In 1948 a man was found dead on an Adelaide beach. Well-dressed and unmarked, he had a half-smoked cigarette by his side, but no identity documents. Six decades on we don’t know who he was, how he got there or how he died. Somerton Man remains one of Australia’s most mysterious cold cases. Yet it is the bizarre details of this case that make it the stuff of a spy novel. The missing labels from all his clothing. The tiny piece of paper with the words 'Tamam Shud' found sewn into the lining of the dead man’s coat. A mysterious code found etched inside the very book of Persian poetry from which this note was torn. Brimming with facts that are stranger than fiction, the case has intrigued novelist Kerry Greenwood for almost her whole life. She goes on a journey into her own past to try to solve this crime, uncovering a new way of writing about true crime – and herself – as she goes.

"The Tamam Shud narrative emerged through a series of episodic performances and an exhibition by Alex Cecchetti at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw. For two years the writing process and the artistic process were interwoven, feeding each other as they evolved. The art project and the artist’s novel are linked together as much as the life of the victim is connected to the piece of paper found in his pocket"--Back cover.

One of South Australia's most baffling mysteries. On the 1st December 1948, the body of a man was found on Somerton Beach, with no identification and the name tags removed from his clothing. A validated bus ticket and a torn paper with the words 'Tamam Shud' were the only clues.

In 1948, a man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia. Well-dressed and unmarked, he had a half-smoked cigarette by his side, but no identity documents. Decades later, the Somerton Man's identity and death remain mysteries. From his clothing's missing labels, to the tiny piece of paper with the words 'Tamam Shud' found in the fob pocket of his trousers, this cold case is brimming with facts that are stranger than fiction. Written by one of Australia's best-known and most loved crime writers, this book explores pieces of the author's own past in an attempt to solve the puzzle, uncovering a new way of writing about true crime - and about herself - in the process.

In this OKCIR Research Report, hermeneutic sociologist, Khayyami scholar, and founding director of Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research (OKCIR), Mohammad H. (Behrooz) Tamdgidi, Ph.D., reports having solved the mystery of the code associated with the so-called “Somerton Man” or “Tamám Shud” case. The mysterious code appearing on the back page of a first edition copy of Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam -- found months following the death of The Somerton Man (TSM) in South Adelaide, Australia, on Dec. 1, 1948 -- was a suicide contemplation and planning note he was poetically drafting for himself in the form of a quatrain on the back of his copy of The Rubaiyat, giving a gist of why and how he planned to carry out a deliberately mystery-laden suicide as his last dance for a lasting life. The code was the creative DNA of his suicide plot. It was written in the ‘Tamám Shud’ transliteration style -- in this case not from Persian, but from Arabic with which he must have been familiar, either natively due to coming ancestrally from the ethnically diverse and widely multilingual Russian Caucasus and/or by training and education. In other words, the ‘Tamám Shud’ torn-out piece found in TSM’s fob pocket not only served as a bread crumb lead to his suicide note, it also offered the key to the code’s deciphering. DNA is a self-replicating matter that reproduces the basic structure of a substance. TSM’s ‘code’ offers the DNA of his last dance performance in public hoping of a lasting life, one that was sketched amid his medical suffering. He was reflecting on his life, terminal illness, and expected imminent death, while reading the meanings conveyed about life and death in FitzGerald’s translation of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat -- a work of art that offered TSM a practical and proven example of how one can physically die but endure in human memory and spirit forever. This report mainly focuses on deciphering TSM’s code, but the findings are then used to shed brief new light on one and/or another alternative wider story of what took place in Adelaide in 1948, in the years leading to it, and in the decades thereafter. The report invites readers to rethink the relevance of Omar Khayyam’s poetry to the case, and also asks a pertinent question about another fold of the mystery, that is, why did it take so long to decipher a code that could have actually been decoded much earlier? The Somerton Man or Tamám Shud case has important lessons for us beyond the confines of the personal troubles of a man and those he knew, inviting us to use our sociological imaginations to explore such troubles in relation to the public issues that concern us all beyond the shores of Australia, and beyond the national and disciplinary walls fragmenting our lives, universities, and scientific methods in favor of transcultural and transdisciplinary modes of inquiry. The report ends with a dancing celebration for deciphering the code as a new window to learning the true story and possible identity of the Somerton Man. CONTENTS About OKCIR—i About the Author—ii Notes this Report—iv Preface—1 1. Introduction: The Somerton Man Case—3 2. The Code: Preliminary Observations—6 3. Preliminary Interpretive Considerations—11 4. Using Online Resources to Illustrate the Decoding—12 5. ‘Tamám Shud’ Is Also the Decoding Key—13 6. The Language Environment of the Code—17 7. Strategies for Making the Code Difficult to Decipher—20 8. Starting with the Last Main Line of the Code—23 9. The Third Main Line of the Code—29 10. The Second Main Line of the Code—38 11. The Crossed-Out Line of the Code—45 12. The First Main Line of the Code—47 13. Interpreting the Code as a Whole—50 14. The Relevance of Omar Khayyam’s ‘Rubaiyat’—58 15. The Wider Story—62 16. An Alternative and/or Additional Wider Story?—68 17. Why Did It Take So Long to Solve the Puzzle?—71 18. Conclusion: The DNA of A Last Dance for A Lasting Life—78 19. A Dancing Celebration—82 Endnotes (Reference Links)— 83

