paralogue manifesto

Written as a guidepost for what I wanted Paralogue to be. This version is slightly expanded from what is on the site itself.

Paralogue is a place for the artistically-inclined to cultivate the creative flame we hold within ourselves through the fostering of mutual connections. It’s a community that embraces each member’s unique vision and treasures the contribution it brings to the whole. It’s an environment that doesn’t discriminate against one’s medium of choice, nor one’s tastes and genre preferences, nor one’s level of industry involvement. All that’s required is the flame.

Here, the messy, eclectic nature of inspiration is taken as our baseline. Everyone has the potential to be meaningful to someone, and everything has the potential to be the spark that inspires further creation. These all have a right to be loved and a right to be shared, as that within which you find something interesting might be the thing that reshapes someone else’s worldview, or which reignites their desire to create.

Here, we desire…

…to share that which fascinates us, to share that which enraptures us, to share that which sticks in the back of our minds.
…to find beauty in places where nobody is looking, to find beauty in places that others refuse to acknowledge.
…to reveal our daydreams and projects and to nurture their development as they’re slowly grafted into reality.

And perhaps, with all our efforts, we can prevent that rare and gentle flame inside each of us from being snuffed out.

manifesto neta

deep down inside i have a couple different (intersecting?) community desires: one for a creative community like the one i used to have, and the other as a sort of anti-kf – the happy video game nerd version of kf – dedicated to discovering strange and perverse and embarrassing internet phenomena and embracing them instead of treating them as shallow objects of ridicule.

forever soup theory

for years, i’ve thought of the creative soul as a kind of pot within which our various life experiences and inspiration points accumulate and are preserved. when we create, we draw from this pot and prepare something which can’t help but share the flavor of everything that’s been in the pot to date.

implications:

1. without continued attempts to deepen your life experience, everything you pull from the pot will taste the same
   1. the point you stop exploring is the point when you stagnate
2. you can use analysis of your experiences to “cook” them, drawing out more of their flavor for when they’re ready for the pot
3. sometimes it’s ok to just let the pot simmer
4. soup is a meal best shared with friends and loved ones

the beauty of the mind outside of yours

whenever i see people who have unusual or even outrageous thought processes, part of me wishes that i had the ability to tap into that sort of mindset. i assume that the vast majority of people write them off as wackjobs. some of these people bully them for it too.

inspiration can come from anywhere

picking up different media, trying new approaches, forcing yourself outside of your comfort zone. the new skills you learn with them might be transferable to the medium you’re most proficient with.
alternatively, they can be used as playgrounds to explore ideas that you might not have a chance to explore elsewhere.

a garden for the kokoro?

even if i rarely post on kokoro.garden, in some ways i see these two projects as intersecting, or perhaps i just come from the same fundamental standpoint of seeing a kokoro as something to be nourished.

the nourished heart overflows with things to say and love to share. the nourished heart strides forward in confidence, not shrinking in denial and self-doubt, nor fawning through cynicism and irony. the nourished heart nourishes others in turn, and it expands the horizons of lovability toward paths expunged by fear and social pressure.

or at least, that’s what i want to believe… though getting there will always be a process.

Julian Koster within Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (33 1/3), p. 104

I think what Elephant 6 meant for us is very simple: there’s something pure and infinite in you, that wants to come out of you, and can come out of no other person on the planet. That’s what you’ve go to share, and that’s as real and important as the fact that you’re alive. We were able, at a really young age, to somehow protect each other so we could feel that. The world at large [isn’t] going to give you that message, necessarily. In fact, most things are going to lead you away from it, sadly, because humanity is really confused at the moment. But you wouldn’t exist if the universe didn’t need you.