Douglas Anthony Cooper
This article is about the writer. For the American Civil War general, please see Douglas H. Cooper.Douglas Anthony Cooper (born
1960 in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada) is a
writer who lives in
Manhattan. His novels are considered characteristic examples of
metafiction. He is often compared to experimental writers like
Italo Calvino, and many critics, including
The New York Times, have likened him to
Vladimir Nabokov. He did graduate work in philosophy, as well as a short stint as an architecture student, and his novels address architectural themes, often from a theoretical perspective.
He has also written and photographed feature stories for newspapers and magazines, primarily on subjects related to travel, and was the recipient of the 2003
Lowell Thomas Gold Medal from the Society of American Travel Writers. He appears in
Best American Travel Writing 2004 (editor Pico Ayer). He has written a number of full-length plays and screenplays, as well as a short opera libretto.
In
1994, he became the first novelist to serialize a novel on the
World Wide Web (
Delirium, which was published in book form in
1998). This helped establish the
Internet as a valid medium for the publication of literature. Following this experiment in new media, he became increasingly involved in
electronic art. As an artistic collaborator he is a member of what was initially a marginal field - an obscure genre where narrative, architecture and art overlap - but this movement surprisingly proved the spawning ground for some of the world's leading architects:
Rem Koolhaas,
Frank Gehry,
Daniel Libeskind, and
Diller and Scofidio. For years Cooper collaborated on new media pieces with
Diller and Scofidio, including a landscape/video installation at the
World's Fair in Switzerland, and a subverted motel room at the Santa Fe Biennial. Based on his novel
Delirium, he co-created a large-scale installation at the Milan Triennale with
Peter Eisenman, one of the principle architects responsible for
Deconstructivism. He has used
voice recognition software and online translation services in order to generate paintings.
His novels are widely reviewed internationally, but are read mostly by a small cult (especially strong in academia and particularly architecture schools) - although his first novel
Amnesia was a
bestseller in Canada, and he has been translated into Italian and Spanish.
Cooper is a graduate of
Trinity College at the
University of Toronto. While in university he was a top intervarsity debater; he was Canadian National Champion, and runner-up Best Speaker at the 1985
World Universities Debating Championship. He received an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto, and studied architecture for two years, at the
University of Waterloo and the
Architectural Association in London, U.K.
Amnesia (
1992)
Delirium (
1998)
*
Biography and Interview*
An Overview of The Dysarchitecture of Douglas Cooper - Critical Essay by Nancy Costigan
*
Reviews of Douglas Anthony Cooper's Novels*
"Canadian Gothic" - Travel Essay Collected in
Best American Travel Writing 2004*
Dysmedia - Cooper's Home Page
*
Short story by Cooper on New Partisan
