Songs of the Zhongzi

About the project:

Songs of the Zhongzi is a multimedia project featuring a series of books, song videos and illustrations.

The books cross many genres to draw the reader into strange situations, new sets of rules and a colourful kaleidoscope of strange creatures, all of which is fun. But at a deeper level they parody very human questions such as how to develop healthy communities, how to cater for a questing intelligence, how to deal with diverging ideologies and how to prevent boredom in a perfect society. Concepts such as identity, religion and purpose are explored in a fresh and very different context.

The videos are simple presentations of the songs in the book, created in a home studio on a home computer. They are not professional, but they seem to have developed their own following, outside of the readers of the books.

The illustrations, originally created to illustrate the song videos, took on their own life, and have been displayed in local galleries. Whole landscapes are created from microscope and electron microscope pictures of everything from the cells in our own bodies to bacteria and pollen. Out of these, lamps and installations have been created, that have been displayed in various venues.

You can read more about the concept and how the project developed in the author interview.