Under Worlds: A Senior Explorations Amplified Piece by Daniel Kammerer (2014)

The prompt I'm responding to with this piece and in my writing is the quote by Vonnegut about standing close to the edge. The theme in my written piece as well as the book I read, Ready Player One, has to do with the ability of worlds that aren't real, such as those you explore in popular games, tv, and movies to inspire and instruct. The real challenge comes from finding balance, and making sure that you don't lose touch with what's important in the real world by spending too much time in virtual ones; getting as close to you can to the edge of experience before falling past the point of no return. I depict this in my piece by literally having worlds in the background, and a wise man with a stone tower on a floating island in the foreground. The wise man represents knowledge and character gained from life experience, which makes the tower his counter; a symbol of restriction, rigidity, and unconsciousness. Him being close to the edge of the floating island is a little literal, but hey, it looks cool.

The tower, island and world underneath it were made with acrylic paint on canvas. The old man is lined with a fountain pen and colored with colored pencil and Photoshop. (Everything was touched up in Photoshop after being scanned in.) The night sky, planets and words were all added in Photoshop. I ended up picking two fonts because their appearances suited their respective text and location. ''Because a life without escapism'' is in Octin Vintage, which I felt looked good carved in stone. The other font, Beauregard, is an ornate typeface I used for ''would be very boring,'' because the point of that line is that escapism makes life enjoyable. (And I guess I find ornate fonts enjoyable.)