Introduction

This Special Issue has been an attempt to understand the notions of games and rituals. Instead of an 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 games and rituals 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 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 from it (modding, fiction, narrative) with a focus on community, interaction, relationships, grief and healing.

The eventual outcome of this process is a console, a magical object, a wooden container, a promise of healing. How can the unpacking of games, rituals, ideology and superstructure in relation to witch hunting become the midwiferies of a healing box? How can practices of healing and care 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 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 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: 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.” (Smith,1980)

“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.” (Althusser,1970)

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.” (Osterweil,2018)

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 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.” (Lídia)

“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.’” (Schleiner,2017)

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.” (Timofeeva, 2019)

“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.” (Deleuze, Guattari,1980)

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

title: Documentation of Monday Morning Rituals author: Cara

Documentation of Monday Morning Rituals

*** For 8 weeks, students from XPUB prepared a ritual to perform at the top of Monday morning class. We explored cultural rituals such as the birthday cake and coffee-ground reading, but also more personal rituals such as ‘going to sleep’ rituals, a personal hard-drive purification, and the creation of worry-dolls.***

Week 1, January 9th 2023: Tea and Cookies

Performed by… Artemis and Lídia

Artemis and Lídia introduced us to Monday Morning Rituals on the first cold, dark, wintery Monday morning. We shared cookies with tea as a way to open up the semester and get to know each other. The ritual of a hot drink and cookies is well-known around the world as a moment of gathering, peace, gossip, and self-care.

Week 2, January 16th 2023: Coffee Fortune-Telling

Performed by… Aglaia

For Aglaia’s ritual, we sat in a circle while the coffee was being prepared by the ancient Stove priestess who was placed in the middle. When it was done, it was served to the participants in special coffee cups. We drank our coffee while gossiping and eating cookies. When everybody was done, we swirled the cup counter-clockwise 3 times and turned the coffee cup upside down over the cup’s saucer. We waited patiently for 5 minutes for the fortune to be prepared. Everybody had to tell the Fortune of the person sitting on their left side by reading the coffee grounds until the circle was done.

Week 3, January 23rd 2023 Hard Drive Purification

Performed by… Stephen

Stephen prepared a few zines with instructions to conduct a ceremonial cleansing of not only our browser history and cookies but also our trash cans/recycle bins. All operating systems were welcome. The zine was a reminder to ‘clean’ messy space up (for yourself) and was written in such a way that instructed us to recite sentences at the same time, with one person leading the group – a play on the magic circle.

Week 4, January 30th 2023: Birthday Cake

Performed by… Boyana

To celebrate Agalaia’s birthday, Boyana baked a cake and Ada made jellies. We sat in a circle, gathering around the cake. The person who had their birthday most recently sliced the cake, and we took turns to wish them our blessings. After going through a round, we ate together.

Week 5, February 6th 2023: Special Issue Prediction Ritual (SIPR)

Performed by… Ada

For Ada’s ritual, Ada brought in a deck of tarot cards to read the fortune of the Special Issue you are holding in your hands right now.

Her text made us laugh, and we have chosen to include it in full:

“The priestess Ada will start the ritual by playing the ceremonial music on the sacred Spotify. Candles shall be turned on. Then three human sacrifices will be selected amongst the group through a collective decision. The three sacrificial people will then select three cards from either of the two decks given by the priestess. While they do so, they must think of the special issue. The priestess will then interpret the cards and together we shall rejoice in having found out our Special Issue’s future.”

Week 6, February 13th 2023: Guided Meditation (A Nighttime Ritual)

Performed by… Cara

Cara’s ritual is related to her history of having a hard time falling asleep at night. Over the years, she has found that music - especially quiet music with the sound of nature (field recordings) – really helps her fall asleep. She DJs outside of class and plays a lot of ambient, narrative DJ sets. For her ritual, she played a sound piece she had made of field recordings around Rotterdam (the sound of water lapping against a water taxi, the sound of wind, the sound of rain) and read out a poem about sleeplessness from a collection of literature about the Night. The ritual was meant to lull everyone to a moment of peace.

