#realfantasy

[hawaiianmerman]

Get a Merman hug it's a hug from the ocean. Photo from @seethroughsea #undersea #mermanlove #merlove #merman #underwatermermaid #mermanart #mermaidart #bluelight #bluehorizon #oceanscape #seascape #hawaiiscenery #konadiving #gaymer #realfantasy #fantasyworld #magicisreal https://www.instagram.com/p/B4mQ4VlHJvc/?igshid=1071qqliqv7bd

[rebeccayanovska]

I'm going old school with this piece for @ix_imagine_this Teenage Rebecca is fist pumping #magic #fantasy #realfantasy #ink #badass https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv_t6wFAr1g/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qvismjglwij5

[ca11mewhatuwant]

Her House PART 1

I knocked on the door, two double taps, a pause and one more.

The walk up her drive-way was nerve wracking. It was steep, wide and empty, leaving you feeling small, out of place and very exposed. At least the sun was shining and there was a small bird jumping around the shrubs that followed you up to her door. There's no sign of life but you still feel like you're being watched. Your knock was met by a couple moments of silence and then a series of small sounds as you hear her move around. Soon I hear her footsteps race towards me.

My heart is racing and my stomach is in knots. It hurts and you wish you weren't so nervous. You didn't need to be. You were wearing one of her favourite black shirts, plain but accentuating the sun kissed skin of your arms and neck. The first door unlocks and you take a small step back, the fly screen hides her face but you hear her greeting and the attempt at nonchalance in her voice. You smile awkwardly and mutter a gruff greeting of your own.

She had waited for you to open the mesh door and you realise a second too late, rushing now in a harsh movement to reach out and pull the door quickly so you can go inside. A unique aroma greets me, the smell of a family home, of cooking, herbs, cleaning and perfume. The latter was hers. She has stepped back as you pass into her home, and you turn to close the doors behind you, hoping she can't see the shaking of your fingers. When you turn back you see a pair of big eyes and a face trying to stay neutral but begging you to say something.

I can't help but smile and take a long stride towards her, close enough that I can see few specks of dandruff in her hastily bushed hair and smell the detergent of her clothes. "Its good to see you" I say as I embrace her and she allows herself a quick squeeze of my body before releasing me and hastily moving down the hall towards her room, expecting me to follow. I had almost smothered her head when I reached around her petite frame, her head low on my sternum when we'd embraced. I'd forgotten how small she was.

I look around as I follow her, as she begins to talk about her day, getting more comfortable with every word. She'd slept in and hastened to get ready before I arrived. She kicked some clothes and a pair of shoes from the hallway into her sisters room, apologising for the mess as she did so. You follow her quick moving feet and the movement of her head as he looks around feverishly. She stops at her doorway and her posture makes me laugh a little and she blushes heavily at the sound. Her mouth is hopelessly still, posture stiff and awkward, and I see her eyes look away when I don't immediately explain.

"Sorry, you just look very nervous, is your room that bad?". My question draws a contemplative sound from her throat as she shrugs and walks inside, immediately starting to move clothes from my path. As soon as I see those purple walls and countless drawings and posters adorning them, I'm reminded just how young she is. She'd only graduated High School a few months before and it was obvious visual arts was her pet subject. And she was good too. Portraits, make-up, and various other sketches, some colourful and some just base tones could be seen in various places around her room. I stood awkwardly beside her desk less than a step inside and took my keys, phone and wallet out of my pockets. I found a big plate of make-up a suitable place for these and set them down before finding her sitting on the side of her bed now, closing the YouTube videos she'd been watching. She opened iTunes and continued to fidget with the touchpad as the music started.

"At least it smells better than it looks", I joke. She smiles and laughs with a sarcastic Thanks.

[olderthenancient-blog]

Marvelous Shrinking Habitats – Dalsland Excursion, November 2018

It seams today that everything really marvelous – in our time of planetary urbanism – could be framed in shrinking (or small) habitats. The curiosity to investigate shrinking and rural contexts is growing at the same speed as the dream of ”sustainable” growth shrinks.

There are no habitats that are all balanced (when it comes to population), they either grow or shrink. Urban areas grow and smaller habitats shrink as people migrate to cities. In order to stay away from shrinking (which sooner or later will lead to an unexisting condition) you have to grow. Of course there are habitats that are populated by just one single human, but they wont last longer then the life of the person populating the habitat. Thats a sad thing to think about, even though growth possibly also will lead to an unexisting condition.

The curiosity to investigate the marvelous side of the growing/shrinking border leed us on a weeks excursion to Dalsland, mapping the phenomena. Even though ”All space are equally good” as part of a whole :)

There's many interesting questions to dig deeper into; What are the characteristics of a shrinking habitat? What are the urban design and planning expressions in shrinking or smaller habitat? Are there habitats that don’t aim for growth? What is the meaning and definition of development in shrinking habitats? Which advantages does the smaller habitat have when it comes to facing planetary events such as climate change, scarcity of recourses, migration, super volcanic eruptions, robot or even monster attacks? 

