See related story: Douglas Coupland: New Film, Chewed Art and Net TV
Regurgit-Art:
In 2005, Coupland grabbed a copy of his novel Generation X and began ripping out pages, chewing them and shaping them into a sculpture.
Coupland also regurgitated pages from Girlfriend in a Coma and Life After God, along with some dollar bills and a Gideon’s bible. The output was turned them into nests and called Regurgit-art. Later that year, the work made it into I Like the Future and the Future Likes Me, a gallery exhibit in Vancouver.
The exhibit suggested, perhaps, that texts can be transformed, taking on entirely new meanings over time. Call it saliva-mache? Spitball art?
Photo: Courtesy of www.coupland.com 
Deathstar:
Coupland on constant creativity: “There is this need in me to take these entities that live inside my brain and spin them into books or films or TV, to be part of the culture.”
Here is his 2006 sculpture Deathstar.
Photo: Courtesy of www.coupland.com 
JPod, the Series:
Coming to a monitor near you: jPod, the Coupland novel set in the world of video-game production, is now being adapted into webisodes by BookShorts.com. Here, Michelle Morgan, as Kaitlin, toys with John McNairy, who plays Ethan.
Here’s the recap, if you missed JPod, the book. Set in the world of video-game production (programmers are creating an unfortunate amalgam called SpriteQuest), Coupland’s 2006 book spins off into various flights of fancy. SARS, Honey Nut Cheerios, a find-the-error-in-pi game and a Mephistopheles named Douglas Coupland all make appearances.
Photo: Simon Lepik-Wookey
Play It Again:
Coupland expounds on working in different media. “With books, you make this very long contract with your prospective readers. A: They go to the library and borrow, or buy it. Then B: They put the kids to bed. C: They are in a reading mood. And D: They are relaxed, phone off the hook. And finally, they start to read the book. And then you are on probation until, like, page 50.
You are asking a lot of attention from your reader. With paintings, you know within three-millionths of a second if it works or not. With books it takes, like, six hours. With movies you know in 20 or 30 minutes. Someone should make a graph.”
Here is Coupland’s installation Play Again?, using text from his novel, jPod.
Photo: Courtesy of www.coupland.com
Red Carpet Rollout:
For the world premiere of the indie comedy, Everything’s Gone Green, at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, screenwriter Coupland (right) joined lead actors Paulo Costanzo and Steph Song, and director Paul Fox on the red carpet.
Photo: Joel Morrish
Everything’s Coupland:
Coupland on screenwriting: “I don’t see that much of a difference between words and pictures. So you make it visual and have good dialog. It seems pretty hard to screw up…. You look at it with your eyes, hear it with your ears, people do and say things. It’s so fundamental. Anything else on top of it seems more than necessary.”
Everything’s Gone Green was released in New York and Los Angeles on April 13 before playing in a dozen other cities in the months to come. Coupland is on the set.
Photo: Joel Morrish
Urinal Climbing Wall Doubles as Art:
In an 2006 exhibit at the Vancouver School, Coupland reflected on his schooldays with installations including Minimalist Forms (foreground), featuring text-free books neatly stacked on a shelf, and Climbing Wall (background), built of urinals and drinking fountains. He also stuck old pieces of chewing gum on a stack of desks in a work called DNA Totem.
Photo: Courtesy of www.coupland.com