Week 7, February 20th 2023: Worry Dolls

Performed by… Irmak

Irmak’s ritual was about how to ease our worries. We wrote down our worries on a pink piece of paper and shared them with a handmade doll that Irmak brought. These dolls are called Worry dolls (also called trouble dolls; in Spanish, Muñeca quitapena) and originate from Guatemala. There is one in each box of our special issue.

:::::{#gossip .has-images}

Some Gossip on gossip and what coffee has to do with it.

Godsipp (God and sib (akin), godmother or godfather) was in the 12th century a word used for both men and women in fables and amongst society. The church recognized the word as well. It was used to name companions present at childbirth, just like the midwife. Sometimes, it was used to mention close friends. It represented the strong ties between women, which surpassed their relationship with their husbands. Was it witchery that strong and independent women preferred their gossip over their husbands? Well, that is something that hasn’t changed since the middle ages. 

“Godsipp” began its journey with nothing but good and emotionally strong connotations. Women bloomed and blossomed among each other and were autonomous in their existence. Men were never a part of this party women were throwing. By the 16th century, as things began to change, the traditional meaning lingered on. In 1602, the word was still used to signify female friendships. This can be seen in Samuel Rowlands’s Tis Merrie When Gossips Meete, a satirical piece describing three London women spending hours in a tavern talking about men and marriages. It implied that ‘women could create their social networks and their own social space’ and stand up to male authority(Federici, 2019). Solidarity and friendship amongst women were demeaned and female-exclusive parties were banned; women who met in public were identified as “witches” and women’s first duty was now to be obedient and quiet. The talk about husbands at taverns was too hurtful for the sensitive male ego that public, church and the law, forbid women to engage in “idle talk”. Centuries past, the sensitive male ego remains but now is attacking to mutilate women from many resources including cyberbullying, mobbing at the workspace and many more that tie to act violently in any sort. 

Wives who were seen as “scolds” and “witches” were forced under sadistic torture with a “scold bridle”. Looking back from today, I can’t help but see these sadistic, desperate acts as a meek scream of how men couldn’t get even close to satisfying women physically or mentally. If they spent some time working on female anatomy rather than these horrifying torture methods, we would be living in a different world today… 

Here is an excerpt from a song which portrays women in a tavern. These words on ale and wine are an ancient remedy for us to consider today when we are out drinking with our “gossips”:

“In a 1630s song, Fowre wittie gossips disposed to be merry, a group of married women in a tavern debate the merits of ale and wine in relation to cost and value. They conclude, ‘If our opinions do not faile: / a quart twelve cups [of wine] containeth, / Its cheaper then a dozen of ale, / where froth and snuffes remaineth’. (‘Snuffes’ was the ‘backwash’ left when, as was common, multiple people drank from a single vessel.) The wives also point out that the after-effects of drinking sack (a Spanish white wine) are much less injurious than those of drinking too much ale. In consequence, they will not suffer hangovers from drinking all night, as all their husbands are. (McShane, 2016)” 

It was in this context that ‘gossip’ turned from a word of friendship and affection into a word of denigration and ridicule(Federici, 2019).

So what does coffee have to do with it?

Fortune telling over coffee stretches back to the 16th century when the beans made it to the Middle East and Ottoman Empire. The reality is that in the Ottoman Empire, concubines in Harem were banned from talking and “gossiping”. They had a great influence (although not officially recognized by men themselves) on sultans and therefore affected the political decisions and affairs of the Empire. Out of solidarity, women began to perform fortune-telling over the remains of coffee inside and outside coffee cups. This way they could talk about their fears and inner worlds freely. I can’t help but see the similarity with the oppression women went through of gossip. The striking difference is how fortune telling over coffee didn’t change its connotation in time. Today, it is also an act of solidarity or a chance to “gossip”, one might say. 

“In this painting, an Ottoman woman drinking coffee and her maid serving her is depicted. It is known that the painting is from the first half of the 18th century. The work of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, ‘Turkish Girl Drinking Coffee on the Sedir’ was based on this Ottoman woman, who is the main figure of the painting. The maid, who is positioned on the right side of the painting and serves on her knees, is noticed as the other interesting side of the painting. The large and ostentatious headdress on the head of the Ottoman woman stands out as another element that focuses attention on the work. It is also known that the headdress in question was inspired by the picture of a serpentine woman in the book of the Dutch painter Cornelis de Bruyn, who visited Turkey in the 17th century.”