When rebellious Utah socialite Kirsten Young is found murdered in Provo Canyon with strange markings carved into her flesh and a note written in a 19th Century code, questions arise about the old laws of the Mormon Church. Journalist Selonnah Zee is assigned the story, which quickly takes on a life of its own. Even before the first murder is solved, several more victims appear, each one more mysterious than the last. Meanwhile, Sedonnah is distracted by her mother's onset of Alzheimer's and her sudden attraction to the mysterious Salt Lake City police chief who is investigating the murder. Adding to a slew of other distractions, Selonnah’s cousin, Roger, has recently converted and is now a public spokesperson for the Mormon faith. But paradoxically, Roger's wife, Eliza, is struggling to hold onto the Mormon beliefs of her childhood. If something is really from God, she wonders, why does it need to be constantly revised? Could the murderer be asking the same questions? And most importantly, will they be able to stop him before he commits his biggest crime, taking out a Mormon landmark and dozens of sightseers?

Why do artists write novels? What impact does the artist?s novel have on the visual arts? How should such a novel be experienced? In recent years, there has been a proliferation of visual artists who create novels as part of their broader art practice. They do so in order to address artistic issues by means of novelistic devices, favoring a sort of art predicated on process and subjectivity, introducing notions such as fiction, narrative, and imagination. In this sense, it is possible to see the novel as a new medium in the visual arts; yet very little is known about it. This two-volume publication is the first to explore in depth the subject of the artist?s novel.00Part 1, 'A New Medium', is a theoretical examination that looks critically at the different ways contemporary artists employ the artist?s novel, focusing mainly on four key case studies: Benjamin Seror?s 'Mime Radio', Cally Spooner?s 'Collapsing in Parts', Mai-Thu Perret?s 'The Crystal Frontier', and Goldin+Senneby?s 'Headless'. It seeks to situate the artist?s novel within the broader context of the visual arts in the hopes of sparking a much-needed discussion about a practice that has long been ignored by critical strands in art discourse. It includes valuable resources, such as the only existing bibliography of artists? novels.00Published with Part 2: 'The Fantasy of the Novel'(ISBN 9788867494255) as a two-volume publication.

This publication is devoted to the phenomenon of the artist novel, and whether it can be considered to be a medium in its own right within the visual arts. Visual artists create different strategies to integrate their novels into their practice. Introducing traits that are particular to narrative literature into the visual arts implies the accentuation of some features over others, such as narration, fiction, identification, and the act of reading and its protracted engagement, as well as distribution in public space. An artist’s approach comes fundamentally from the visual arts. The creation of an artist novel doesn't differ from any other artwork. Both processes feed into each other as they evolve within the same body of works. Thanks to the contributions of a selected group of artists, writers, curators, and scholars this publication strives to demonstrate that literature, when treated by visual artists, can take place well beyond the space of the book.