Everlandia

Following a line of research I came across Everlandia today (at the ICA, I think). http://www.everlandia.net/ "Everlandia is a journey of a special/personal kind. It playfully confronts an individual with their fantasies, needs and desires. It challenges the imagination to pick and compose from those landscapes, plants and animals, which most accurate express the image of the individual's dreamland. Their Everlandia. The invented land remains the property of its creator and is saved on the web page. The visitor will be able to send it from the gallery as a postcard and of course keep it in their heart."

What is striking when you look at the actual products is how the construct actually limits rather than challenges the imagination of the user. In the end it is more the idea that you could fantasise about your ideal landscape rather than create it through this project. As you will find if you have a go, you have a limited number of landscapes, most of which I for one would only want to see through the window of a plane to somewhere more interesting. In addition paradise would only seem to be populated by gorillas, foxes, penquins and foxes, with the only food being pineapples. Everlandia is a project to create your own stereotype, while Paradise for me would be a cross between Berlin, Venice, Manchester, etc. People, noise, excitement, food, culture.