Whether with gossip or chatting over coffee, women have always found a way to express themselves regardless of oppression. These rituals were performed by women as an act of sisterhood and out of respect for both their inner worlds and each other. It is undeniable that gossip still brings people together and that centuries of oppression failed to change that. Through the centuries, as the word began to be weaponized against women and became a tool to turn against each other, I can’t help but wonder how unfair pop culture was to women. In any magazine or TV series, anyone can spot a gossip scene with negative consequences or aim. A woman is sassy, “bitchy” or evil when she gossips, but why do we still let our acts be defined by the misogynistic portrayal of men? Today, the word gossip or fortune telling may be used as something you wouldn’t want to be a part of because it could harm someone. Let’s oppose the negative connotation assigned to this word by men and use it as a joyful gathering. Reclaiming gossip and fortune telling as an intimate support system, a strong web, is the least we can do to honour the women who met at taverns and shared a part of their souls with each other.

How to make the perfect Turkish coffee and some guides to fortune-telling:

1. Put two teaspoons of coffee in “cezve” the traditional pot. 
2. Add one cup of cold water to the pot. Mix once with the spoon. The ratio is one cup, and two teaspoons of coffee. 
3. Begin cooking at a low temperature until the top coat gets darker. 
4. Cook at a high temperature until the point where the coffee begins rising. 
5. Take the pot off the oven right before it overflows. 
6. Take the foamy part with a teaspoon and put it in the cup before pouring the rest. This will protect the foam. The foam is important for quality check 😊

Papa Louie’s Ghosteria

Papa Louie’s Ghosteria is a comic-like fan fiction written by us.

Following a discussion about the texts ‘Notes on Deconstructing The Popular’ by Stuart Hall and ‘Game Modding: Cross-Over Mutation and Unwelcome Gifts’ from The Player’s Power to Change the Game by Anne-Marie Schleiner, we started dissecting the ideology behind the games we have played as children. To do that, we utilised several prompts to help us examine the ideology that two popular video games enforce through their narrative and gameplay. The list of questions we needed to answer while playing the game includes:

What are the win conditions? If the game is quest based, what types of quests are you asked to complete? What is the gameplay? What is the narrative? How much space is there for alternative ways of playing this game? What is missing? What type of relationships are you allowed to form? What is the role of non-player characters? What are the requirements for surviving the game? Which behaviours are rewarded? What real-world values are reproduced in the game you are playing? How are you situated in the hierarchy of the game? What change in status is promised? What are you being trained for? What fantasies are lived out or explored?

Our team, Irmak, Ada and Boyana, worked on the famous Papa Louie: When Pizzas Attack. Soon after we started investigating the game, its elements and modifications, we discovered that other players had already written heaps of fan fiction about it. We were bewitched by the multitude of stories fans have written and the really good memes they have created about Papa and his businesses. Yes, plural. Papa’s Freezeria. Sushiria. Donuteria. Burgeria. PanCakeria. CupCakeria. Taco Mia. Taco Mia To Go. You name it.

After spending some time analysing the ideology behind the game, we discovered a few elements that reinforce a capitalist narrative, such as the need to fight to survive and collect coins to purchase weapons. In response, we decided to create a new version of the game with a storyline that focuses on healing and coping as a response to grief and loss, rather than violence. To link the new storyline to SI20’s topic we added ritualistic elements as actions during the gameplay.

What was changed was the topic, purpose and outcome of the game. Papa no longer fought to save his customers, but he dealt with his own loss and grief over what happened. Our version promoted rest and rituals for healing instead of revenge-seeking, violence and toxic pizzeria culture.

We started by putting some keywords and suggestions on a blackboard about “How To Cope With Grief” and “How to Use Rituals and Ceremonies to Overcome Grief” to define what Papa Louie lost and what rituals could help him heal.

We then made a comic-like storyboard that visualised the new narrative for Papa Louie’s Ghosteria. To create a few scenes depicting some of the 5 levels we outlined, we used an app called Papa Louie Pals. The images turned out pretty nice! Playing around with the app was fun mainly because it allowed us to materialise our idea in just a couple of hours.

