micro cosmos note II

full moon, full micro cosmos
the micro cosmos reached completion. the final sequence went live on Friday. which happened to be the day of full moon. it is all up now, here: BluePrintReview Issue 24: micro cosmos. 19 pages. 27 contributors. thanks again to all contributors for sending their micro/cosmic texts and images. it was a pleasure to edit this issue.

micro cosmos note, part I + II
after the first sequences of the micro cosmos launched, i put a blog note together with some reflections, realizations, background information, links and quotes: micro cosmos note I.

now that the issue is complete, some additional notes:

sequence sorting & review
like the previous issue, the micro cosmos went live in sequences. new sequences always were added on top of the starting list. now that the issue is complete, the micro cosmos took its final step, and turned around, into its original sorting, starting with 'The Writer', and ending with 'Conversations between Kingdoms'
+ an interesting review on the theme of sequences in bluerpintreview is up here in Yes, Poetry: On Our Radar).

sorting
the sorting of the blueprintreview issue is based on various factors: text length (shorter stories first, longer stories later in the issue). another factor is title length, for the starting-page shape. also, there is the aim to create a vivid image combination throughout the issue. if the issue comes with poetry and prose, it usually is a mixed sorting of poem - prose - poem - etc.
beyond all those factors, it was fascinating to see how the sequences of this micro comsos issue shaped into smaller 'micro theme' circles inside the whole issue, how the texts and images clicked together, without knowledge of each other.

for example, the 3rd sequence: 3 stories, each picking up on another constellations in the social cosmos of society: 2 colleagues (March 2037), a woman + a man (Intentions), a father + child (Red Giant)

or the 5th sequence (consisting of "Turville Woods" / "Our Vernal Ties" / "The Rain Connaisseur") - this turned into a contemplation on the physical and natural world that surrounds us: the forest, the wild animals, the invisible line between civilization and wilderness, our vernal ties and connection to the season, and to the base elements of this world: stone, air, water.
.. and the rain. which also appears in the following sequence, in "cold / warm / lukewarm": "I will most likely cry right now. And it will be the warmest rain I've ever felt on my face."

the images
one idea for this issue was to ask contributors to accompany text submissions with an image submission, to shape a 'roundabout' of stories and images ("accepted stories will be combined with an image from another contributor & vice versa").
i didn't expect this to work out for the full issue, and it didn't, which is fine. but it lead to a wider variation of images, and to an interesting side effect: for 3 images, there are now notes on the process, developed through the work on the issue:
- meta-cosmos / Intentions
- Five / taxi thoughts
- circination / Conversation between Kingdomswhich lead to this comment from Steve Wing: "It is nice to have this added depth, I think. It is something special, to show not only the photo, but also a glimpse of its roots, of the seed it grew from."
and one more photo note, as i rejoice in notes these days: the 3 images are combined in the collage above.

next issue: two²
like i wrote in the first note, the micro cosmos issue had a second, unplanned underlying theme layer: figures+numbers. there were stories composed out of 3 sub-stories, and out of 5 sub-stories. there was a story tryptich. a 3-way mirror. a four radius. (more details on this, in the micro cosmos note I, second thought: "three, and 2, 4, 5, 6").
following up on this structural theme, the next issue of blueprintreview will have the theme "two²" - with 2 being the concept both in a formal, and in a thematic way. the call for submissions is online already: BluePrintReview #25: 'two²'.
(submissions open June 1, and close June 27.)

blueprintreview birthday
while the cosmos expanded, blueprinreview crossed its birthday. i hadn't been aware of that - it was the "happy birthday" notes in facebook that made me realize it. but how beautifully fitting, i thought. i now noted the date in the calendar: on 22nd May 2005, the first issue of blueprintreview went live. an overview of all issues is up in the blueprintreview issue archive. happy 5 year birthday, blueprintreview!