We’re celebrating a special language from our parallel universe by making cookie cutters and the first dictionary of these words.  But we need your help to do this.  Baking is one of those wonderful family and community activities that's been around for a long time for all linear humans. And these shape words are a lot of fun too!  Please join us on the journey of inviting folks to look at the world in new ways. 

For 17 years, we’ve been installing a parallel universe story (actually many interlocking stories) with the incredible support of communities around the world.  Many of you are already part of this community—and we thank you so much for that.  And we hope you will find this a happy extension of the project.  And, for those who are newer to these stories, we hope when you join us in this endeavor, you'll enjoy being part of this wonderful community.

For those that don't know all this yet—Kcymaerxthaere (pronounced "ky-MAER-icks-theer") is a parallel universe that coexists to a certain degree with our own—and it isn't virtual! It's also a global installation art project, with 142 storytelling sites that you can actually visit in 30 nations— so far! Each installation site honors events from the parallel world in our world. Most include written stories (in bronze, concrete and stone usually)—but it is not only what is written but where you experience reading the story (and, often, the forms that help tell it). Some installations are fairly elaborate—two are actually buildings, another is a couple hundred yards long.  This article does a great job of explaining it: A Bizarre Journey Beyond Earth’s Borders. To explore more of the details of Kcymaerxthaere, visit our homepage.

This year—which needless to say has been quite difficult and unique—we are trying something new here at KcyCentral. Due to those many widely-known constraints, installations are proceeding very slowly. But—we're embracing this time in a very sweet way: we are launching our very first limited edition Kcy Cookie Cutters!  We hope they will be fun for all . . . what's more, they also will introduce still more folks to shapes and forms of the language known as Beshwa Nyelvate.  This takes us towards a much larger goal (and preparing for our grandest project to date, which we'll elaborate on momentarily).

The process towards that goal (making Kcy cookie cutters and sharing them with you!) and the end-goal itself are two sides of the same coin: celebrating the Nyelvate shape language. We hope to share that joy with our community and beyond—and spread it through the shared love of baking.

But wait—what is "Nyelvate"? And what are shapewords?

The Nyelvate language, often referred to as a shape language, requires that the speaker create shapes (words) that have 12 to 16 dimensions at once (through a process called psycheforming; so instead of uttering syllables verbally, words are created through the manifestation of physical shapes with one's own mind). Since not every rezhn has the same dimensions, a pidgin Nyelvate has developed usually requiring only 2 - 5 dimensions. This dialect is known as Beshwa Nyelvate. The cookies you make with your exclusive Kcymaerxthaere cookie cutters are a delectable sub-dialect of their own!

So what is our end-goal? 

Two-Fold:

First: We want you to have fun with the Cookie Cutters and make your own messages (and post your favorites)!  And if you are a collector?  We want you to have one of the only Limited Edition Cookie Cutters we've ever heard of.  It is limited by time--the first edition of these shapes stops being made around February 14, 2021.  

Second: We want publish a dictionary of over 400 Nyelvate shapewords—and creating this extensive publication necessitates your help. 2021 is when the Nyelvate language takes a larger role in the stories than ever before, and we want to have that dictionary done in time for the installation of The Great Tenderness in the Northern Atlantic (spanning about 1,200 miles—see the map below).  There is also trekking between shapeword-based installations in Nepal (see one that already exists there: Strands of Thought, in Solukhumbu). 

The beginnings of The Great Tenderness have already begun to take shape (pun intended!) with an introductory marker placed in Madeira, Portugal: Where Tenderness Began (Origem da Ternura). However, installation of the seven-pointed constellation spanning from Lisbon to the Azores to the deep seas of the Northern Atlantic has yet to begin. 

What We Need & What You Get

SO, what we need is your help bringing these words out into the world--in both edible and readable form.  If we meet our goal, we'll be able to publish our Nyelvate Shape Language dictionary by next Summer.

What you get: In the end, of course you get what we think are pretty nifty perks.  But even if you don't order the book as a perk,  by supporting our campaign at any level, you too will have your name included in the credits section of the BPDBN (The Baker-Physicist's Dictionary of Beshwa Nyelvate--and receive one (if you choose that kind of perk)! 

We’ll also distribute this book across the globe to the Kcymaerxthaere host communities that have made many of the physical installations happen.

That's because it is part of the spirit of the project to enrich the connective tissue between our various communities.  And while our website can be part of such enjoyment, something more tactile like a book in each community is critical (and, besides, not everyone has fast internet!)

What we are offering you is a chance to make some very eloquent cookies during the end of year holidays and, if you choose, to get your own copy of the first edition, signed (and further ornamented a bit for this campaign) by the author.  And, as we said before, you will be acknowledged by name for your support.  You'll have a personalized first edition of the first book to let you really explore this evocative language from the parallel world.

Risks & Challenges

The risks are the risks of the world today--disruption of the pandemic, the vulnerability of anyone to COVID-19, fragility in general.  Such things could stop the campaign or fulfillment in its tracks.

Within that framework, however, we have developed a good team for the Cookie Cutters and fulfillment, so we are confident the orders will be fulfilled. The Cookie Cutter maker does an excellent job with the shapes.  As for the book, we have already gathered the data and have a skilled printer that we have worked with before.  If the campaign only sells a small number of books, we will digitally print whatever books are required to fulfill our obligations (and those will be super rare!).

Also: the Cookie Cutters are not for Children under 3 and should be used with Adult Supervision.

Other Ways You Can Help

If this is not a good time to contribute to our campaign, please help us reach others by sharing our Indiegogo link with friends or using IndieGoGo share tools to help us spread the word on your social media and blog platforms! Every bit counts and helps us as we try to reach our goal!  

But most of all tell people what we are doing!