So 2012 rolls around at last. Bardo's work has been mostly invisible to the public eye during 2011, but this is about to change in a pretty big way for the latter parts of 2012. Without revealing too much I'd love to give you a brief rundown of some cool stuff we've been up to but not been able to tell you everything about. Yet.
The Artists. In October we built and populated a living story-universe for six major european broadcasters. The Artists looks to be matching "The Truth About Marika" in ambition and scale. 40 people, including some well-known EU actors took part in a Living Drama inspired by Nordic LARP traditions, but written and directed to approach social realism rather than over-the top drama. It also gave us a reason to collaborate with the awesome crew at Odyssé, the Bardo of Denmark, sort of. We are currently sifting through hundreds of hours of documentary film material from this parallell reality. Bear with us, in just a few months the first reports from this undiscovered country of participation will start to drip into the interwebs. It's all about what people are prepared to do for art and love, and how beautiful dreams can turn into nightmares, and back into dreams again.
Vampire: The Masquerade: 20th Anniversary edition. Our lifelong love-affair with CCP/White Wolf was finally consummated when I got to model for a full-color illustration by legendary comic book cover illustrator Tim Bradstreet. The book in question is a celebration of 20 years of counter-cultural roleplaying. Without The Masquerade there would be no True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Underworld or (pain) Twillight. I promise to dedicate a post in the future to the cultural importance of VTM, but for now just trust me that it's the granddaddy of all the hot bloodsuckers you love. Anyways, I'm now immortalized as the face of Eastern European Vampire-clan Tzimiche, specifically as the greatest immortal playboy in undead history; Vlad Tepes. Yes, Bela Lugosi is indeed dead! We also had the massive pleasure of portraying The Count and his entourage at the Live-Action Roleplaying events at The Grand Masquerade, where the tome was released. Massive shoutouts to the international
Camarilla all the crazy crews we hung out with. And to Shane DeFreest for making it all happen! This year it's time for Werewolf: The Apocalypse to get the anniversary treatment. Will we be there? You betcha!
Talks galore! There was a fair bit of touring as me and Adriana visited about 20 conferences, festivals, private educations and universities giving talks about the power of participation, giving advice on working with branded entertainment, building transmedia teams and generally destabilizing consensual reality in fun and profitable ways. We discovered we absolutely love this aspect of our work, so don't be shy and drop us a line if you want to feature passionate interaction-artists or transmedial thinkers at your event or education.
Guided by Ghosts. Radical ghost-stories was the subject of our very first pervasive games. In 2012 we are set to return to the land of the dead with a transmedia franchise for older children and families with a taste for brain-bending chills and thrills.
Monitorship Celestra. In early 2013, Bardo and a host of affiliated organizers take to the stars with a fully technologically supported Living Drama set on a retro-futuristic spaceship. Yes, the spiritual sucessor to Carolus Rex is finally becoming a reality!
Dreampark. There are no regular and commercially driven Living Drama / LARP games for children in Sweden. This will change pretty soon as Bardo writes the fiction for a bold new way to get kids into a form of fantasy gaming that will push their social skills, physical activity and love of stories in a way no computer will ever do.
Tempus Fugit and I prolly forget or keep a load of good stuff under wraps. Anyways, here's to 2012, the last year of the Tzolkin calendar and, hopefully, the year we realize our fate is to play the world into a joyous state of solidarity, hedonism and equality.
Ewige Blumenkraft!
/Martin Elricsson
