Bears to the drawing board…

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ethereum://0xc6c0890F8b4BF3151D004561278d322F122168De/1

So, some ideas start coming through: I want to put some poetry out (having been published in a few journals, but only done proper releases for things like music and visual pieces). I have this so-called manuscript of about 120 pages where I periodically dump poems from the past couple months, and have been compiling and revisiting pieces there for four years. Realistically, it’ll never see the light of day.

I know the sketchbook will be easier on my heart to let go, and also want to take it somewhere else, figure out something more to do to it. Meanwhile, I’m getting increasingly sicker of gambling on jpgs--it’s time to shill my own. The pages get ran through the scanner.

“Front cover” and “Back cover” initiate that something more. It’s only after the covers sell that the 20 poem-sketch-pages on the inside get released. That is, the book must first be opened. When everything’s out, the physical chapbook will be available for shipping to anyone who holds both covers + one of the poems inside. The book includes poems and drawings that didn’t make it into the NFT collection (as it should).

I stumble onto this release plan and feel good about finding a way to put a value on my work; feel good about this exercise in bringing creative writing to “the space,” a practice which really is not a thing… yet. I feel even better about what this exercise forced me to do with work that I thought was finished.

The databending, small animations, and other edits that have gone into the expansion of these simple works have elucidated layers of meaning in the original sketches that would have remained hidden, had I not dragged myself down the path of undirected inquiry.

The trying of the knot (between physical and digital [and yes, trying]) has made the pieces more fit for digital marketplaces than I expected, and the underlying corruption of the scans--the sometimes beautiful, sometimes useless ruining--will be a continuous spring of themes, inspirations, metaphors to think about and apply, etc.

I’m not over the moon about every line written or drawn in RC01, but that’s just more drive to get it out there. It’s not only an exercise in making things with frequency, but in having the conviction to let it out, regardless of readiness. Not everything about everything will be right, or even good, and it’s no new wisdom that perfectionism brings things to impossibly slow speeds. I’m trying to get better at listening to when I think it looks good, and leave it at that.

“Back cover” has sold at auction. Just waiting for someone to scoop up the front, now…

Til then

I’m RC--Roman Casper, Roman, gmo human, rc wallfisch, roro, romie, whatever, really. I write poetry and essay and short screenplays. I make music, and short videos, and sculptures, and these new digital pieces that are basically databent scans of handwritten poems & sketches. I’m interested in how to take writing to new places (& get new people to enjoy reading), and have umbrella dreams about comfort in public spaces, education equity, and big, big images.

Mirror is a great tool for web3 creators, but I’d like to focus on it more as a web3 tool for (all) creators, if that inversion makes sense. I see so much stuff for web3-native people on here, so far. Articles about DeFi and smart contract innovations, market trend analysis, etc; I’ll be using Mirror in a way that (hopefully) isn’t bounded by that audience. Sharing general notes about what I’m working on, migrating poems and other texts over here just to have a place for them to be… things like that.

A lot of my new work is being made in the digital, and I’m preparing my first Foundation mints; I’m not saying that I’m coming to Mirror as someone from outside the web3 community. I just want to help widen the applications of all these novel tools and bring something new to the table. In my eyes, nobody has successfully brought poetry and NFTs together with integrity. There hasn’t been anything like a DAO that runs an IRL community garden. This is where my head is at.

I’ll be copying some stuff that’s already on my website (romancasper.nyc) over here in the next few days, including an essay or two, videos from my youtube, and some curated collections I’ve put together for the Arthur Art+Data platform. I hope you’ll stick around for the ride, the road building itself out in front.