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

One sentence ritual - Coffee Fortune Telling Ritual

The (Turkish/Greek) Coffee Fortune Telling Ritual. We sit in a circle while the coffee is being slowly prepared from the ancient Stove priestess who is placed in the middle. When it is done, we serve the coffee to the participants in the special coffee cups. We drink our coffees while gossiping and eating cookies. When everybody is done, we swirl the cup counter-clockwise 3 times and  turn the coffee cup upside down over the cup's saucer. We wait patiently 5 minutes for the Fortune to be prepared. Everybody has to tell the Fortune of the person sitting at the left side by reading the coffee grounds until the circle is done.

Notes on Wedding Rituals

the scenery

the bride enters the church covered by a white veil (sign of purity) accompanied by a male, usually the father or brother and 2 young children

the rings

the share of wine

monumental architecture (not only building but bodies architecture , the :shape” of the ceremony is kind of symmetrical the priest at a highest level the couple (always heterosexual)

community is the witness, the eye

wreaths

the witnesses maid of honor

the community watching towards the holy ceremony

the bouquet thrown by the bride to the unmarried women

the circular dance around the holy book

the couple walks on a red carpet in the middle of the room and exits the church

community throws rice (the couple has to be fertile and make kids)

“May you increase in number, multiply and become rulers of the earth"

O God the Holy One, You who created man (Adam) from dust and created a woman (Ewa) from his side and joined her to him as his helper like him, because it pleased Your Majesty, that is, that man should not be alone on earth. You yourself, O Lord, stretch out your hand from your holy dwelling place30 and connect* your servant and your handmaid, for you are the one who unites the woman with the man31. Marry them in unity; crown them with love; unite them so that they may be one flesh; give them fertility and fruitfulness, (give them) to enjoy good and many children. For thine is the power, and thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and unto ages without end.

The always male priest adresses the wishes to the groom.

Brethren, give thanks always for all things to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submit yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church, and he is the Saviour of the body (the Church). But just as the Church is subject to Christ, so also wives are to be subject to their husbands in everything36. Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by holy baptism with the word of consecration that accompanies it, and then set her at his side as a bride in attendance on the Church, without spot or any such thing, but that she might be holy and immutable. Thus ought men to love their wives as their own bodies; he that loved his wife loved himself; for no man ever hath loved his flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as the Lord did the Church; for we are men, who are the Church, members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones; therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (one body). The mystery of this is of great importance and I liken (parallel) it to the bond that Christ has with the Church. But apart from this, you who are married, let each one individually love his wife as he loves himself, and let the wife respect her husband.

The highlight moment – the wreath moment

The servant of God (this one) shall circumcise the servant of God (that one)...". Each time at the end of this act he crucifies with the crowns the whole body of the bridegroom. He then does the same to the bride, saying. Then he puts the crowns on their heads, blesses them and chants three times: 'Lord, the God of glory and honor, crown them...'.

there is a distribution of roles

there are rules

limited in time and space

Fiction Friction - story telling game with Irmak

Fiction Friction cards are prepared by two wonderers who spent a fair amount of time thinking about the healing and joining factors of Tarot culture. This approach can be seen as a way to create a ritual or a (personal) journey into a collective representation. The cards in a way carry our identities,  individual pasts, collective memory moments and personal experience/frictions that in a way formed us. We aim to reclaim these tarot cards and have the cards defined by the players' own unique interpretation, so everyone can be their own fortune teller. We are keen to see how similiar or completely different experiences can be shared and learned through this round of excercise. We also see this as an opportunity to meet new friends and talk about things that we aren't comfortable talking about in a regular environment. We perceive this small game/tool as a possibility to write together, meet, connect, share,  interprete or even conflict. The card is a starting point interface for an opening, for a promising healing, for a collective moment . in an era where almost everything became a solitary experience, we believe that collective approaches carry the chance of resulting in less isolation.

