I’m blogging again! Some of you were there when we were all blogging and knew me from my cross-media blog. (It is archived at the Wayback Machine as culturally important work!) I’m excited to be sharing thoughts on a regular basis again. To release what I’m processing, to learn in public. I love being part of the world in that way. I know people use Substack at present (and I read tons of them!), but I prefer to hold my own janky space.
I’m interested in this because I finally realise that the thing that brings me joy and that I feel I’m here to contribute to GAIA is transforming creative development. I’m here to craft games and books and events that are created from my experiences of the world. I have experienced so many things! Multiple professions, artforms, houses, partners, poverty, physical and emotional abuse, employer bullying, dancing, food, cats, trees, sunlight. I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to understand why people treat me a certain way, why my personal life is the way it is, and why the world is like this. One belief I’ve had since I was a kid is the feeling I’m here for the exciting time on this planet. I am! We are! All time here is exciting!
A game I was keen to make is one where you’re all fired up about coming to Earth and contributing to co-learning we’re all doing here together (a personal player motivation is chosen). And as soon as you start on the board, you keep getting objectives and events and puzzles and problems. You get so distracted you forget why you’re here. While all existence here is worth it, I do feel that life is not about remembering what you’re here to do at the end. It’s awesome if you remember while you’re still here — and that can be anytime.
I’ve got my arse into gear after decades. But it’s cool because we use whatever we’ve experienced. We’re here to subjectively contribute what we love. For me, it is creative development, particularly narrative (and I mean both all aspects of meaning-making in a project, and bigger cultural narratives), and social interactive design (the process of creating together). And my thinking about how love plays a role in what and how we make and who we’re making with and for.