The gameplay revolves around things Papa lost and the needs he needs to fulfil. Different types of losses are organised into the five levels of the game:

1. loss of safety (innocence, physical safety)
2. loss of community (clients, belonging)
3. loss of future (hope, dreams)
4. loss of identity (dignity, making things himself)
5. loss of labour (money, time, effort, pizza)

To cope with grief Papa Louie performed various rituals, each unlocking a new stage in his grieving process and healing from that loss. Rituals thus are the actions players needed to execute at each level.

And so our story went like this: The Onion ring mafia kidnapped Papa Louie’s clients, and he lost his Pizzeria. However, along with this external change, he lost his identity as a pizza owner/maker. He was full of grief and seeked ways to cope with grief and ease himself. He tried different rituals throughout this process, built his new identity and overcame his troubles.

::::: ## Papa Louie’s Text-Adventure Healing

Following this comic production, a small text-adventure Pyhton game was developed following the same storyline. The game was fundamentally an explorative game, in which the player could follow four levels of healing. Playing as Papa Louie and helping him heal his shattered soul, the player would go in each room and type “take” or “carry” to pick up possibilties for healing. The possbilities for each room were:

1. empty pizzeria: [closure,catharsis, anger]
2. living room: [connection,understanding,support]
3. study room: [expression,hope,new experiences]
4. bedroom: [self-discovery,self-care]
5. kitchen: [work,nourishment,purpose].

Once one had picked up enough healing chances, the game would end and thank you for healing papa. The following picture shows the introductory illustration.

:::::

:::::{#Super(de)construction .has-images} # Super(de)construction ## text adventure game

My text-adventure game was (first and foremost a struggle and) an attempt to dive a little bit into the world of python and deal peacefully with the potential trauma of coding. The first unsuccessful try started by making a map on paper with all the possible rooms, corridors, spaces and the potential inputs of the player. It was proved to be a too ambitious plan though. So this was the time when the super(de)construction game was born! My intention was to make a fan fiction text adventure game(!) of the marxist superstructure theory. There are three basic rooms where the player can navigate : the Base-ment, the Apparatus and the Megaroom. People can grab specific "objects" from each room and check their inventory (for example you can have unpaidlabour, church, mostlywhitemen from base-ment, apparatus and megaroom respectively in the same bag!). The aim of the game is to accumulate enough points in order to bring eventually the revolution and win. The fermentation and the radicalization happen only in the base-ment.

