Imaginopedia
From Imaginopedia
Contents |
[edit] Imaginopedia Celebrates the Freedom of the Imagination
[edit] Imaginopedia is:
- a place where synthesis, spontaneous creativity and myth can take place.
- a way to decentralize fact as the basis of information, news and reality.
- a project which encourages developing alternative resources through a process of (re)source.
- a way to explore freedom from the right answer.
- a way to collaboratively create source material and then reference it at will without concern for it's ability to be verified or it's legitimacy.
- a chance to diversify what we see as functional experience by incorporating nuance, interpretation and absurdity in our daily practice of meaning making.
- an exploration of social media as conceptual art.
- a place to share and expand upon subjective realities.
[edit] Some Possibilities
- Make up a word, concept, being or entity and tell us about it.
- Add the history of your term and provide illustrations or photographs if possible! Be creative.
- Make links from your entry to other entries or imaginary items. All you have to do is put [[ ]] around the word you want to make a link. See [here] for more info about creating links.
[edit] Differences between Imaginopedia & Wikipedia
"Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; that is, it contains information that has been collected, condensed, and summarized about what has already been promoted - and which has passed certain tests, as this is how most encyclopedias are written."
Imaginopedia is the exact opposite. Imaginopedia encourages fiction, fantasy, opinion, conjecture, speculation, and plain old silliness.
Wikipedia states that an encyclopedia is a ["book of facts"] that should be made up of "articles ... based on [reliable, published sources"]
Imaginopedia believes that imagination and intuition are valid sources of truth. Your imagination is a all you need.
[edit] Things That Inspire This Project
[Adbusters] a "global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new s|leftocial activist movement of the information age."
[Alice in Wonderland] The Lewis Carroll classic about a little girl named Alice.
[Basquiat] "Basquiat, born in Brooklyn, used his graffiti roots as a foundation to create collage-style paintings on canvas. His surroundings and lifestyle in New York City contributed and featured in his basic images, along with seemingly-unrelated words and phrases placed among the colours. His style was described as nervous, fierce and energetic."
[Hieronymous Bosch] "Hieronymous Bosch produced some of the most inventive fantasy paintings that have ever existed. His obsessive and nightmarish vision has its antecedents in the Gothic twilight world of the late Middle Ages..."
[Richard Brautigan] "In Watermelon sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar. I'll tell you about it because I am here and you are distant."
[Cane] An amazing book by Jean Toomer. Mindblowing and poetic.
"[Draw Here] allows you to draw on any web page. If you save your drawing, other Draw Here users will be able to see what you've drawn. Use it to share your artwork, comment on web pages, or just doodle while you are browsing."
[Dr. Seuss] "Better known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss, populated his odd and fanciful children's books with a hybrid bestiary of Wockets, Whos, Grinches, bunches of Hunches, Bar-ba-loots, red fish, blue fish, and a fox in socks. He once remarked in an interview, "If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up."
[Get Smart] A 1960's detective show featuring Maxwell Smart, a bumbling detective and his assistant then wife 99. "Smart and 99 worked for CONTROL, a secret U.S. Government spy agency based in Washington, D.C. (123 Main Street). Together, the pair investigated and opposed various threats to the world while Smart's bumbling caused complications."
[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy began in 1978 as a radio comedy. Upon request, Douglas Adams turned it into a book that begot other books, and the BBC made a five episode television series.
[The Little Prince] The Little Prince (French Le Petit Prince), published in 1943, was written by Frenchman Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The novel includes a number of drawings by Saint-Exupéry himself, which are reproduced in most versions.
[Mad Libs] a "word game where one player prompts another for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story; these word substitutions have a humorous effect when the resulting story is then read aloud. The game is especially popular with American children and is frequently played as a party game or as a pastime."
[Marcel Duchamp] A playful man, Duchamp prodded thought about artistic processes and art marketing, not so much with words, but with actions such as dubbing a urinal "art" and naming it Fountain, and by "giving up" art to play chess. He produced relatively few artworks as he quickly moved through the avant-garde rhythms of his time.
