You Will Meet A Tall, Dark Librettist...

...named Tom Phillips, and you will buy his new iPad app. Not convinced?  Well, look no further than A Humument, one of the latest additions to the iPad collection based on Phillips' infamous fine art book of the same name.

(More on the librettist part later.)

Considered to be a "seminal classic of postmodern art," the multi-talented British artist created the hard copy of A Humument in 1966 when he decided to find a second-hand book for exactly three pence and physically alter each page through collage techniques in order to create an entirely new version.  The lucky original (which was found in a South London junk shop) was an 1892 obscurity by W. H. Mallock entitled A Human Document, and the first edition of the transformed version was published in 1973 as A Humument.  A Human Document = A Hum(an Doc)ument = A Humument.

Developed by Phillips and John Bowring, the iPad version features 367 full color pages and a new interactive feature, The Oracle (cue spooky music).  Similar to I Ching, the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, The Oracle randomly selects two pages of A Humument to act as a guide for life, luck, and...love?  Only The Oracle knows.

Oh, and by the way, in addition to being a well-known artist, Mr. Phillips also wrote the libretto for AOP's First Chance opera-in-development Heart of Darkness, a new opera composed by Tarik O'Regan and based on the novella by Joseph Conrad.  Which will have its world premiere at the Linbury Studio Theater in 2011.  Talk about multi-tasking.  And multi-talented.