Will you be part of the revolutionary class?

``` import os , time , random

#   Setting up the current (saved) state

currentRoom = "base-ment"

start = True

graduation = False

study = 0

items = {

    "base-ment": ["unpaidlabor", "consiousness", "lackoftime", "dipression", "commodities", "collectivememory", "laborforce", "survivalmode"],

    "apparatus": ["game", "work", "symbols", "family", "church", "institutionalmemory", "army", "ideology"],

    "megaroom": ["hegemony", "control", "power", "violence", "accumulationofwealth", "property", "mostlywhiterichmen"]

}

inventory = []

#   Seperating the text and printing in delay so the content on the screen is readable and easy to comprehend

def printer (text):

    for t in text:

        print(t, end = "", flush= True)

        time.sleep(random.choice([0.0001, 0.005, 0.007]))

    print()

#   Defining the "taker" function and setting it up in each of the three rooms below

def taker(room):

    if any(x in spliti for x in ["get", "grab", "take", "carry", "steal", "expropriate"]):

        for item in items[room]:

            if item in spliti:

                printer("You took " + item)

                inventory.append(item)

                items[room].remove(item)

#   Creating the while-loop

while True:

    if (start == True):

        printer("""

        Super(de)construction: The game

                                       __                                         __                           __                          

                                      /\ \                                       /\ \__                       /\ \__  __                    

  ____  __  __  _____      __   _ __  \_\ \     __    ___    ___     ___     ____\ \ ,_\  _ __   __  __    ___\ \ ,_\/\_\    ___     ___    

 /',__\/\ \/\ \/\ '__`\  /'__`\/\`'__\/'_` \  /'__`\ /'___\ / __`\ /' _ `\  /',__\\ \ \/ /\`'__\/\ \/\ \  /'___\ \ \/\/\ \  / __`\ /' _ `\  

/\__, `\ \ \_\ \ \ \L\ \/\  __/\ \ \//\ \L\ \/\  __//\ \__//\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \/\__, `\\ \ \_\ \ \/ \ \ \_\ \/\ \__/\ \ \_\ \ \/\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \

\/\____/\ \____/\ \ ,__/\ \____\\ \_\\ \___,_\ \____\ \____\ \____/\ \_\ \_\/\____/ \ \__\\ \_\  \ \____/\ \____\\ \__\\ \_\ \____/\ \_\ \_\

 \/___/  \/___/  \ \ \/  \/____/ \/_/ \/__,_ /\/____/\/____/\/___/  \/_/\/_/\/___/   \/__/ \/_/   \/___/  \/____/ \/__/ \/_/\/___/  \/_/\/_/

                  \ \_\                                                                                                                    

                   \/_/                                                                                                                    

        """)

        printer("""

         ’Welcome to the super(de)costruction game or How to destroy the ideological apparatus and capitalism in small steps.

You are a witch in the body of a cultural worker leaving in the poor south. However, you cannot make a living only by selling your labor power so you have to use your magic powers to maintain yourself. You can become invisible in order to expropriate goods from chain supermarkets and share them with your comrades and girlfriends. That’s okay! Inflation ...

You will have an extraordinary chance to walk a lead bit through an enormous architectural miracle and why not dismantle the master's house!

Are you readyyy???

        """)

        start = False

    if (graduation == True):

        printer("You Win!")

        exit()

#   Clearing the screen: "cls" for Windows; "clear" for macOS      

    i = input()

    #os.system("cls")

    spliti = i.split(" ")

#   Creating an inventory

    if "inventory" in i:

        printer("The truth is that you don't own anything. You are proletarian. You don't really have private property. However, in you current inventory you can find " + ", ".join(inventory))

    if i in ["talk","discuss","debate","ask","say"]:

        printer("Hiiiiiii witch, how can I help you, now that nobody is watching us?")

        i = input()

        if i in ["revolution","finish","free", "freedom"]:

            if study >= 119:

                printer("You did so many things! You struggle a lot, you care, you respect! You are a true witch fighter! Revolution is in the corner.")

                graduation = True

            else:

                printer("We should keep the hard work. Do not give up though. Things do change and your contribution is valuable! You have gained " + str(study) + "  points. Shall we go again to the base-ment? We have to organise stuff! Please don't give up. Here is something small for you!")

                printer("""

                For it is not the anger of Black Women which is dripping down over this globe like a diseased liquid. It is not my anger that launches rockets, spent more than 60,000 dolars second on missiles and other agents of war and death, slaughters children in cities, stockpiles nerve gas and chemical bombs, sodomizes our daughters and the earth. This is not the anger of Black Women which corrodes into blind, dehumanising power, bent upon the annihilation of us all unless we meet it with what we have, our power to examine and to redefine the terms upon which we will live and work; our power to envision and to reconstruct, anger by painful anger, stone upon heavy stone, a future of pollinating difference and the earth to support our choices.

                We welcome all women who can meet us, face to face, beyond objectification and beyond guilt.

                by Audre Lorde

                """)

#   Choices in the base-ment

    if currentRoom == "base-ment":

        if i in ["look","see","view","explore"]:

            printer("Oh I'm in an base-ment, cool. There is little light here. Soooo many people. TheY do work hard. The seem unhappy and dipressed")

            printer("You can find here: " + ", ".join(items["base-ment"]))

        elif i in ["exit","walk","run","door","leave"]:

            printer("You can use this tiny door to exit the base-ment. To be completely honest, you cannot escape that easily the base-ment. You wish you could. It can be really suffocating. However you are a witch, you have class consiousness and you have your caring comrades. So now let's move. ")

            currentRoom = "apparatus"

#   The ECTS condition, or the point-gaining system. Every "study" adds 30 points to the player's score. The goal is to reach 120 points or credits.            

        elif i in ["disconstruct", "dismantle", "poetry", "street", "public", "library", "counter-culture","read", "struggle", "collective", "solidarity", "fight", "feminism", "queer", "act", "expropriate", "parasite", "organise", "care", "reclaim", "speak", "counterhegemony", "escape", "burn", "collective", "demonstrate", "zine", "create", "enjoy", "disobedience", "occupy", "protest", "manifest", "shout", "sing", "anarchy", "radical", "barricade", "putaspell", "witchcraft", "unlearn"]:

            printer("You have struggled soo much!")

            study = study + 30

            printer("The revolution seems to be closer. Cracks still happen and are completely important and vital and powerful. You have gained " + str(study) + " points")

        else:

            taker("base-ment")

#   Choices in the neutral zone

    elif currentRoom == "apparatus":

        if i in ["look","see","view","explore", "open"]:

            printer("Vrooom, vroom, vroom. You are now in the apparatus room! What a contradictory place to be. A wise-structured organised chaos ... Monumental huge buildings, computers, archives, cameras, people in uniforms, banks campus and other big buildings, and borders. Where is the public, though? If you see a little bit closer, it is not that solid.")

            printer("Oh look in the apparatus you can find: " + ", ".join(items["apparatus"]))

        elif i in ["exit","walk","run","door","leave"]:

            printer("You may use this door to exit the apparatus.")

            i = input("which door? (1 or 2)")

            if i == "1":

                printer("You use the door to the base-ment")

                currentRoom = "base-ment"

            elif i == "2":

                printer("You use the door to the megaroom")

                currentRoom = "megaroom"

        else:

            taker("apparatus")

#   Choices in the megaroom

    elif currentRoom == "megaroom":

        if i in ["look","see","view","explore", "open"]:

            printer("Oh You are in the megaroom! You can tell that it is luxurious, monumental structure classical and contemporary in the same time. You haven’t seen something similar before! Wowww. But why are so little people? Why the are mostly white men? Don’t be stressed - they will not notice you! You enter the mansion as a cleaning lady. You are invisible to them. However, YOU know how radical our marginal identities are! ")

            printer("Oh look in the megaroom! There is : " + ", ".join(items["megaroom"]))

        elif i in ["exit","walk","run","door","leave"]:

            printer("You use the door to exit the megaroom.")

            currentRoom = "apparatus"

        else:

            taker("megaroom")

