World Building

Lets build our world, what does it look like? what are the laws? physics? what's the gravity like in our fictional land? All these little details, the more we work out the better understanding we'll have of our world, more material to pull form in our art. If we go back into the history of our world, the political history, the history/ backstory of our characters etc... the more we'll understand our characters. I'll add a sub category for our character building.

Mazes

I think that along with chess which has obvious Lewis Carroll references go mazes. The Kremlin sewer system is no doubt an ancient and complex maze of an infrastructure that we need to navigate in order to find the 'Golden Bog', sort of like the ancient Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts quest to find the golden fleece'.

The Golden Fleece was the fleece of the golden ram that was held in Colchis, and the object of desire for Jason, who organised an expedition with the Argonauts in order to retrieve it.

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The myth has it that Athamas, king of the city of Orchomenos, married the goddess Nephele, with whom he had two children, Phrixus and Helle. Later, he took Ino as his second wife, who hated her stepchildren and plotted to kill them. She would have succeeded, but at the last second, Nephele sent a flying golden ram to save her children from their stepmother. She then told her children not to look down while the ram was flying. However, Helle looked down, felt dizzy and fell into the part of the sea that took her name, Hellespont. The ram and Phrixus eventually reached Colchis, where the boy was warmly welcomed by the king, Aeetes. Phrixus gave the golden fleece of the ram as a gift to the king, grateful for his hospitality. Aeetes placed the golden fleece in a garden which was guarded by a never sleeping dragon. Jason later arrived in Colchis, and after successfully completing the three tasks that Aeetes had given to him, he retrieved the golden fleece.

Source: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Elements/Golden_Fleece/golden_fleece.html

I became fascinated with mazes in my 2nd year BA and Cathy an i built quite a few out of Lego, with messages in, i used them to print from.

It culminated in me building one from MDF and painting it matt black like Malevich's square.

Anyway the idea of navigating through the sewers of the Kremlin, also surprise-surprise, reminded me of the film by Peter Greenaway; 'A Walk Through H'.

In this film the dead ornithologist has to find his way through to the afterlife using a series of maps.

I love this film; the artworks, deadpan narration and stimulating music of Michael Nyman.

The combination of painting, drawing, script, music and film making produce compelling viewing and perhaps we could use similar elements of this method of storytelling in our quest.

Angels

Adam explained to me about how an avatar in the metaverse could virtually exist in the real world and the sort of things that could be done and why some users will buy virtual clothes and products which i found completely illogical, it seemed to me that these virtual goods did not actually exist, but Adam explained to me that they do!

He gave an example that has stuck with me and i really like; so for example you could have a huge pair of wings on your avatar, so you walk around like this kind of angel. Now the thing is that although these wings are rather eye catching, they can only be seen in the metaverse, however if you were say out and about in the real world, to use Adam's example going to the shop to buy some (oat) milk, you could be virtually wearing these wings, people would not see them unless they were wearing VR goggles, so other users of the metaverse could see them and be in on the joke.

After the talk Hamish gave on the 'Three Angels' i found i had connected in other ways with this ethereal aesthetic in my self portraits; my blurred images in the pinhole self portraits bear unintentional similarities to the work of Francesca Woodman.

Angels are a theme though and are as Durers' 'Melancholia 1', intrinsic to world building.

Therefore i propose that MAMA exponents wear wings...

Piss Pot of the Despot

Can all be played out quite quickly, saving on time etc.. like in a kind of comic book style, or the Trainspotting opening..https://youtu.be/SaP7qmsQbSI Give a quick freeze frame on each character/band member who we are, and then a quick montage type thing of the different things that have happened, Putin stealing the bog etc..

A commando that sneak into kremtopia thru the sewers and shove the egg up him when he’s on the can?

Train spotting toilet scene?

We need blue print plans of the Kremlin to find our way

Maybe we know its his because its gold and sparkly, the toilet matches his ego

Yes like Catalans that was offered to Trump and stolen from Blenheim palace, that’s it Putin stole the poo tin

The golden bog, the piss pot of the despot

Theres gotta be some reference to the poo in a can by piero manzoni

Stole the poo tin

Maybe the ‘poo tin’ is the cure to world peace

Artists shit?

Yea

They never found the golden bog yet, was nicked

Must have been him…

We could start with evidence pointing to putin being complicit in the theft, kgb, ira help to get the golden bog out of the country… A submarine off shore waiting while kgb plumbers steal the golden crapper, All this happening under boris nose the stupid fat clown eating jelly at a party with balloons - definite reference to the line 'propaganda in our minds with a trojan dog made of balloons' in 'extreme creation' which is in reference to Jeff Koons and his balloon dogs.

A great toy actually, putin and his stolen golden bog ‘with flushing action’ - we are definitely making this toy. It's art in itself, and can be used as a prop in any performance, video work we do, it's what we've be talking about, bringing everything together, it can be used as a plot devise too, like MAMA handing them out on the street (this could be an actual performance) giving them to people to explain that Putin stole the golden bog, it becomes a plot devise in universe, an art work in itself, and a business card handed out to people on the street.

We can quite literally flush him out

Gotta get adam a blonde wig

I have one!!

