Harrison Chiu

For over a year now, I have been “world-building,” or in short, creating fictional worlds. I have always been interested in systems, ranging from the operations of cell organelles to human organ systems to social and physical systems. I conceptualize creating a world as a larger understanding of the system and its operations. Creating a realistic world involves time investment, basic content knowledge, and creative application of the knowledge. Through world-building, I’ve been able to learn and apply my knowledge of diverse topics not covered in my formal education ranging from ethnography to climate science. The inspiration for this project came from my passion for world-building, and the first mention of the “art world.” While the “art world” normally refers to a social sphere of influence, the social capital of artists and critics, or even just a network of a few privileged individuals, I wondered what an “art world” would look like. What would the norms and traditions be if it were actually a world? How would different styles and trends in “the art world” manifest: conflicts as wars, artists as leaders, schools of thought informing nation states? And what about the expanding nature of the art world, and the audience who is only more recently being included with modern art? This work-in-progress outlines a metaphysical fantasy exploration of “the art world,” where art itself is magic. After all, my conception of magic, inspired by fantasy readings, is simply “intention manifesting as reality.” There does not seem to be much difference from magicians conjuring spells to shape reality with a thought, or artists “manifest their intentions” via representations of form. I hope you enjoy.