```  

:::::

:::::

Those who dream of drinking wine may weep when morning comes; those who dream of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While they are dreaming they do not know it is a dream, and in their dream they may even try to interpret a dream. Only after they wake do they know it was a dream. And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream.

And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too.

Zhuàngzi 莊子

✧ Preface

Have you ever woken up feeling like there is a word on the tip of your tongue in a language you don’t quite understand?

It’s the feeling you feel when a dream leaves too quickly after you wake up, like a regretful lover. You grasp and reach out, but it’s gone, and you forget something so fundamentally important that your stomach caves into itself.

This deck of oracle cards invites you to go back into that cave, that pit. Back to the start of that word. Tarot and oracle cards are always tools for self-exploration, but the Oracolotto invites you to travel deep into the subconscious realm of your dreams.

Oracolotto includes twenty-one cards and one guidebook. The cards follow the paved journey of Tarot’s major arcana, but do not be fooled by the numbers – they will not give you insight into the path. You do not need prior knowledge to use these cards, only the ability to dream and a soul – your own or the soul of another.

The Oracolotto cards present illustrations of collective dream archetypes as delineated by Neapolitan tradition. While the cards symbolically follow the traditional Tarot journey from the fool to the world (minus the Emperor), they are based on the Neapolitan art form of the Smorfia, intended not as the grimace but as a method for interpreting dreams.

The Smorfia is an ancient art form in which symbols and archetypes from a person’s dreams are analysed and converted into numbers. To use the Smorfia, you would recall every event, person and object that appeared in your dream, and then use the extensive list of dream archetypes to find the associated numbers. This may be used to find the meaning of your dreams or, most commonly, to find numbers to play the lottery (Ricciardone, 1987; Zezza, 1835).

In Oracolotto, the archetypes are used as a storytelling device, an exploration tool for imagination and self-discovery. You may choose to use these cards in the two ways I have imagined or create your own.