Fiction Friction is a tool for (hyper)textual conversations on(via) abstract/symbolic/surrealistic collage cards.  We based our approach on  political events that we have experienced or have been part ofour collective memories, mythological figures from our cultures, collective memory moments, literature that has inspired us, musical references as well as individuals. The main components of the game are a deck of illustrated cards, a dice with different methods (each surface of the dice depicts a method to interpret the card; for example through drawing, haiku, music/song, keywords, text) , an empty deck to host the interpretations of the potential stories by the players.

the instructions

The fiction friction game/tool consists of a deck of collage illustrated cards that the players can use in three possible ways. Of course you can come up with new ways!

In the end of the round a collective meaning&story is applied to the illustrated cards at each round. In a way you are creating your own tarot readings. Collectively reclaiming the cards.

INSTRUCTIONS

• One player picks a card from the illustrated card deck and another player takes a question card. They reveal the cards in the middle. The card is the starting point of a collective story.
• Everyone takes an empty card.
• In turns, players write their own interpretation of the card, having in mind the revealed question card that works as a navigator for the story. There is the possibility to use the dice in the process to specify the method that a player should use to “write”.
• At the end of the round, a small story will be created out of the interpretations of each player.
• The player who picked the illustrated card, reads or shows the story to the other players as a part of the game ritual.
  

QUESTIONS

• Where would a witch hide in here?

• Who are the witch's enemies in here?

• What kind of tools/weapons/creatures would a witch use in here?

• What would a witch destroy here?

• Can you describe a witch ritual here?

• How would a witch's shelter look like here?

• If you had a witch friend, what would you do together in here?

• Think of a background song that would go well in this case, what is the song about or what are the lyrics?

• Narrate the witch's dream here.

• What is the first thing a witch would explore on this card?

DICE CODING FOR BRAVE PLAYERS

• PURPLE: write a sentence
• GREEN: write a haiku poem
• YELLOW: draw
• PINK: write a word

Working with the Introduction

The last trimester was an attempt to understand the notions of games and rituals. Instead of introduction we will try to unravel this mysterious journey as well as keep questioning and collaging.

We mapped the common characteristics and the differences between the latter in relation to ideology and counter-hegemony. We practiced, performed, annotated rituals that were connected (or not) with our cultural backgrounds while we questioned the magic circle. We dived into the worlds of text adventure games and clicking games while drinking coffee and talked about class, base, superstructure, (counter)hegemony, ideology, materialism. We discussed about how games and rituals can function as reproductive technologies of the culture industries. We annotated games- focusing on the role of ideology and social reproduction. We reinterpreted bits of the world and created stories with it (modding, fiction, narrative) while focusing on community, interaction, relationships, grief and healing.

The eventual product of this process is a console, a magical object, a wooden container, a promising healing. How the unpacking of notions of games, rituals, ideology, superstructure in relation to the witch-hunting can become the midwifery of a healing box? How practices of heal and care can work as counter-hegemonic acts that can cure and liberate our souls and bodies from patriarchical and capitalistic fetters?

We didn’t manage to provide you with comprehensive and solid answers or conclusive statements. The truth is that this wasn’t our plan. Our intention was to create openings for debate or even conflict, to map a territory, to invite those who would like to join us.

“What if you are playing tetris and the tetris gods give you something apart from the usual seven tetrominoes, like an unexpected pregnancy or the end of capitalism?”, Stephen

Starting with rituals we can claim that they 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.

“Ritual is a means of performing the way things ought to be in conscious tension to the way things are in such a way that this ritualized perfection is recollected in the ordinary, uncontrolled, course of things. Ritual relies for its power on the fact that it is concerned with quite ordinary activities, that what it describes and displays is, in principle, possible for every occurrence of these acts. But it relies, as well, for its power on the fact that, in actuality, such possibilities cannot be realized. “

“Ideology talks of actions: I shall talk of actions inserted into practices. And I shall point out that these practices are governed by rituals in which these practices are inscribed, within the material existence of an ideological apparatus(...)Ideas have disappeared as such to the precise extend that it has emerged that their existence is inscribed in the actions of practices governed by rituals defined in the last instance by an ideological apparatus”

Similarly, videogames create worlds. Often, those worlds mirror our own, reproducing certain ideals and values as norms through their narrative, game play, design. This trimester we explored world-building characteristics found both in rituals and videogames. We critically considered 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 investigated the generative, creative possibilities of such characteristics.

