Was THIS the Point Of It All???
1000 days of running (and panting, and swearing, and crying, screaming, growing old, dying, trans-migrating, coming back to life and then dying again and again, and farting about), and all it comes down to are these blue-cloth-bound-pieces of papers with 70,000 words and hundreds of pictures and a 15-minute film.
*INSET: the trans-running ambassador in a blurryflurry running to deliver said blocks of paper to her Examiners.
**It’s too premature for a tears-and-snort-wiping thank you speech (we may well get slaughtered and shredded to smithereens on viva day), but soon to come: a preliminary 42km-long list of THANK YOUs to those of you who have run with me.
***SAVE THE DATE (but don’t take my word yet! it’s tbc): Wednesday 4 September 2013, 6-8pm: A private-THANK-YOU-do-cum-new-film-premiere-screening for those of you who have been my supportive co-runner (I will old-fashionedly email you. If you don’t get that email, grab me, for I may have forgotten) (or it might mean that you are not invited…) (hoho) (no offense) (really)
Dear Apple or Google or Blackberry
Hey. I would like to sell you an idea for a game.
In this app which you access via your smart mobile device free-of-charge, you play ‘Kaidie’, a ‘trans-runner’, who is on a ‘Quixotic Quest for A/The Point of Life’. You are given a time-frame of ‘1000 Days’, and you proceed via running, both physically ‘Off-Line’ or in ‘Meatspace’, as well as metaphorically, ‘On-Line’. In other words, this is a blended-reality game.
Along the way, you have to run into as many new experiences as possible, including ‘Hits and Misses’. You must also meet new runners both online and offline, who are in effect other players of the game. You can join forces and become their ‘Co-Runner’, ‘Coach’ or ‘Pacer’, or you can thwart their efforts by ‘Running Them Down’ or ‘Running Against Them’. What I am saying is that you have to be an ‘Active Agent’. ‘Bystanders’ or ‘Spectators’ are not allowed. When the going gets tough, you can press the ‘Kill Zombies’, ‘Kill Time’ functions, or re-load ‘Sisu’, ‘Long Range Vision’, ‘Daoist Sage’s Special Home-Brew Wine’ or the ‘Tarahumara’s Special Home-Brew Beer’ . However, there is no ‘Home’ to return to, and you are required to be ‘On The Run’. After having completed more than 700 days of running, you may get lucky and be rewarded a bonus function, called ‘Runner’s High’. If you are unlucky, you may meet with ‘Premature Death’. You may get ‘Run Over by a Car’.
You can even ‘Go Back In Time’ to see how the forerunner of the game, Kaidie’s 1000-Day Trans-Run 12.12.2009 – 09.09.2012 was born. That was in the year 2006 in Finland, the same country that gave birth to some of the main players of the Digital World, Nokia and Angry Birds itself. You can find out how it was while I was on an artist-in-residency programme on the island of Suomenlinna in my ‘Proverbial Pascal’s Room’ that my imagination ran riot, and devised Kaidie’s Trans-Run as a playful means for me to set foot in the internet world. That is to say, the creation of a playful, game-like artwork eradicated my anxiety about the social media world, and enabled me to fully participate, explore and transform the new world, first hand, feet first.
For users of the Premium version of the game, you are able to ‘mod’, or modify, the game, and add your own variations to the game’s basic narrative. After all, the game is already convoluted and ambiguous enough to start with. We can even collate all the variations of the game into a the wiki – which can itself be a game.
There is one last thing to point out. For all versions, there is not one, but ‘10,000 Out-Comes’. And, whichever way you go, the primary essence – or catch – of the game, is that there are No Points awarded, nor any prizes or rewards. I wouldn’t bet on you finding ‘A/The Point of Life’ either. So, your game is truly point-less. There’s no end to your game, except your death on 09.09.2012. Perhaps, then, the point of your life is to reach your ‘End-Point’, or ‘End-Game’, of death.
All that said, death, and life, are an elastic concepts. This is, after all, a game. Your game. So, instead of dying, you may face ‘Transition’, ‘Transmigration’ or even ‘Transcendence’ (whatever the hell that might be).
That’s all folks. For now. Well, that’s not all since I’ve bagloads of tricks so do give us a call. Yours, Truly, Kaidie
How trans-running was Kaidie’s playful way to subvert the male gaze
Kaidie's Unbound Chinese Feet
My Destiny Is In My Own Feet!
