Candles Tarot Joysticks

*.*.-* Candles, tarot & joysticks *-.*.*

Introduction

Rituals can be understood as instruments in the struggle for the exercise of power. Organized by repetition, they (re)connect the individual to the collective, creating a vision towards a given perception of society. Participation in this creative act is determined by several factors, for example, a ritual’s function, its relationship to hegemonic power, a collective’s politics and objectives, etc.
Similarly, videogames create worlds. Often, those worlds mirror our own, reproducing certain ideals and values as norms through their narrative, game play, design, etc. This trimester we will be exploring world-building characteristics found both in rituals and videogames. We will critically consider those worlds, identifying the key points and elements through which specific videogames and rituals circulate political, cultural and social values. While this world-building might be interpreted from an angle of implicit and explicit bias rooted in hegemonic values, we will mostly investigate the generative, creative possibilities of such characteristics.
We will be looking at rituals and their overlap with video games as a way to explore "forbidden" or otherwise lost knowledge erased by oppressive systems (e.g. witch hunts). Understanding (video) games and rituals as gateways to alternative ways of relating to Nature, each other and (re)production of life, labour, etc, we will play together by writing fanfiction and spells, developing rituals, analysing and creating games together. Candles, tarot cards and joysticks... ready, go!

Week 1

Monday, January 9th
With: Lídia, Artemis, Michael

Morning

• Kick-off Special Issue #20
• Round of introductions
• Conversation about rituals
• One sentence rituals pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/2023_onesentenceritualideas

Afternoon

• Read: 'The Bare Facts of Ritual' by Jonathan Z. Smith. In groups of 2, select one characteristic of ritual found in the text that you thought was particularly insightful, and justify your choice.

Assignment for next week:

• In preparation for our class next week, read and annotate File:Rules-of-play-defining-games.pdf of "Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals" by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman

Week 2

Monday, January 16th
With: Lídia and Artemis

Morning

• Recap about rituals
• Defining play and games based on annotations of the text

Afternoon

• In groups of 2, based on the material we have studied so far, prepare a list of characteristics games and rituals have in common

Assignment:

• In preparation for next week's session, please read and annotate the article Well Played by Vicky Osterweil: https://reallifemag.com/well-played/

Week 3

Monday, January 23th
With: Lídia and Artemis

Morning

• Games and rituals as reproductive technologies: the base-superstructure model, Adorno and Horkheimer's critique of the culture industries, Durkheim's definition of ritual

Afternoon:

• In groups of 2, read, annotate and/or map one of the following texts:
  • 'Notes on Deconstructing The Popular' by Stuart Hall
  • 'Political Ritual and Social Integration' by Steven Lukes
  • "Game Modding: Cross-Over Mutation and Unwelcome Gifts" from The Player’s Power to Change the Game by Anne-Marie Schleiner (File:Annemarie.pdf)

Further Reading:

• "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" from Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer
• "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory" by Raymond Williams
• "Encoding, Decoding" by Stuart Hall
• "Digital play: the interaction of technology, culture, and marketing" by Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Greig de Peuter

Assignment:

• Individually or in groups, select a game (boardgame, videogame, folk game, puzzle etc.) to play and play it. Read the ideology in these games: how is it present, both in terms of content, but also in terms of the mechanics, marketing, merchandising, etc?

Week 4

Monday, January 30th
With: Lídia and Artemis

Morning

• Brief history of witchcraft and the witch hunt

Afternoon

• Writing fan fictions of the games selected as last week's assignment

Week 5

Monday, February 6th
With: Lídia and Artemis

Morning

• Digestive morning: Crystallizing thoughts on the shared characteristics of rituals and videogames, ideology and counter-hegemony

Afternoon

• Individual tutorials for discussing first thoughts and ideas

Week 6

Monday, February 13th
With: Lídia and Artemis

• Production mode: engage

Morning

• Introduction to the oracle deck as a format

Afternoon

• Try out different oracle decks and think of how to mod them

Assignment:

• Go into the oracle deck groups and further work on your modding of the original materials in the way you find the most helpful.

Week 7

Monday, February 20th+

• Production mode - Study week

Week 8

Monday, February 27th+

• Spring Holiday

Week 9

Monday, March 6th
With: Lídia and Artemis

• Production mode: engage

Week 10

Monday, March 13th
With: Lídia and Artemis

• Production mode: engage

Week 11

Monday, March 20th
With: Lídia and Artemis

• Editorial and production support

Week 12

Monday, March 27th
With: Lídia and Artemis

• Editorial and production support

Friday, March 31st

• Launch at Page Not Found!