THURSDAY 6/16: Ludic Liberation Lab ~ "I LOVE BEING DESCRIBED"
Playing with Sym-Poiesis and Sym-Olethros
Dear Ludic Liberators,
Here’s a still from a video of Jackdaws (a kind of bird) harvesting fur from a moulting deer for their nest material:
This symbiotic behavior is a beautiful illustration of Ludic Liberation Lab’s Summer 2022 theme: SYMPOIESIS & SYMOLETHROS.
SYMPOIESIS is a term coined by cyborg feminist scholar Donna Haraway in Staying With The Trouble to mean "making-with" and "worlding-with." However, since Ludic Liberation is the practice of both game-making and game-destroying, we extend the notion of sympoiesis with a sister term SYMOLETHROS - from greek sym (together) and olethros (destruction — in a creative, renewing sense). SYMOLETHROS thus means "destruction-with."
We make and unmake each other. We become who we are in company, through encounter, in process of being witnessed. We also dissolve our previous states of self through conflict, schismogenesis (self-making through division and differentiation), and through the permissions of others who invite us into change.
This summer, Ludic Liberation Lab will play with sympoeisis and symolethros — the processes of "becoming-with" and "destroying-with." We will experiment with our identities, boundaries, and roles-in-relation to other human and nonhuman beings (i.e., our existential co-players). As function and form inherently shape each other, we will also stretch the contours of the LAB itself, spilling out into ongoing, pervasive, and in-person interactions!
COMING UP FIRST:
JUNE 16th, 6-7:30pm, on ZOOM — "I LOVE BEING DESCRIBED" with Indigo Esmonde
Indigo Esmonde — daydream artist, failure enthusiast, pretender extraordinaire, and a returning Ludic Liberation Lab Principal Investigator — continues their pursuit of Ego-Destruction-As-Performance-Art through a set of brand new games aimed at stretching the edges of our self-story. "I LOVE BEING DESCRIBED" will invite players to experiment with resting in the space of being perceived and reflected through acts of consensual re-description. We will put things like pronouns, identities, and formative stories on the line for others to revise and contaminate with their potentially false and limited and surprising perceptions, and reflect on the discomforts and pleasures we experience in the process. This lab promises to be a *HIGH SENSATION* experience and should be particularly compelling to those who are playing with stretching into more TRUTH and VISIBILITY in their lives.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE SYMPOIESIS/SYMOLETHROS:
JULY: FAKE FAMILY — a pervasive LARP that lets us revise our family dynamics; details to follow
AUGUST 6 & 7: Join Natalia Stroika at RESET/RECESS — an immersive DEEP PLAY intensive in Philadelphia!
JOIN US TO PLAY WITH BEING DESCRIBED!
🗓 THURSDAY June 16, 2022 (a week later than usual but better late than never!)
⏰ 6-7:30pm EDT
📍 Zoom
🎟 $0-$15 donation