Formen: The City of Forms - Travelogue

Formen: The City of Forms – Travelogue

As you stumble through a crowd of sharp jagged branches stemming from the gigantic spruce trees that loom over you, you slowly pull back one of the branches to reveal what looks to be a kaleidoscope of colours that reach high above you, away from the land it was formed from, filling the entire clearing within the woodland area.

As you stagger down the grassy landscape slowly swaying from side to side, you tilt your head in awe to marvel at the city towering before you, blocking the harsh rays of the sun with its engulfing shadow.

The shadow casts gargantuan geometric shapes around you, creating a sort of movement within itself, with all the different forms. The shadow is made up of a multitude of unusual sculpted elements, that seem to have been shaped and created by the inhabitants.

The vegetation found within the city has been freshly cut into what you can distinctly make out to be human profiles from different angles, which seem to point you in different directions around the primary coloured city.

However, the main feature that captures your interest is the tall skyscraper found within the city. It’s highly reflective surface reflects your face, displaying it back to you with a radiant red glow. As you follow the building’s smooth circumference, you realise there is a spiral staircase leading up to the entrance of the structure.

You make your way up the staircase noting the interesting architecture surrounding the building. Each sector is made up of unique geometric shapes, some being much smoother and rounded, while others remain pointed and rigid. Each accommodates young budding artists that have retreated to the city to pursue their dreams of becoming a full-time architect. You also take note of the additional scaffolding adjacent to some of the unfinished sculpted buildings that are in the process of being formed and brought to life. However, just by taking a glimpse at the individual creations, it is not impossible to seek for the true potential of what the piece could one day become.

Gradually you make your way to the top of the spiral staircase and enter to discover that the building is covered in a vast amount of wall mosaics that lead your eye to new destinations, including a workshop area filled with sculptors designing their creations. You investigate by weaving in, out and around their works to marvel at the intricate detailing.

On the other side of the building stands a long stair case leading up further and further to the higher levels of the structure, they form a path that leads you to the top floor.

Your head emerges as you reach the end of the stairs, standing in awe until your curiosity takes over, and you begin to elaborately search around the unexplored space. You find designs scattered around the place, along with a lone desk, also holding piles of designs.

You take caution as you head towards the sun lit desk. The curved window behind the desk reveals a whole new perspective of the city below. From this angle you can spot all the different elements you had not seen before.

Looking closely, you can see little dots scurrying around the city, some situated on the ground taking photographs in front of buildings, making their way around the city by entering and exiting diversely shaped buildings containing a multitude of different essentials, such as the supply’s for creating your sculptures. As well as the tools you may need in order to combine, stretch, distort or cut your foundation to support your designs.

While others remain in the air crafting the beginning forms of their building, while being submerged within layers upon layers of scaffolding, making it almost impossible for you to recognise the different aspects of what they are generating from their imagination.

In the far distance you can also see a collective group of people that seem to be heading back towards the city from the outlandish natural surroundings that contrast to the organic city, both in terms of colour and atmosphere. Each individual is seen to be carrying different materials and cameras, and then being to disperse into smaller groups delivering each material to its associated building.

Upon exiting the building, you feel a gust of wind rush through the city, sending the leaves from the trees surrounding the city into a mighty uproar of sound, as they rustle to the breezes’ harmonic whispers. The faint sound of chattering is also found within the mix of audio emulating from the city. You can hear the sharing of ideas spread like wildfire, as you engage in conversations with the locals about their newest build. The locals explain the foundation of the city, and how it first began.

 “The city first started life due to the founders that first discovered this open land filled with exciting new possibilities. Young and bright, the founder’s eyes were beaming with the hopes of creating something new.  They came together to form a society in which everyone could share their creative thinking and processes to create the foundation of the city, out of various materials located around the area, everything was repurposed into something new, and as the city evolved so did the people. As years went by new groups of people inhabited the city, learning new techniques and developing their sculpting and creative abilities, that would then go on to change the form of the city, for the next generation to work and gather inspiration from. This has happened for generations to form the vibrant city of colours that you see today, filled with new and exciting forms that shape this creative community.”

As night falls, you stand back to watch the primary coloured illuminations burst from around the city, as all lights are switched on as if by magic. The lights illuminate the streets, spotlighting all the attention towards the main city skyscraper, portraying a beacon of light radiating its glow onto the rest of the formed buildings, connecting them together to create one form.