When I ride Peter Pan at Disneyland, I always want to get off the boat, and go live in the town below. I want to enter that world...
Reality in Practice
The confines of my literary ambitions within the functional apparatus of the publishing world is not permanent. I wish to propose a forward momentum in the mechanics of my artistic expression, to give creedence to a name I have been calling my self--my employment: reality technician. As a writer, I merely string words together--and, if I am feeling vaguely compatible with the notion of a narrative, tie them into a plot. Often the world underneath my authorship interests me more than the possible plots within in it. Often, to me a plot is just a sustained lie, something inherently demeaning to the universe constructed underneath. For, in truth--this universe resists causality. It resists linear time. And as long as there are pages, that will turn--or paragraphs that will be scrolled--there is a point A and a point C with a point B inbetween them. And that is a lie.
There are problems in my sense of character construction that impede me from ever being content with writing fiction. These things are in view with what I have observed as and in human beings. That a character is never static, but always in flux. That a person is not one thing, but many things, millions of atoms colliding in fractal patterns again and again and again. That the canvas on which the paint of life is put, can be transparent. Locale and setting, setting and locale. That I can find more life in a building than I can in a human face.
And while I recognize that this world is constructed the way that it is, and there's little I can do to change it, I must still try. We all must. And I don't feel that fiction is the way I can do that. I would never have enough readers to make any kind of dent. Like I've said before, I write for that 1% that intuitivly understands... but that is just preaching to the choir. And I am no priest. The things that I have come to realize about the nature of reality, the things I am realizing every day and the things I've yet to realize cannot be contained in a written medium. Or a cinematic medium. The medium is the massage, brain massage.
What I have begun to propose, below are some rough ideas on some possibilities for creating a multimedia environment, employing many reality modification devices and many visions. I realize that in order to realize any of the projects that I want to be involved in, I've got to colloborate. I've got to compromise. This project is a marriage of fiction, interactive fiction, installation art, cinema, music, programming, graphics work, set designers, imagineering, and financial backers.
If I ever want to do this, sadly I will need money. I am researching grant options, but I doubt that I will find one. Some day, I know in my heart that this will be possible.
I want it to be us first. Before the commercial organizations. Before the advertising realities. Before time runs out. Actual plans for an actual future.
I've spent all this time talking about something abstractly. You know only the title of the conception, reality modification devices. Perhaps vaguely you know the literary world that I've been exploring, Techra. Below is a story I've written, adapted to this format--not a full schematic of my possible intentions, but a rough idea collection of what could be most basically possible. Thanks for reading this far.
A building is rented. We need many rooms, some big. Perhaps a warehouse would work out. Maybe on a smaller scale, a bar. Several rooms tell a story. For example: Zeppelins on the Empire.
Room #1
Individual steps into stage one of the reality.
Individual enters, and narration is begun. Individual
is now doubt. The room is a bar, and there is dust on
the bar, and so on. The person listens to the
narrative, which is performed live every time,
following the individuals as they go. Individuals are
free to roam in the reality of each room for a period
of five to ten minutes. The narration encourages
certain actions that may drive the plot forward (an idea I am slightly uncomfortable for, do to my own particular reality configuration), but by
all means the individual is not required to enact
these things.
Room #2
Roof of the Empire State Building. Big Ed is built
above the individual, the room is painted as if night.
Several artists would be recruited for this project to
assure several artistic interpretations in set design,
and idea design. Ed’s story is told both in narration
and visual cues. Perhaps the individual will be
offered a plump hotdog-– Real live symbolism.
Room #3
Perhaps another individual would enter the exhibit and
at the same time, this one taking the role of Bobby
Masters, playing in the arcade of room #3. The video
game would be designed by hired programmers. The video
game within would be the ones spoken of in the story,
dockage games. Perhaps moments of Episodic Vibrations
of Techra (ruins underneath a purple sky…) This next
room may give way to the interior of Bobby Masters'
mind.
Room #3b
Bobby’s mind has many objects to be manipulated and
things to look at. These things would be collected, as if a storage of random pieces of life, out of context, but somehow harmoniously balanced. Could be designed as the creative process was undertaken.
Room #4
Outside. Perhaps made by a room with all
digital video screen walls. Constantly shifting
outside. Lots of people. Electricity seems to pass
through the room. Overhead, to the sides. All kinds of
scary shit. Some of which could be “class conscious.”
Room #5
Last room. This is the empire state building and the
sort. In one corner of the room the arcade game will
again sit, and the bobby masters could go and play
that, or they could try to tilt towards a final
result. In someway the video game and other objects
within the room can act as triggers to bring about a)
dockage b) the end of the building c) other randomly
assigned events.
Some more thoughts..
Every 6 months or so a different temporary
reality zone could be created--to enter, manipulate and coexist with.
This could be a very expensive project, obviously. I ask any of you who have any thoughts on this to please /msg me and discuss. Let the ideas dip into your mind, let them stir. Would this even be possible? Would it be a total failure? Would it be wrong not to try it anyway, just to find out? Not that there is a morality or anything. I was thinking it would be possible to GPL anything computer-related that was done in the project, to in fact do the project with the collective idealism of the involved parties. There are many stories to be told, and non-stories as well. There is simply involvement. There is reality. And there is modification. And these thoughts in action could be the devices.