FANTASY ⎜ REALITY ⎜ IDENTITY

artwork by Andreas Lie

We are offered access to different kinds of worlds through numerous mediums like books, 

films and music. When our minds truly let go and we are completely immersed with that 

world that has invited us in, it's almost as if just for that moment, we are somewhere 

completely else.

Some might say, that what you would like to call fantasy or fiction is just a 

form of escapism. I, on the contrary, think it's an extension of the wonderful ability 

we have called imagination. Any forms of art is merely a platform to channel and 

visualize and share what's going on in our minds, - our thoughts and our imagination. 

It's like a cultural community. What we think, feel and see in our minds might say 

more about us as a person than what we can talk about and describe with mere 

words. It's all a part of what shapes our sense of identity.

"my head is a hive of words that won't settle" 
- Virginia Wolf

Being able to experience and immerse ourselves with different kinds of art forms, 

I believe it's more like an exploration of different ways of seeing reality. We all 

perceive and look at the world and people around us in our own way wether we're 

aware of it or not. So it's like a little peak into another persons mind, how they 

see and sense the world, through their eyes. This makes films, books and music a 

wonderful collective thing. Like a collective consciousness, where we learn to 

understand different outlooks on life, different thoughts and perspectives. All 

this is channelled through our imagination. It's a another way of communicating 

and connecting with people. 

artwork by Jiwoon Pak


Sometimes I've been wondering why I have a hard time communicating with 

new people, communicating my ideas that represent me and just giving them 

a slightest sense of who I am. But it's hard to communicate cause I'm being 

observed through a different lens.

We are talking
but no one is listening

where are all the people

no one is at my frequency

where are they - where am I?

You look

but what you see
is a reflection of yourself

you hear

but all you listen to 

is the echo of yourself

With this it's easy to feel disconnected with the world. You learn that no one 

can know you like you do. But still there is this urge within to share yourself 

with someone, even though you can still be independently happy.

"What does it mean, the right man?

The love of your life? The concept is absurd. 
The idea that we can only be complete with 

another person is evil."
- Before Sunrise, (1995) 

Back to the collective consciousness, this might be where you can share 

and discover feelings and thoughts you have in common with other people.

For instance, when you can relate to something on a personal level in for 

example a movie, or there is something about the music in the film that 

resonates within you, if that other person shared a similar feeling, it occurs

a mutual understanding on some level. It could be a good foundation or 

starting point for getting to know one another. Or if you shared your own 

imaginative work, wether it's a piece of poetry, drawing or a photograph. 

Regardless of its content, it's one small piece of yourself that you offer. 

In that sense it could be an alternative way of communicating, connecting 

with another person.

Or to share both of your individual views on a film, artwork or music 

piece, could reveal a lot about your personalities. What a person choose to 

see, tells a whole lot about them, doesn't it?
This approach might be a good starting point;

"My perception of reality is different from yours,

but can we meet on the crossroad of our different 

worlds and exchange some thoughts?"

artwork by Yumi Sakugawa

Our imagination says something profound about of our sense of identity.

We can connect with other people through so many things. There's no limits; 

To listen, to feel, to touch, to know, to share, to write, to trust, by eye contact, 

by a moment of silence, by sharing memories and the list goes on...

Fiction and fantasy might be just as much part of reality, as the "reality" we 

have been taught to see. Reality is defined by the very person that perceives 

the world and life through his own senses, his own pair of eyes, his own mind.

I love this little quote from the film

Alice Through The Looking Glass:

"Alice: But a dream is not reality. 
Mad Hatter: But who is to say which is which" 

It's like we always look for terms and definitions of things that is nothing else 

than a restriction. When we have such abilities as our own imagination, 

why would we try to limit it?

"If the dream is a translation of waking life,
waking life is also a translation of the dream"
- Rene Magritte