“The main task of mass culture is to create, reproduce, and manage particular kinds of subjects — workers, consumers, individuals, citizens —required for current conditions. To perpetuate their own existence, mass media must succeed at representing the violent coercion of capitalist systems as natural laws: Of course you have to pay rent to live inside; of course you have to buy food to eat; of course you have to work if you want to survive. The production of a fungible, disposable and migratory working class requires the alienation and atomization of communities into individuals, which involves destroying the village, kinship structures, indigeneity, and many other previous forms of meaning-producing structures, leaving a gap which ideology must fill. While the fundamental structures of domination — racism, patriarchy, heterosexuality, etc. — form the bedrock of this ideological apparatus, the complexity of the always expanding and changing capitalist system requires an equally flexible set of subsidiary tools capable of rapidly adjusting ideology en masse. In general, media emerge not to meet the demands or desires of individual users but to accommodate what the predominant mode of production requires.”

Our intention was to look into 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 games and rituals as gateways to alternative ways of relating to Nature, each other and (re)production of life, labour, etc, we played together by writing fan fiction and spells, developing rituals, analysing and creating games together.

“Sims as just social reproduction: some values are certainly given by the game (make money to buy nicer things, progress in your career by doing tasks that improve your skill, charisma is a skill but not kindness) , but also ideology is put into the game by the player. The player chooses what to reproduce and often share in the "gallery" or on social media. Community being so important in this game then means that the crux of the social reproduction is happening when the choices you have made in the game are broadcasted. Did you create a heteronormative white thin nuclear family that made a lot of money? or did you choose to play differently?”, Ada

“The Communist Party of Second Life (CPSL) aims to be a Marxist, internationalist and revolutionary organization for all communists in Second Life. The CPSL aims to spread understanding of Marxism among SL citizens, to organise support in SL for the class struggle in RL, including all struggles of the working class against imperialism and the bourgeoisie, its state and wars.” “The act of the modder’s appropriation of the pre-existing game is also similar to Michel de Certeau’s cultural ‘poaching’.De Certeau’s everyday bricolors make do with remixing the privatized spaces and products of consumer society that they find themselves inhabiting and using. Rather than being passive consumers, ordinary people invent varied subversive tactics for stealing back the given of everyday life. De Certeau writes, ‘Everyday life invents itself by poaching in countless ways on the property of others’.

Meanwhile, we went through the witch as a magical practicioner, as a resisting body, a border figure. Federici presents the witch “as the embodiment of a world of female subjects that capitalism had to destroy: the heretic, the healer, the disobedient wife, the woman who dared to live alone, the obeha woman who poisoned the master’s food and inspired the slaves to revolt. Behind the witch hunt, she uncovers a joint effort by the Church and the state to establish mechanisms of gendered control of bodies that immanently resisted newly instituted regimes of productive and reproductive work. ”Similarly given by Deleuze and Guattari

“sorcerers have always held the anomalous position, at the edge of the fields or woods. They haunt the fringes. They are at the borderline of the village, or between villages.”But sorcerers not only exist at the border: as anomalous beings, they are the border itself. In other words, the borderline passes through their bodies.”

How the understanding of the witchs’ hunting that happened a few centuries ago in relation with the figure of the witch as marginal, rebellion entity can shed light on the contemporary witch-hunting. How this knowledge can provide us with tools of empowerment, emancipation, resistance and make us reimagine counter-hegemonic practices of collective care and healing?

Console is an oracle; an emotional first aid kit that helps you help yourself.

Console invites you to: open the box and discover ways of healing;

Console provides shelter for your dreams, memories and worries.

Face the past and encounter your fortune.

Console gives you a new vantage point; a set of rituals and practices that help you cope and care(of yourself and of the others)

Console asks everyday questions that give magical answers.

Console invites you to self reflect, explore your subconscious, spin the wheel of fortune (and pick a card), explore what is possible beyond what is obvious, guide you into... [the future and past], creates stories …

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The Console Book

Sixx-book

License is Burning

License is burning