Pyre Possibility Spaces
Heres my proof of concept...
In this little pocket of the internet, I want to let you in on something I’ve noticed about the true legacy of military invention. Fictional military design is all superficial in comparison, because fictional ideas aren’t tested under fire, they’re tested in carefully curated, imaginative spaces-- this is something we as creatives are aware.
Design in real life goes hand in hand with technological evolution. This is how design thrives—through pressure, through competition, through necessity. The real-world designers—gunsmiths, aerospace engineers, defense contractors—innovate not in comfort, but in crisis. That’s the meta. I’ve studied it. This is why while I love my artform, I don’t take it too seriously-- this is my basis behind the rule of cool.
The battlefield I’m entering isn’t literal—I want nothing to do with human suffering. The battlefield I’m entering conversely, isn’t metaphorical either—it’s literal, tangible, resin-cast. I enter as an underdog amongst giants in this battlefield, against large stakeholders and corporate entities full of archetypes like me. The same battlefield where Gundams, Transformers, and Armored Cores collide—on desktops, in printer beds, and across hobbyist tables worldwide.
One ought not be threatened from the values assigned to from the outside, and certainly one ought not be threatened by A.I such that they go into hiding. I’m not hiding from this crucible, and I’m not asking for permission of my contemporaries. I’m competing. Even if my competition has ten years, ten sponsors, or the most sophisticated AI tools behind them—I’ll still be here, with my hands, with my mind, with my pyres, which represent to me—in pure form, tools I create to resolve the question I have at the sight of contemporary mechs—How can I beat this, what would I make to beat this? Even if it’s an arbitrary robot that is fueled by Mushroom Resin in response to a soul-based energy source—its all arbitrary in fictional design.
Special thanks to my Dog Max for letting me reference his hind legs haha
My designs, although they’re influenced by global motifs from Japan, Europe, China, and beyond, they’re Rooted in the culture of the United States, and are designed not to conform but to confront.
Too often, Africa appears in genre fiction as a romanticized fantasy: ancient, --tribal--, “mystical.” It’s a backdrop. A costume. A setting, not a source. I don’t echo the forms of contemporary mechs like Armored Core, copy artists,
or riff on bird-legged anatomy—I create machines to compete with them. In form, in spirit, in purpose. It’s my overarching vision to reflect this through my work, always: I’m here to win.
War changes the meta. In the real world, war often becomes a race to the bottom: speed over quality, quantity over soul. But in the abstract world, it becomes something different to me— its a race to the essential.
. When everything superficial burns away; A.I and pedigree, only the truest forms survive. I’ve created my Pyres to not just to rival what came before, but to reveal what lies beneath it.
show that the continent of my birth—the United States—was home to countless designers who carved a path apart from the sanctioned lineage of the “establishment.” Let it remember that one of them was a Black man, a veteran, a father, and a builder of Pyres
The lessons my kid inherit from what I build in front of them is that you can create anything so long as you put your mind to it and translate it to reality, but be careful because within human potential lays risks too.