Like a calm supository

Maybe MAMA is the secret organisation of spies that decides to take matters into their own hands as noone else will do anything

We need bullet proof vests with MAMA written on it 😂😂

The Dismal State

I suppose this fictional world would exist in an exaggerated, on the nose version of the political situation we currently live in, its an authoritarian state, control, confuse and conquer, they don't want anyone being creative, that fucks with their plans, it's not far off MoJo BoJo asking artists to retrain into a different profession. This would be the backdrop for our world, and our narratives, showing an on the nose version of what already exists, satirical, fun and thought provoking, taking ideas from and playing with propaganda, using posters from the authoritarian state in universe, as well as MAMA posters projecting feelings, it's and interesting thing to play with #METAMODERN.

These ideas are being explored in the Netflix show 'Snowpiercer' at the moment, the uprising from the back of the train, 'the slums' on the ten mile long train with an infinite engine, over throwed the high class system controlling the front of the train, the person standing in as the owner of the train lied to the people for years, after being over thrown, the show is now exploring the 'good guys' having to make similar decisions, having to kill people for the greater good, lying to the people and manipulating decisions because the few believe that that is the best decision to make.

Maybe this could be explored later on in our concept art album, what if MAMA make a few mistakes along the way, what if we make decisions that affect people in a negative way, for every action there's a reaction, all that, like what is something we do, affects the creativity of the kids, indirectly, the realisation of hurting what were fighting for etc... Like I dunno, something along the lines of by giving the kids 'creative toys' and destroying the shit plastic, non creative toys, we could maybe realise that were taking away freedom of choice maybe? You know? Maybe that's where the ideas of the creative toys, and maybe all toys can actually be creative if the kid has been nurtured to be creative enough... ?

What if this world we lived in, or these characters live in, is referred to as 'The Dismal State' by MAMA, by citizens? graffiti on walls like holiday posters, 'visit the dismal state'

tOy BoX

Whilst chatting Me (Adam) and Deano had the idea of being toys in a toy box, we still have a connection to the creative toy's that this project first explored, does everything we do, this whole world take place in a toy box? metaphorical or physical? worth exploring, maybe the toy box appears in one 'song/section/project', and relates to the content in that, and nothing else? What if the toy box is a prison, Maybe MAMA, us, the creative uprising, get caught at one point, whilst doing a demonstration, a performance piece/fight, we get arrested by some incredibly right wing looking uniformed Russians, and we get chucked in a toy box, what's the metaphor here? toys in toy boxes are forgotten about, how can a kid ever be creative if their toys are stuck in a box, especially ones at the bottom of the box, what if the narrative here is that we are like toys stuck in a toy box, maybe the music in this could be more upbeat despite the context of the visuals, maybe even the visuals could be bright and wacky, were in a literal toy box with the big monkey with the cymbols or some shit, you know? but its a metaphor for us being in prison, but the lyrics, spoken word etc, all relate to us being toys trying to get out of the toy box to get played with, maybe something along the lines of 'we may be plastic but we can still be creative' I dunno, that's crap, but that kind of feeling.. maybe that's the conflict, we've been making creative toys, but do all toys have the potential to be creative? depending on how you play with them?

WHERE ARE WE?

We're kind of building this world where we have this kind of narrative between 'I don't wanna be a soldier' and 'extreme creation' it's kind of semi-fictional, I found this whilst doing the Sculpt Factory, it's in the real world enough to respond to real world events, but fictional enough to have whatever laws it wants/needs really, anything can exist, as it's in it's own universe, but all the alter egos interacted with real people through social media, which made it semi-fictional.

but I've noticed this rough/loose narrative between the two songs, and I'll attempt to outline what I've noticed...

So lets say, in the form of a concept album, it follows a narrative, it doesn't have to be presented in a linear way, but this would be the linear version of events... we start with 'I don't wanna be a soldier' this is for me, the most interesting music I've ever made, I've written a load of songs, and I think recorded three with a friend a few years ago, I was in a few school bands, which never left the conservatory, and so, my music creating experience is weak, but I've always dabbled with writing lyrics atleast, but I feel that this has a very complex narrative, in the sense that it's a conversation exploring an incredibly difficult subject, created in the wake and in response to a War. Anyway, there's two ideas presented between the two people speaking (me (Adam) and Deano) At the beginning One is scared of having to go to war, even though he knows its all angst atm, it's seeing the reports and thinking about how he'll protect his family, how the fuck do I get the kids underground, followed by I don't wanna be a soldier, only a few days after it all started these feelings are real for this character in the moment, reflecting real life feelings, the songs then comes in with Deano's verse in response, with a more politically charged, fuck this little bitch, we're not gonna let him get away with this.. And as my feelings started to change throughout the day, thinking of my creative response, so my outlook changed slightly, still scared, still don't want to be a soldier, but I will fight in the way I know how, through creativity, through my belief that creativity and imagination can change the world, In this the song is the very beginning of the rebellion, the creative uprising, the spark of MAMA. Deano shows the rest of the band the way, and we join him and the MAMA.

The next section is 'Extreme creation' The lyrics in this are introducing the ideas of MAMA, we've started building our clan, we've written the manifesto and were heading for battle, brushes in hand. Raised by the MAMA. The ideas in this section solidify who we are as a clan, as MAMA and what we fight for. Against POMO, in response to DADA, fuck commercialism, creativity wins.

Throughout all this we'll be developing characters/ storylines etc, but loosely, you know, we wanna give the audience something to work towards, leave a few things to find out and to the imagination.

where are we heading next? Kerry's written a poem in response to our conversations on creativity and children, a lack of creativity in schools etc..

What if we added that spoken word stuff in with these lyrics?

Is there a conversation between the two? Something interesting going on?

BUILDING BLOCKS AND FOUNDATIONS.

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