Sign of life

Yes, I am still alive and so is this project.

But as you can see in my main blog I spent most of my spare time of the last months with hiking, so that there was not much time left for learning, practising and creating parts of Lhocmar.

This lack of time may be a negative aspect, but on the other side I am gathering a lot of impressions and inspiration on my tours that can be very useful for creating this new - perfect, because non-existing - reality.

I hope that the bad-weather-season will become more productive, though I would prefer that the weather won't be bad. ;-)

In Search of an Entrance

A while ago I painted the following screenshot (it is still too smooth for my taste).

 

 

I call it a “screenshot”, because I always wanted to make something “interactive” out of the beginning.

This first part is planned to deal with the journey to Lhocmar. We need to find out HOW it is possible to enter and WHY someone should decide to go there.

Concerning the technical realization this is the point where I am stuck at the moment, because I still lack in many skills.

So, probably, progress will slow down a bit…

First, I have to arrange this wishy-washy in my head – write down a concrete script, which will be my guide for the next steps.

The motto of all days can only be: practise, practise, and practise.

I hope it won’t take me too long for posting next results.

Cheers!

More thoughts

The first responses to my idea showed me that there are many wonderful people who are creating their own worlds and that I should try to give some further explanations on my concept.

So, what am I really doing?

I guess I am not really CREATING a new world. Lhocmar is less a creation, but rather an interpretation.

As I already stated, Lhocmar is reality, real nature, but non-existing. The only way to improve reality and the beauty of nature is by its non-existence.

(And non-existence includes further positive aspects like the already mentioned “having control” and unreal/virtual worlds usually have the advantage of being less complicated).

Probably, this is a little bit hard to comprehend… or just weird…

I’ll try to illustrate the main idea with some examples:

Let’s imagine a wonderful sunny day, we are lying in the grass, relaxing and enjoying life – just beautiful to be in harmony with nature. The reality would be a bit different – there, lying in the grass also includes many annoying insects we have to cope with; we could sweat, sunburn or suffer from hay fever etc.

And the second example can be summarised with the term “nostalgia”. Our memory has the power to idealise past reality.

(I know, there is a difference between idealisation and non-existence/imagination, but concerning the capacity of abstraction I consider them being rather similar).

However, I must admit that there is one situation I am not sure of being able to integrate in this (more or less sophisticated) philosophical concept of Lhocmar: standing on the top of a mountain.

Of course, in the virtual world the weather and view would always be perfect, the muscles and knees would not ache from climbing up, but I am afraid that the overwhelming feeling on the peak is completely independent from such “failures”.

 (It seems impossible to exceed this by its "non-existence")

Perhaps, one possible explanation for this difficulty could be that being on the peak of a mountain feels already like being beyond reality. Daily business, duties, worries etc. seem so minor and far away…

But this is not a very satisfying answer. I am aware that this IS quite a personal matter (people who aren’t into hiking, won’t agree with this). Therefore Lhocmar would become an extremely relative world, because my peak of the mountain could be every different situation for others.

We will see if a solution can be found…

I have noticed that it won’t be possible to create the world first and afterwards tell a story. I have the tendency of being a bit overly intellectual and getting stuck in too much thinking. A too theoretical world would become boring very easily; therefore I will try to create by telling the story.

(So, nothing can exist without a purpose, not even a non-existing world? ;-) )

This is really an exciting adventure for me. It is rather easy to play around with thoughts or to ponder over different ideas from time to time, but the attempt to express them clearly and to put a concrete structure in them is quite a challenge!

I would like to thank everyone for the first reactions! They are a great help and enormous motivation!

Cheers!

Hello real world!

I would like to welcome you here in some kind of a brainstorming blog.

My plan is to create a new world that is absolutely beautiful – beautiful because of one main reason: it does not exist!

This is not really a completely new point of view; we know this from our dreams. Even the worst nightmare can have its positive aspects because of its virtuality. Sometimes we even gain control over our dreams and can so enjoy more than one “life”…

And “having control” is the second important aspect for a wonderful world – no need to be afraid any more…

The filthiest corner of a street can become beautiful in an artificial world. A beautiful landscape becomes even more wonderful.

 

(I assert that this is not just a matter of taste! My painting skills are still in great need of improvement, but nevertheless here is an example for a nice reality and its greater virtual beauty.  Additionally, we must not forget that already a photograph is some kind of abstraction of the real world.)

 

The question that remains is, if it will be possible to keep up this kind of “pseudality” forever? Can this real virtual/virtual real world be something consistent? Is our mind strong enough?

(As the non-existing world is strongly influenced by reality it seems that there are some inextricable contradictions).

We will see…

I am not yet sure what to do with this new world. I only know and feel that I HAVE TO create and tell about it. The form is still uncertain – a novel, a comic strip, a game… what ever. We will see…

I know that this is quite a massive project and I will still have to learn and practise A LOT – especially in traditional and digital drawing/painting (sometimes words aren’t enough…). I need to get more familiar with some software and most important of all, for sure, I need to develop and express concrete ideas on this world and its (hi)story.

 

It will take time, but fortunately, I am not in a hurry. :-)

Usually, I am quite a secretmonger, but I know that showing and telling others about what is going on, can be a very good motivation for keeping up the work.

I will try to keep the entire blog in English (feel free to correct my mistakes). For the story itself I cannot guarantee this, because usually it is easier to write something “literary useful” in ones mother tongue.

(If you are a hardcore realist, please accept my apologies. I know that there are many realists in this world, who only can appreciate beauty when (and because) it is REAL…. Booooring, I say. ;-) Real beauty needs an idealistic point of view. Therefore it is necessary to create or at least to add something artificial (an imagination of perfect beauty which exists only in our minds) to reach the optimum. But this is another story to tell or/and argue about…).

Cheers!