Fiction
Not that I would be able to attend the show, but this is still a good moment to point to Alex CF, who creates an alternate history of the 19th century through artefacts: exactly those of the kind scientists and explorers would track down in the farthest regions of the earth, bring them home an add the to their collections of curiosities, which have been en vogue these days.
Now, why an alternate history? Because Alex CF creates still-born dragons, mummified demons and dead werewolves that could have jumped out of a story by HP Lovecraft; it is cryptozoology in its best form.
Not only are the objects gorgeous, they also come with a complete background story wrapped around them: how they were obtained, what they are exactly, where they come from – and more often than not with accompanying notes and tools.
This, in my opinion, is true artistry. It's imaginative, and it's skilfully executed. These are objects my own imagination can spark itself on.
[via Wurzeltod]
Custom painted toys by Jason Jacenko:
An article by Destructoid about using post-modernism to reinvent the horror genre:
A big part of Lovecraftian-style horror involves the fact that humans perceive the world in a certain way, with certain assumptions based on what we can empirically observe and judge. However, this brand of fear postulates there are immortal beings in existence that contradict these assumptions on such a fundamental level that they cause our perceived reality to break down, and drive humans crazy upon seeing how insignificant we are in the universe. Glitches in games can be seen like this, where something goes wrong with how our universe is supposed to function, and we can temporarily glimpse the unfathomable void beyond the programming.
This is not only relevant since I have an interest in creating deeply disturbing horror games and because I just love self-referentiality in practically every medium; it also provides some more food for thought about an experiment I might be producing for Fantoche: A game that purposefully undermines the implicit trust we give the game as a system.
Apparently, this has been done before:
Remember Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem? Some of the best scares from that title came from breaking the fourth wall. The controller would mysteriously disconnect as your defenseless in-game avatar was slaughtered by a group of enemies, your head would blow up when trying to cast a spell, and sometimes the Blue Screen of Death would appear (despite the fact that you were playing on a GameCube).