[olderthenancient-blog]

Speculation#1 - Eternal Progress or The End of the World? - A collective perception of where we´re heading

Urbanization as a catalyst for Myths

The more I think about the "current state of the world" I think of past times facing the same phenomena - the feeling of a sudden arising apocalypse, soon we´re all goona die, we´re going in the wrong direction, this must be the end of the world etc. 

We´re sure not the first to think that human life on earth is coming to an end, or that we´re going in the wrong "direction". The history of the apocalypse has an important roll in our culture. Its visible allmost everywhere - in belief systems, in folklore stories and myths, it express itself as doomsdays cults and its a recurrent theme in movies and sci-fi litterature. 

It´s allmost like the idea of an end is deeply rooted in the human psyche and that is has been so more or less (with different amplitude) since the day we settled and started to farm the land. As soon as urbanization began myths started to grow at the same speed as the wheat. The process of urbanization can very much be seen as the process of building a physical form of www, allowing pre-internet civilizations to share ideas and values - to grow myths (a basic human need, waiting to be fulfilled).

The Eternal Wave of Collective Perception

There has off course been more "happy" and optimistic periods between the darker ages. Certain times of human history when the belief in eternal progress was strong (so even today in some parts of the world). The relation between these two extrems can be illustrated over time as a wave of collective perception of "where we´re heading" - on one hand a strong belief in eternal development and progress, and on the other hand the dark apocalyptic ages. Sometimes optimism goes up and sometimes it goes down. 

Making predictions of the future is hard. All we acually know is that the collective perception of where we´re heading has been shifting over history and that it much likley may do so even in the future.

The eternal wave of collective perception (as shown in the diagram above) consists of two parts - one "real" and one "fantasy" part. The real part is based on actual measured data - such as rising CO2 emissions, the arctic ice that melts, the increasing number of people suffering from stress related diseases, democracy failing etc. The fantasy part of the wave is based on the brains interpretation of the "real" data. It points out a forecast, a direction of either up or down. The two waves coexists and emphasize each other. Together they form an overall collective perception of "where we´re heading". A some points in history (and also in the future) the Real and the Fantasy intersect - this can be described as the very nice border of Real-Fantasy. This happens when the big collective dream comes true and all space becomes equally good (A rare phenomena).

The Next Wave of De-urbanization

As humans very much seems to enjoy growing myths in the past they may much likely keep doing it in the future. An interesting thing about our present time though is that we no longer need urban structures to grow myths. We can now easily grow them (even faster and with stronger impact) on the internet. Its therefore possbile that we - in a not to distant future - will see the start of a new wave of de-urbanization, with smaller human habitats placing themselfs physically in more rural areas. Out among the bushes and bees - not only growing carrots seams more easy - but also myths on the web. The de-urbanization process will most likley increase as other basic human needs then growing myths becomes harder and harder to fulfill within the (not so safe) haven of the city - A new collective hideout is to be found. 

To be continued ~

[olderthenancient-blog]

The Oracle of Delhpi.

Sketching on a new oracle figure for making advanced predictions of distant futures

[thelittlepandaroom]

秋の色は赤と金色とオレンジです。#高知県 #山 #秋 #秋葉 #自然 #森 #さよなら高知 #mountaindrive #fallcolours #cloudcover #realfantasy #ghibliaesthetic #jetprogramme #remainder30 (at 高知県 四万市 西土佐村 黒尊渓谷)

[bengalderkins-blog]

Cool Music Monday - "Real Fantasy" by Yalls

Happy #coolmusicmonday everyone. If you've never heard of Yalls then I feel honored to have introduced you. Yalls is highly entertaining, each song tells a unique story, immersing you with what I'm calling electro-synth-pop sounds. The end result being each song sounds completely different, yet Dan Casey weaves his signature brand; creating some similarity on each album.

There are a lot of ways to describe what type of music Yalls makes. After looking on Yalls' website I see "synth-pop", and "electronic beats" was listed on BandCamp. Let's just agree to call it that, or you can use my highly not-so-creative phrase: electro-synth-pop. Either way, Yalls sound is definitive.

First, Yalls has multiple layered effect working at the same time. This means each song has a lot going on, which gives you much to listen to. Yalls weaves each layer effortlessly to make a melody that sounds out of this world. I liken the style to Washed Out, a lot of synthesized beats, with a harmony anchored by piano, guitar, or some real drum beat, all woven effortless with dreamy vocals as background noise. The difference between Yalls and Washed Out is the journey of each album. There seems to be more of a seamless transition between each of the songs in Yalls' case, where as Washed Out likes to tell a completely different story for each song.

Give "Real Fantasy" a listen and decide for yourself. If you like it check out Yalls' other great music, and it is all great. Once you've discovered Yalls I think you'll be busy for a while, Dan Casey has released 8 albums on Bandcamp, most of which are on Spotify.

As per usual, links below to all the goodstuff:

 “Real Fantasy” on Bandcamp

Yalls’ tumblin aroun

Yalls’ on Soundcloud

Yalls’ Twit