[Masquerade] a "pictorial storybook which contains clues to the location of a golden (18 carat) jeweled hare created by Williams and then buried "somewhere in Britain."
[Monty Python's Flying Circus] Totally hilarious sketch comedy show shown on the BBC from 1969 - 1974. "Their humour could be categorised as absurdist, surrealist, situationist, or dadaist."
My Side of the Mountain A children's adventure book about a boy who runs away to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival." This book was an amazing fantasy that won a Newbery Honor, an ALA Notable Book Honor, and a Hans Christian Andersen Award Honor.
[The Quilts of Gee's Bend] "The Quilts of Gee's Bend features a selection of more than 60 quilts made by four generations of African American women who inhabit a strip of land formed by a deep loop in the Alabama River, about thirty miles from Selma. Descended from slaves and isolated for decades by geography, poverty, and government indifference, the women of this community assembled quilts of astonishing artistry."
[Ray Johnson] Ray Edward Johnson was born October 16th 1927, in Detroit, Michigan. The child of Finnish immigrants, Johnson started his education in a primarily working class community. Johnson attended Cass Tech, an occupational high school, where he received the beginnings of a classical arts education. Upon graduation, Johnson found himself in the small North Carolina town of Asheville attending Black Mountain College--an experimental institution which would soon be recognized as an important incubator of the avant-garde. With guest lecturers such as Albert Einstein and William Carlos Williams and a faculty that boasted artists the likes Willem de Kooning and John Cage, Ray Johnson found himself in company of some of the mid 20th-century’s cultural giants. He himself studied under Robert Motherwell, Mary Callery, Lyonel Feininger, and Josef Albers (who had perhaps the most direct influence on him)." See also [essay here]
[Robert Wilson] "Since the late 1960s, Robert Wilson's productions have decisively shaped the look of theater and opera. Through his signature use of light, his investigations into the structure of a simple movement, the classical rigor of his scenic and furniture design, Wilson has continuously articulated the force and originality of his vision. Wilson's close ties and collaborations with leading artists, writers and musicians continue to fascinate audiences worldwide."
[Rumi] "Rumi is able to verbalize the highly personal and often confusing world of personal/spiritual growth and mysticism in a very forward and direct fashion. He does not offend anyone, and he includes everyone. The world of Rumi is neither exclusively the world of a Sufi, nor the world of a Hindu, nor a Jew, nor a Christian; it is the highest state of a human being — a fully evolved human. A complete human is not bound by cultural limitations; he touches every one of us."
[Situationist International] "The SI has a reputation for scandal and subversion. Its political theories made popular by punk rock were a blend of Marxism and anarchism. In spite of this the SI condemned both communism and anarchism for their failings. They criticised modern consumer society for alienating people and turning their lives into meaningless pursuits of commodities."
[Star Wars] "Star Wars is an epic science fantasy saga and fictional universe created by George Lucas during the late 1970s. The first film was Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), which was released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox. The film became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two sequels titled The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Nearly twenty years later a prequel trilogy set before the original trilogy was released."
[Waking Life] "Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like appearance and reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life. Along the way the film touches on other topics including existentialism, posthumanity, and the film theory of André Bazin. The young man eventually comes to the realization that he is dreaming and that he is unable to wake up." [An essay on the philosophical issues] in Waking Life"
[edit] What Inspires You?
[Book of Imaginary Beings] Jorge Luis Borges wrote and edited the Book of Imaginary Beings in 1957 as the original Spanish Manual de zoologia fantastica, or Handbook of Fantastic Zoology, expanding it in 1967 and 1969 to the final El libro de los seres imaginarios. The English edition, created in collaboration with translator Norman Thomas de Giovanni, contains descriptions of 120 mythical beasts from folklore and literature.
[edit] External Links
