So WHAT IS THIS PROJECT, BECCA. You Know, That One You Keep Talking About And Saying That You'll Post

So WHAT IS THIS PROJECT, BECCA. You know, that one you keep talking about and saying that you'll post a thing about soon. 

This happens to be that post. How lucky.

SO WHAT IS THIS THING?

The project is called Songs of the Beautiful World, and it's a metaphysical parallel world concept created to explore the ideas of mythology, culture, and how ideas get transmitted from person to person, mutating along the way. It's also an exploration into the cultural behavior of fandoms from an anthropological perspective. That's the meta side of the metafiction. 

THAT'S NICE BUT I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT.

The immersive side is that it's a world with characters and stories and ideas that I am exploring ways of exploring. There are cities, and heroes, and gods and demons. There are shadows of things that exist in the real world and there are things which only exist in that world. There are stories. Lots of stories. The world lives and breathes through stories. The main idea at the very core of the project is that this fictional world is defined almost entirely through subjective experience. It exist differently for every person because every person experiences it differently. 

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON THIS HOT MESS?

About five years now. Yeah. That's a long time, right? I figure that at some point, I need to start being more open about it and sharing it, lest I become Henry Darger and his Vivian Girls stories. That would be defeating the point of it, really. I wanted to create a culture and try to make it in a way that was similar to how real culture arises. That means that it can't arise in a vacuum and it can't be something that I only know about. 

SO HOW DOES IT WORK?

I am working on the best ways to let the stories out into the wide world. There might be comics. There'll definitely be some oral storytelling and performance art pieces. There've already been some videos and art installations, although I need to up my game as far as video production goes. The biggest thing, though, is that the stories themselves may only be traces or glimpses, like whispers of something bigger. Rumors that plant themselves in your brain and make you wonder about this other place. I love creepy stories specifically, as they have an incredible ability to implant themselves in your head. In fact, I like them so much that I wrote my master's thesis about that very thing.

MASTER'S THESIS? ISN'T THIS JUST AN UPPITY INTERNET THING?

Yes and no. There's a lot of psychology and experiential philosophy and aesthetics involved. 

WOW I NEVER KNEW YOU WERE SUCH AN ART SCHOOL WANKER.

Yes, I'm so glad that you noticed. 

I am more than willing to field questions about this project. I realize that this overview is kind of vague, but there's a lot of information for me cover when it comes to the details. The ask box is eternally open. Please don't be under the impression that this is all dry and academic. I want it to be fun. 

ALSO: it has its own tumblr and Wikia page, both of which are shamefully not very full of information at the moment, but I'm working on that. Go to: songs-of-the-beautiful-world.tumblr.com 

#30. Officially, the end of the Monster Challenge. The theme today was "favorite monster". 

I grew up watching Godzilla. My brother and I would spend days having massive marathons of everything we could get our hands on. Heisei Godzilla (1985-1995) is the best Godzilla, and I will fight you over that, internet.

I wish the paper wasn't so crinkly, but I don't know how to fix that. 

5/31 

Apathy is at an all-time high today. I should just go back to sleep.

Edit: I am just gonna mention that one of my really good friends got me a grey brush pen and it’s actually super rad.

A photo of a drawing of a camera; a very tautological arrangement that I hope swan-prince would enjoy.

I am practicing drawing in a really formal way, as I want to brush up on all the stuff I need to be teaching.

More Inktober. I'm gonna do two today because October snuck up on me. Y'all get the low quality images, unfortunately, because I am scared for the life of my laptop.

The puppet is all dressed up now. She'll go to the gallery tomorrow, all ready to celebrate and remember the dead.