1. The first method, and the one I recommend, asks your soul to sit with the cards, ask them a question, read the answer in the following pages and find a language for new or old feelings.
2. The second method requires you to keep the deck next to your bed. Once you wake up, while the dream is still supple and alive, reach for the Oracolotto and try and find the cards that most closely resemble the dream. This allows you to give language to the unformed and reveal the apparent truths the cards hold.

If you have read this far, you may want to remember your dreams and connect to your subconscious, but feel unable to do so. You may never remember your dreams and think that they are random. If that’s the case, I recommend using the Oracolotto with the method I first describe. As the subconscious seeps into our daily thoughts and feelings, the deck will reveal hidden patterns.

You may also choose your path, disregard what I said and make your own game, read old or future dreams or even play the lottery. The tools are in your hands.

:::::

::::: # Fiction Friction ## storytelling tool

The Fiction Friction cards are made by two wanderers who spent a fair amount of time thinking about healing, witchcraft and (contemporary) witch-hunting, rituals, and Tarot culture. This approach can be seen as a way to create a ritual or a (personal) journey into a collective representation. The cards are carriers of our identities, individual past, memory, momentary frictions and fictions. We intended to reclaim the tarot reading ritual and reconsider the relation between the given card interpretation and the figure of the fortuneteller by reversing it. A group of players is invited to explore each card and reimagine its meaning as a collective. We are keen to see how similar or completely different experiences can be shared and new insights learned through each round of exercise. This game serves as a tool that gives to the group the possibility to write together, meet, connect, talk about unspeakable things, share, interpret or even get into conflict. Each card is a starting point, an interface for an opening, a promising healing, a collective moment.

Fiction Friction is a tool for (hyper)textual conversations on (via) abstract/symbolic/surrealistic collage cards. We based our collaging on political events that we have experienced or have been part of our memories, mythological figures from our cultures, collective memory moments, literature that has inspired us, musical references, individuals etc. The main components of the game are a deck of illustrated cards, dice with different methods of interpretation, an empty deck to host the new potential stories along with a a deck of questions created by the players.

How to play:

-One player picks a card from the illustrated card deck along with a question card and places them 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 collage 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 so as 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.

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:::::

Aarseth, E. (2012) “A narrative theory of games,” Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/2282338.2282365.

Althusser, L. et al. (2014) On the reproduction of capitalism: Ideology and ideological state apparatuses. London: Verso.

“Base and superstructure in Marxist cultural theory (1973)” (2014) Raymond Williams on Culture & Society: Essential Writings, pp. 119–138. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473914766.n8.

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). “Court de Gebelin, Antoine”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 324.

Dean, Liz (2015). The Ultimate Guide to Tarot: A Beginner’s Guide to the Cards, Spreads, and Revealing the Mystery of the Tarot. Beverly, Massachusetts: Fair Winds Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-1592336579.

Decker, Ronald, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett. (1996). A Wicked Pack of Cards. London: Duckworth. ISBN 0-7156-2713-9

De Sanctis, P. Ricciardone. Il tipografo celeste. Il gioco del lotto tra letteratura e demologia nell’Italia dell’Ottocento e oltre. Bari, Dedalo, 1987. ISBN 88-220-6066-0

Dummet, M. (1993) Il mondo e l’angelo: I tarocchi e la Loro Storia. Napoli: Bibliopolis.

Epic Games. (2017). Fortnite: Save the World [video game]. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Federici, S. (2019). How the Demonization of ‘Gossip’ Is Used to Break Women’s Solidarity. [online] In These Times. Available at: https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-subversive-feminist-power-of-gossip.

Fu, H., Li, Y. and Lee, F.L.F. (2022) “Techno-cultural domestication of online tarot reading in contemporary China,” Media, Culture & Society, 45(1), pp. 74–91. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221104700.

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Zezza, M.(1835). La smorfia ossia Il nuovo metodo per perdere denaro, e cervello con maggior sicurezza al gioco del lotto. Napoli, Torchi della Società filomatica.

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# SIXX License

Copyright © 2023 XPUB

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble

The SIXX license is a free, copyleft license for rituals, games, books and consolations in any medium, both software and hardware.

For the purposes of this paper, licensing is understood as a responsibility towards an audience, towards each other and towards other people who might want to contribute to, use or amplify any work.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Basic Permissions.

