Less is Moore: Lord Dumpling

Facing and embracing obscurity is a phenomenon that is capturing the nation by storm. Over the last few years this trend has been recognized and spoken on and is being recognized as more than just a trend but instead an actual movement (spoken of in the article from The Atlantic: Twee Revolution).

This growing trend is indicated by the increasing popularity of films by Wes Anderson, of music by unknown shoe-gaze bands, and of hole-in-the-wall foodie paradises. Everyone wants to be obscure: different and misunderstood just enough to be seen as their own person. People are constantly branding themselves in different ways- especially with the amount of social media that we use in our daily lives- and people taking place in this new movement typically seek out the dark corners of the internet for facts, pictures, videos, or unknown anythings to share on their own sites. This has led to more creative and obscure advertisements in any form of media, and doing new, "undiscovered" things has earned more popularity and acclaim than in the past. As an example I will tell you a story from my own life:

A google search I recently executed led me down an interesting path of internet news and articles. After about thirty minutes of clicking from link to link I stumbled upon an article that inspired me to ask- Why? That article was a Wikipedia page about North Dumpling Island- I clicked on it because I thought to myself: "Why is a territory located off the coast of Connecticut coming up in a Google search for obscurity?" After reading it, I began to investigate into the source of this micro-nation. I began reading articles about the ruler of the "Kingdom of North Dumpling," an American entrepreneur and inventor from New Hampshire: Dean Kamen. He is most famously known for his inventing of the Segway scooter. Dean Kamen and his combination of silliness and intelligence has created an obscure being. Personally I was interested and entertained by his embrace of obscurity in his founding of his Kingdom. That caused me to seek out more micro-nations and eventually look into the rules and regulations of creating a micro-nation. I am slowly embracing this new concept and seeking out the irregularities and hilarities of obscurity in my own lifestyle through the use of many forms of social media and digital media scrounging.