Dear Insane Children,
If you’ve ever spent hours trying to open a bank account or dealing with the Department of Motor Vehicles then you’ll know the meaning of “Kafkaesque.” Omri sent along an image this morning which explores one possibility for the interior of the Courthouse we’ll visit in the Queen of Heart’s Realm. And it inspired me to respond with an alternate suggestion for how we represent this space – and why…
But First!
I am back in Shanghai from Thailand and we’ll have a “normal” week next week – Crowd Design Session, Live Stream, etc. Then on November 1st, I am flying to Los Angeles for a couple of days in order to attend Patreon Assembly!
Seems our Asylum of Insane Children is doing so well on Patreon that I’ve been invited to speak as a Creator Panelist during this exclusive event. Wow.
A big THANK YOU, to all the Insane Children for everything you’ve done to grow our Patreon and make all this possible. Truly insane!
If you have any requests or feedback you’d like me to pass along to the team at Patreon, let me know in the comments below. Font Lord and I do have our own list of ideas which we think would improve the experience for us as creators and for you as Patrons.
Back to Surreality
So Omri’s idea for the interior of the Courthouse… This is the building we’re talking about:
And what Omri wrote about his idea for the interior:
i’m thinking about making the interior much much crazier than necessary but i don’t know what we will do there. i thought of making it into more of a building than an island area, a place that celebrates her guilt and looks pretty burned.
thoughts on any of this? is this the direction or should i rethink it into more the Island areas? i think weird is good in this case. thoughts on any of this?
personally i don’t love this concept i’ll have to redo another version. something a bit clearer.
To which I replied:
We’re talking about the Courthouse… the seat of judgment. Judgment – as in judging a person or event – requires comparison to the expected or correct or “normal” standard. We expect standards to be reliable, fixed and achieved by trusted processes. Scientific. Verifiable.
All of this suggests a place of order (law and order!). That’s the opposite of chaos – and evokes imagery quite different from the swirly confusion of chaos you’ve presented in the concept artwork. While I do not think the interior of the courthouse needs to be “expected” I also think it’s possible to create confusion from order.
Think of millions of filing cabinets, endless processes, leading in circles, claiming to serve an ordered goal… but so labyrinth as to be…
Kafkaesque!
The idea is to create a sense of hopelessness and dread from the space as a function of order.
We have plenty of places to explore chaos. The Queen’s domain… Anger… these are places of judgment, anger, righteous retribution, ORDER!
Attached are a couple of inspiration images.
Those are my thoughts on the topic…
But let us know in the comments below what YOU think!
What do you expect to find inside the Courthouse? What shape does the seat of Alice’s judgment take in the surreal landscape of Wonderland? And how might the Queen’s ANGER warp what we see?
Halloween Reminder
Font Lord asks me to send along a reminder of this month’s art promotion…
Everyone at $75 for the month of October will receive two pre-selected art prints. Those are “Hallowed Alice” and “Cheshire Grin” (shown below).
There are a couple of Rules and Restrictions. Those are as follows:
- Pledge $75 for October 2019 (pledge now; processed on or around November 5th).
- If this is your first month at $75 you’ll also receive a Chaos Necklace (you can choose small or large size – survey sent later).
- This offer is NOT available at the 3/$35 level.
- But if you’re doing 3/$35 it’s important to note you can jump in and out of that tier. You DO NOT have to have 3 consecutive months.
- You can select these prints later with 3/$35 but you’ll select the prints individually, not as a set. If you want the set you’ll have to do that via this offer.
Font Lord Notes
One more note from Martin: Chaos Necklace fulfillment was delayed a bit due to the Chinese National Holiday and American (not signing stuff fast enough) so please allow a little extra time for delivery! Yay, Chaos!
That’s it for now… Hope everyone is doing great.
You are all very much loved and appreciated!
From Shanghai with Ka-Ka-esque,
-American