All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met.

This License explicitly affirms your unlimited permission to use any software, publication or any ritual or game-related medium. Any output from running a covered work is covered by this License only if the output, given its content, constitutes a covered work.

This License acknowledges your rights of fair use or other equivalents, as provided by copyright law.

You may make, run and propagate covered works that you do not convey, without conditions so long as your license otherwise remains in force.

You may convey covered works to others for the sole purpose of having them make modifications exclusively for you, or provide you with facilities for running those works, provided that you comply with the terms of this License in conveying all material for which you do not control copyright. Those thus making or running the covered works for you must do so exclusively on your behalf, under your direction and control, on terms that prohibit them from making any copies of your copyrighted material outside their relationship with you.

Conveying under any other circumstances is permitted solely under the conditions stated below. Sublicensing is not allowed.

2. Terms for Attribution

You may convey a work based on anything under the License, or the modifications to produce it from the licensed material, in the form of source code under the following, provided that the work also meets all of these conditions:

• 1. You must give prominent notice of the original intent of the product.
• You must also follow the guidelines indicated in section 4a.

3. Terms for Commercial Use

Any work under the License may only be used for commercial purposes, intended as used with the purpose of commercial advantage or monetary compensation, provided that it meets all the following conditions:

• 1. Disclaiming warranty or limiting liability exactly as in the terms of sections 5 and 6 of this License;
• 2. Requiring preservation of the initial specified spiritual and emotional purpose of the original product;
• 4. Written notice must be given to the initial publisher of any following commercial use;

• e)Use of the license and any product under this license is specifically strictly forbidden to any person who falls under the umbrella of being one of Ada’s past romantic partners.

  • 1e. In case of usage by any of the prior specified parties, the publisher of the License has to be informed.

  • 2e. Permission for the usage of the License or anything covered by the license to anybody identifiable upon reasonable suspicion as a previous romantic partner of Ada may be granted by Ada alone.

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*4**. Additional Permissions.*

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The following conditions must therefore be additionally met:

4a. The true nature of the license for this document cannot be understood through reading alone, but only by entering into harmony with the rights-holders of its production and distribution.

5a. To obtain the power to reproduce any document under the SIXX license, the product has to be held firmly in front of the body of the new rightsholder(s) (henceforth referred to as “the alchemical apprentice(s)”, or simply “the apprentice(s)”), who should close their eyes. The alchemical apprentice(s) should whisper the statement of control silently to themselves seven times or until clarity of mind is achieved. Through the objects’ contact with the skin of the apprentice(s) during this incantation they will begin to absorb its knowledge, in addition to the associated rights and intellectual property in the eyes of the effective national jurisdiction. When they start to feel an increased level of unity with the secrets of the publication, the alchemical apprentice(s) should conceal the publication within their garment to return it to their laboratory for further investigation. By this means the apprentice(s) shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from them.

You intended as License claimer, may place additional permissions on material, added by you to a covered work, for which you have or can give appropriate copyright permission.

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If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the Program in return for a fee.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

:::::

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Colophon

Photography and Illustration

Unless otherwise stated, all photography, illustrations and other type of visualisations in this publication are created by the same authors as the text. That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below, to do the miracle of one only thing.

Digital Tools

This book was created with the help of a collection of not-so-small and extremely sharp open source tools, to name a few: paged.js, pandoc, pdfimpose, pdftk, and our darling demon Inkscape. So was the world created. From this are and do come admirable adaptations where the means is here in this.

###Printing and Binding Just lil old us.

Typeface

Work Sans by Wei Huang. Consolation by us.

That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.

:::::

:::::

Colophon

Photography and Illustration

Unless otherwise stated, all photography, illustrations and other type of visualisations in this publication are created by the same authors as the text. That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below, to do the miracle of one only thing.

Digital Tools

This book was created with the help of a collection of not-so-small and extremely sharp open source tools, to name a few: paged.js, pandoc, pdfimpose, pdftk, and our darling demon Inkscape. So was the world created. From this are and do come admirable adaptations where the means is here in this.

###Printing and Binding Just lil old us.

Typeface

Work Sans by Wei Huang. Consolation by us.

That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.

:::::

:::::

Colophon