The Shape of Chaos


Dear Insane Children,

Stop! Before you read any further into today’s update (which does contain some pretty amazing stuff)…

See the cover image for today’s post? That’s by our good friend Omri Koresh. He’s doing amazing work for the Asylum project but he’s also got a really beautiful art book project of his own over on IndieGogo. 

Please consider supporting his efforts by backing HIS CAMPAIGN.

Why? Because it’s a direct way of showing love for the artist who brings you this sort of gorgeous madness…

He says of this image… 

“It’s when the hatter is sad about his friends that were hurt because of the explosion in the lab. in my mind he of course blames Alice. In this image he’s looking at the glass and thinks about how he was before the accident. His body is also mechanic of course, so he made himself higher, hence the old Book version vs the Game’s version.

I think i’ll call it “I’d like to forget what you did” as referring to Alice.”

Omri’s said he’s interested in creating more of these story illustrations and I am encouraging him to do so. Can’t wait to see what he produces next.

Of the Queen/mask image called “I survived the fire” he says…

“I thought that in the AMA game the queen is a disease on the world with tentacles. so i thought of making the new queen as young Alice, seeing the fire, constantly. because it’s her guilt that’s literally eating her alive.  and if the queen is being created in the asylum world, i think it fits.”

Speaking of the structure and narrative of the world, I’ve been working with Joey on a world-map of the new Wonderland. Based on our initial chats she turned in this image: 

Since then we’ve had a deeper chat about how to represent Wonderland during this period of history. Here’s my thoughts: 

Joey, 

This looks like a good start. It has me thinking about the shape and meaning of each area… 

Since the new symbol for Asylum is the Chaos Symbol, I think maybe we should consider a layout based on this shape (or the number contained in the shape: 8)… (we’ll need to create a new “stage” to make this work)…

When we first enter the story we’ll be in a stage called “Shock” which is just like a horrible nightmare of Alice’s family dying in the fire. It’s a part of Wonderland – since everything in her mind is a part of Wonderland – but after the first part of the story we’ll never be able to go back there. It will be like a bomb and a fire at the start – and it will break Wonderland into many pieces. We can place this area in the center of the Wonderland map – like a volcano or a floating island with a massive crater in the middle – or a sort of inside-out black hole which is releasing fire and smoke and chaos into the world. 

What remains of Wonderland needs to be floating around this central core. We’ve talked about this before… having each of the areas of Wonderland as a floating island – broken pieces of the world as it was before. (Some examples other artists follow).

I can imagine these pieces are floating in orbit around the “Chaos Core” just like the planets are orbiting the sun. Some of the floating islands may touch from time to time – allowing Alice to jump from one to another or complete some puzzle which requires alignment of the areas. So think about the map you’re drawing like a map of the solar system. There can be variety in the orbits – they don’t all have to be around the same plane … think about an “atomic orbital” instead. 

For now, you don’t need to worry too much about the design/art of the areas included in the list which you’ve not yet explored. You can create generic floating island masses to represent those – and maybe make them unique by placing a large statue or building on them which is related to one of the Wonderland characters. We’ll sort out the specifics of the “owners” of these places in the coming weeks. 

***

That’s it for today’s update on art and design. As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. We’ll discuss your feedback during this week’s live stream.  That’s scheduled for Hong Kong Time, Friday, April 27th @ 09:00AM (6PM PST on Thursday, 26th). 

CLICK HERE to set a reminder via my YouTube Channel. While you are there, be sure you are subscribed and that you hit the little “bell” icon to be reminded when we go live. Lots of people saying they aren’t getting reminders. /shakes angry fist at YouTube.

Before we go…

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER FROM MARTIN:

Be sure to update your Patreon Profile to include your shipping info. Otherwise we can’t send you rewards! 

That’s it for now. 

OOPS! Just saw that our friends at Freaky Fandoms emailed with details of this week’s podcast where they will discuss the life and writings of Hunter S. Thompson. Be sure to check it out over on Soundcloud!

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American (and Lulu)


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