Hard to write about a writing project. So much writing and so much more.

I kept having this feeling like I wouldn’t do something unless it was for an art project. Like I couldn’t find meaning in brushing my teeth or reading books I wanted to read. I had a burst of energy from a blossoming romantic one-sided crush and I decided to pour it into a simulated art residency.

It’s a thought experiment of what would I be doing right now if I was at a residency– I think the best way I’ve describing it is a text-based solo RPG. I felt like I couldn’t just start writing about my feelings, but I could write about me writing about my feelings.

This month’s zine for Kat’s Zine club is a typed version of the notebook I kept during the residency. I also used instagram’s carousel feature to create small sets of images that relate to each other in a weird picture book way– 10 images or less– recreating them doesn’t give the satisfaction of the swipe to turn the page of a very short story.

I’m excited to create a similar but actually really different experience for other people using this approach of simulation or fictionalizing.

It’s going to need a few trials to hone it into something that I feel confident about — I enjoy the hope that it will help people achieve the residency experience without having to take time off of work and lose money in travel, etc.

One of the interesting approaches is the social media limitation. I used social media less during my imaginary residency and when I did, I pretended that I needed to have a director sign off on it.

It really helped me focus and ask myself the question, can I be reading right now? Instead of scrolling–

I loved visiting this place and interacting with the objects and mystery of the weather. I decided I had to end my residency because that’s the premise. Is that it has an end. And now I get the great adventure of taking on a new role as a docent.

The first iteration of the Irisa Monastery

google doc

When I was in middle school, I was really into text-based RPGS. I would like to ultimately get the very same kind of forum going for this, and probably should do that in the next iteration but then also I am intrigued about a google-doc forum. Especially because it’s a different kind of accessible.

Now that I’m writing this, I think that it is going to be a forum eventually like the ones I enjoyed in the early oughts. I want to style the html so it has that vintage website vibe– so exciting! I love a project that changes and gets more structure as it goes on.

(Nightworld is still there, but also different looking but kind of the same)