Welcome to the Analog Kingdom

I am seeking funding to create an open free event for photographers, models, spoken word performers, and creatives of all sorts to interact. This starts with several of my large, upcycled interactive installations currently housed at Ingenuity Cleveland.

The first is a throne made of CRT TVs with props, costumes, and a seat for pictures, called “The Analog Kingdom.” You sit on this throne and become your own master. Create your own kingdom. Rule yourself.

“The Analog Kingdom” also comes with a narrative art zine, meant to add a story to the installations about a universe between the universes; where all discarded imagination goes to be created with again. Those attending the event can engage with the story with original costumed characters as well as several musical and spoken word performances. Anything they create has potential to be featured in the next Analog Kingdom book

The second installation, named “The Hood,” is a gazebo, with five piano soundboards mounted within it. The surfaces of the wood frame are painted with chalkboard paint. Graffiti is encouraged.  On each side of the gazebo is a car hood with poetry written under it.  Car seats are staged and filled with poetry books from the press I run. Each of their books is made for free from any local writer who asks.

Each piece was also built from a collaborative effort of engineers, musicians, painters, builders, video and photography artists, writers, and one teen volunteer. They show that when we all come together, we can make a better world ourselves.

I want to make these items even more collaborative. This open free event is for artists and allies to come interact with these installations. Create what they want to say with them. 

Implementation would include purchasing the necessary materials, scheduling time with the installers, finding open dates at Ingenuity, scheduling the event, securing the models and photographers, building the costumes, and marketing via social media, artist venues, and art events in the area, as well as reaching out directly to the vast network of creators I know. As a follow-up to the event, the content generated during the event will be used in the second Analog Kingdom book, a more character-driven set of stories named “The Analog Renaissance.” All those involved in the event will be invited to contribute.

Anyone can do art. Anyone can have a voice.

Just give them the chance. I’m not good enough is no excuse.

Cleveland is a city of underdogs. I have seen us on lists of the most depressed cities. I have seen the shirts that try to mock this perception with “At least we’re not Detroit.” But Detroit is learning something that we are just now beginning to come to terms with. Broken things are still beautiful. If there is one thing that is very Cleveland, it’s the ability to pull ourselves up and keep going on. The blue-collar working person attitude is part of our shared cultural identity. My own father did this working 70 hours weeks in Greater Cleveland warehouses. I have done this for my own son. It’s time to not only survive. It’s time to thrive.

One lesson Detroit has learned is the value of art. The restorative and community-building power of creation. Artists of all sorts came together and realized they could build something greater than the sum of its parts. They made their scars into beautiful badges of honor.

And so can we. So we are, now, out there in the streets, and the abandoned warehouses, making our dreams one by one. Now it’s time to come together.

Cleveland recently lost several of its photo studios and I want to help. At this event, artists can witness the opportunities within the space, network, collaborate and build their portfolios. The funds I am asking for will be specifically used for materials, performers, and equipment upgrades.