The Paracosm
Usually I’ll make blogs about the art I’m currently making and some of the things going on in my life, but this one is about an idea I’ve had for a long time and hope to eventually be able to bring to life. However, this would be a very huge, expensive project that is all for the benefit of the community it’s in and not for making profits, so I don’t think I’ll be able to achieve the means or funding for making it happen anytime soon. Still, I want to put the idea out there and start building the dream!
When I was in ninth grade and my younger cousin was in sixth, I found out what the word paracosm means. The definition I saw then was: a child’s imaginary land. I may have been becoming a teenager but, playing around at our grandma’s house, my cousin and I still felt we were in our childhood- so we immediately started building our paracosm! We got a big piece of paper from my big drawing pad and we drew a beach in the distance, a mountain range with a big bridge and a waterfall next to the beach, a forest with walking and biking paths that goes through all the seasons as you walk through it (and of course a bike “store” with free bikes for anyone), a large building that has a huge room for each holiday, of course a large swimming pool, lazy river, hot tub, cold tub, waterslides and diving boards, a lake out front with a small swimming section that has a glass barrier to the non-swimming side that has lots of different fish to see, a Yellow Submarine rollercoaster that goes through a tube in the lake, a zoo out back that has a regular zoo and the crazy zoo from Spy Kids 2, a large library with a fun reading area open to the outside and hidden rooms behind bookcases, and the main part of our paracosm: the tower. The building reaches off the page with lots of different rooms marked off on the building, and then a piece of notebook paper holds the names of all the other rooms in the skyscraper as it continues off the paper. Of course there are our bedrooms, our dog’s rooms, a huge movie theatre, a haunted house, a haunted house escape room, a nice restaurant, a deck with all of our flying things (magic carpet, cloud, lil plane, helicopter, etc.), a bounce room, a stuffed animal room, a glow in the dark room, and many, many more rooms. We also had multiple pets/buddies that followed us around (like BMO from Adventure Time).
I’ve never really been able to shake this idea- of creating a place that’s everything we dreamed of! Although, I’m no longer prioritizing stuffed animal rooms and the zoo that has half-spider-half-monkeys and flying pigs. But I kept thinking what if an old mall could have these huge theatre/amusement ride areas where those big Sears and Macy’s used to be to build my interactive musical art shows I keep thinking about. And the food court could stay, but it could be local small business restaurants, with free food available for those in need. And all those smaller shops could be made affordable housing. There could be a huge community garden on the roof and surrounding the building. The entire outside of the building being free expression walls with spray paint available. And a community pool, and other fun hang out areas- safe spaces for teenagers that are also really cool and interesting. And a library and other learning areas. Classes for adults, art programs, talent contests, community potlucks, tutoring and after school programs, wellness areas, maybe an indoor pool and water park. I have so many wonderful ideas for it! I can’t stop thinking about it so I decided I’m going to start talking about it and putting my vision out there for others to hear and think about, and then, maybe, we can do something about it and start bringing it to life!
Inside an old mall
I’ve seen some malls going under. And wouldn’t we all rather have more community gathering spaces, places for cool art and nice homes for people than more crazy capitalist consumerism? But I would want pretty much everything at the place free, pay-what-you-can, or only taking profit to directly help those in the community so that everyone can benefit from and enjoy everything that The Paracosm has to offer!
A very rough draft showing all the better things that could be in and around an old, abandoned mall
Some of my ideas for The Paracosm, as I mentioned in the introduction above, are interactive musical art shows. Or theatrical musical art exhibits. Or musical amusement rides. I’m not exactly sure what to call them, and maybe they’d be technically different categories depending on the kind of show they are if you really cared about categorizing them, but I don’t. Over time I’ll try to explain my vision for some of them as best as I can below., and will continue to add on.
Experience: Pink Floyd’s The Wall
One thing that has really inspired all this is the music I listen to. Some of my favorite concept albums conjure up such powerful visuals in my mind, I want to bring them to life! At this show the audience would sit in stationary seating and it’d be a lot like a musical. The movie The Wall is incredible, but in theatre with actors playing the characters right in front of you, getting up close to you, and the visuals and sound completely surrounding you would be a completely new experience! It’d be a much more immersive way of experiencing the music (which is the whole goal of all these album show ideas).
Experience: The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
This album experience would be more active for the viewer. There would be times to sit and enjoy songs (like watching the Lonely Hearts Club Band perform), but for some of the songs the viewers will be walking as a group to explore through Pepperland. Artists would come together to create all the fantastical imagery mentioned in the song: yellow and green cellophane flowers that tower over your head, rocking-horse-people eating marshmallow pies, Mr. Kite’s splendid show, a hole where the rain gets in, a sky full of diamonds and Lucy dancing among them.
