Stuart Larner is a chartered psychologist. Besides writing for scientific journals, he has written articles, poems, stories, and pieces for the stage. He has published four books: "Jack Daw and the Cat"; "Guile and Spin"; "Hope: Stories from a Women's Refuge" (with Rosie Larner, collectively as Rosy Stewart); and “The Car”. He has a story in Bridge House Anthology 2016.
See his blog http://stuartlarner.blogspot.co.uk/.
The crowd quietened.
“So here, ladies and gentlemen, you see a line of ten large
computer screens stretching down the hall.” The acne on the art gallery
attendant’s face made him appear young and immature despite the dark square
frame of his designer spectacles. “In
each screen is a holographic reproduction of one of the ten paintings by Hartmann,
which the composer Mussorgsky used for his piece ‘Pictures at an Exhibition.’ Please
be careful not to cross the wooden safety rail, as the hologram screens are
highly charged.”
“Mummy, Mummy I can tell the time upside down.” Thomas was
swinging one-handed from the rail.
“No, you can’t, that’s silly,” said his sister, Gabby.
“Yes, I can. It’s eight five.”
“You don’t tell it like that,” said Gabby. “That’s silly.
You say eight minutes past two. Have you been messing with your watch? Mine
says three minutes past two. Look.” Gabby held out her wrist to reveal the
cheap pink-strapped children’s watch.
“Calm down, you two,” said their mother, Carmella, who was
looking into the first screen in which a gnome walked up and down a country
lane. “Wow. Look at that gnome’s eyes, and he moves like he’s alive.”
“Yes,” said the attendant. “That’s right. All the characters
are alive in their world of 5D technology. You have the three dimensions of
space, the fourth of movement in time, and the fifth of solid reality.”
“So it’s like a computer game?”
“Yes. Only real. Inside the representation of the painting,
the 5D means it can go on for infinity. Outside it, the envelope of that world
is compressed into just the thickness of a modern monitor as you can see.
There’s no glass front, though. It’s all held in by an electromagnetic layer....”
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