street. It is yet another example, amongst the hundreds that dot the urban landscape of Britain, of 1950/60s post war planning and architecture that aimed to herald a new, futuristic, technology-driven utopia. But of course the future’s greatest strength is that it can never be predicted and tamed, let alone designed or planned. The town planners and architects failed, and as the decades passed they watched their dreams descend into decay, shunned by popular taste and left to become associated with poverty, depravation and failure. And to add the ultimate insult to their injuries, they saw their utopian designs become the defining science fiction image of a dystopian future.

“The group of architects who put (the plan) forward combined super highways with dreaming notions of pedestrian decks to create squares of Venetian splendour where Bristolians would gather in their thousands on election nights six metres above the smoothly uninterrupted flow of traffic.

“The major central area civic contribution of the sixties was the complex of pedestrian decks that survive in truncated form above the street at Lewins Mead and beyond and which virtually nobody uses. This was to be the essential link between the Centre – or even Forum’s great piazza above it – and the Broadmead shopping centre and beyond.”

The Fight for Bristol (ed. by Gordon Priest and Pamela Cobb; Redcliffe Press, 1980)

It’s this idea that was the driving force behind the story that leads my collection Paintwork; the use of graffiti to reclaim the space in which we live from corporate control. The technology that is subverted in Paintwork may be far more exotic – augmented reality, nanotechnology and QR Codes – but walking around Nelson Street made me feel that somehow I had actually managed to catch a little taste of Bristol’s zeitgeist with that story. That part of town usually feels dead and deserted, but on Saturday it was rammed with bodies – Bristol residents that had come out to be enthralled and entertained; to reclaim this urban decay for their own expression and enjoyment. And the fact that this was an officially organised event, done with the guidance and support of the same city that once made the mistake of trying to guess and plan the future is not only exciting in itself, but perhaps shows us a fleeting glimpse of a real, achievable urban utopia.

Paintwork is out now – you can get Kindle versions from Amazon US and Amazon UK, and versions for all other popular e-readers (including iPad and Nook) at Smashwords.

Print versions are now available from Createspace or Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Paintwork has been out for nearly two months now, so time for a little round-up of what has been happening recently…

Reviews are starting to trickle in:

“…an interesting, cool urban read. Like graffiti condensed into prose. If you’re already a fan of works like Neuromancer or Snow Crash, then it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll probably enjoy Paintwork…either way, it will be a unique experience to say the least.” – Comic Attack

“A set of three short novellas set in the not-too distant future, Maughan’s debut work gleans much of its literary influence and style from that burning start of science fiction, William Gibson, but has enough punch to suggest that more interesting ideas could be on the way.” – What Froth

To my delight Paintwork has been doing pretty well in the Amazon bestseller lists – including a spell in the Science Fiction Short Stories top ten last month:

And right now – as I type away – the print copy is doing well in the Amazon US 4 for 3 promotion. Time to pick up a bargain:

And it’s not just Amazon where you can grab a copy – both electronic and print versions are available all over the internets now:

*In print at Amazon and Barnes and Noble
*For the iPad and iPhone from Apple eBooks/iTunes
*For the Nook from Barnes and Noble
*For the Kindle from Amazon US, Amazon UK and Amazon Germany
*And for all major eReaders from Smashwords

So there you go – no excuses to pick up a copy!

I’m very pleased to announce that the print version of Paintwork is finally available to order from Createspace now, and with Amazon to follow in just a few days. I received a proof copy earlier this week, and have to say it looks great. This is by far the best way to enjoy that fantastic Bobi Richardson designed cover.

It can be yours right away for $5.99, or if you can wait and feel like blowing some cash the Limited Edition Paintwork set is available for pre-order.

UPDATE: The LE set is now SOLD OUT. Thanks to everyone that bought one! I will hopefully be doing another run of these later in the year, so stay tuned.

The LE Set includes:

*A signed paperback copy of Paintwork, with personalised message if required

*A 1GB USB memory stick, containing:
-Over 3 hours of exclusive DJ mixes by me, featuring music that inspired Paintwork
-eBook versions of Paintwork for all major devices (Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone, PDF etc)
-Exclusive desktop and mobile device wallpapers
-Exclusive author’s notes
-Audio of interviews and podcast appearances

*FREE postage worldwide

Any questions? Ask away in the comments.

It’s not even Christmas yet, but for me 2010 has already got off to a good start. January 1st sees the publication of my story Havana Augmented – a tale of globalization, celebrity gamers, augmented reality and non-existent mech battles. If you have an interest in video games, science fiction or anime then hopefully you’ll enjoy it – you can check out a brief extract below.

The story is being published as part of the M-BRANE SF anthology Ergosphere, and you can pre-order a copy over at their website right now. In fact, get over there quickly, as if you get your order in before Christmas Eve they’ll give you a year’s subscription to their monthly magazine for just a couple of bucks extra – which is a stupidly good deal, as the mag is always a fascinating read. Plus there is also a discount if you buy it with their previous anthology Things We Are Not – but time is limited, so get over there before they come to their senses.

Havana Augmented is accompanied in the book by a couple of illustrations from my good friend and artist WEIGY – one of which you can see at the top of this post – and I’m hugely grateful to him for his work, as I am to M-BRANE head honcho Chris Fletcher and guest editor Rick Novy for giving me this opportunity and being so enthusiastic – thanks guys.

Havana Augmented – Tim Maughan (2009)

Translucent windows hung in the air around Alphonso’s towering frame, linked to various parts of his heavily armoured body, each displaying differing statistics and data; ammunition levels, servo status, temperature readings. Glancing over the figures it was clear to Paul that Marcus had clearly made some important performance boosts already. Paul smiled. Looking at Alphonso always made him smile. Mainly because Alphonso looked fucking bad-ass.

Want to read more? Then go and buy a copy.

If any of you have read the extract from my short story Paparazzi, you’ll remember a couple of the characters communicating with each other using something called a ‘Voice-Free Choker’ – a neck band that picks up nerve signals to the larynx and converts them into text or speech. Well, this morning I stumbled across this video at New Scientist of someone demonstrating what appears to be exactly that technology:

Of course I’m not really claiming to have thought this up – this system was developed by Texas Instruments – but the first I heard of the concept it was being touted by NASA to be built into the spacesuits for the probably-never-going-to-happen first manned Mars mission. The demo here shows it being used to make a phone-call, but I envisioned it being used for in game communications and for when privacy is needed in public spaces. Of course if it can convert ‘thoughts’ to speech it can also convert to text….handsfree SMS texting, anyone?

Very cool.

Got out and about last night – dropped into “Weapon of Choice” – a live graffiti jam at Mr Wolf’s – a little bar here in Bristol. Couple of drinks, some nice beats and some, erm, entertaining rhymes from Nerdcore rapper MC Nucleuz – all whilst local graf talent Lokey and Cheo busied away making some art. Originally headed down there under the premiss of doing research for a short story I’m writing about near-future AR graf artists, but ended up having too much of a laugh to care about all that. Did fire off a whole bunch of photos though, so check the links below or hit the Flickr slideshow for even more…

Here we go…the first 2000 odd words of my latest story ‘Paparazzi’, hopefully for your enjoyment. Let me know what you think in the comments section…

I can’t put the full thing up yet because of the aforementioned possible publishing deal, but if you want to read more or are interested in publishing it yourself, let me know.

paparazzi_extract_1.pdf