Dear Ludic Liberators,
I hope you’ve had a good July! Perhaps like me you’ve been on some version of vacation? I hope you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve been seeing friends and fireflies, reading books, going on adventures, learning the ukulele, rearranging things in my house, rediscovering the pleasure (and danger!) of video games, swimming, getting sunburnt. I rode 8 different roller-coasters, 3 kinds of trains, and 2 types of boats!
This isn’t technically an official “Lab Report” but I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned through my vacation investigations.
Most importantly, vacation is a state of being, it’s not just a bracketed period of non-work time.
Vacation is a mode of worship! It wants to be celebrated, praised, and in turn it rewards you with blessings. I found money on the street multiple times this month!
Vacation exists in a different kind of time than work or our linear life timeline. Its time is more like sleep. Vacation time stretches, loops, slips, slices, and surprises you. It feels abundant and eternal and yet sweet and ephemeral. Like a sunset.
Vacation is not just a “refresher of energy” for work. As Josef Pieper writes, leisure is a mode of life affirmation and celebration. It has an instrictic spiritual purpose, not an instrumental function.
Probably related to all of the above claims, Vacation does not really jive with computer time. I’ve spent less time on my computer this month than I have during the last 1.5 years of the pandemic! And tbh, I didn’t miss it at all!
But I’m looking forward to restarting some more activities next month – NOT because I’m done with Vacation (I think Vacation should forever be capitalized, don’t you think?) but because August has its own energy. To me it’s the energy of anticipation, excitement, movement. It has the flavor of salty toastiness and ripe juicy watermelon. . . and maybe something a little boozy.
In particular, I’m excited for the 4-week Liberation Through Automation!? course that I’ll be leading through hyperlink.academy starting next Wednesday, August 4. We will explore a little bit of automation theory, play some Ludic Liberation games, and conduct our own personal experiments focused on our relationship to technology, its seductions, promises, possibilities, and traps. We’ll take on the roles of Hackers and Luddites and tinker with our habits, workflows, and feedback loops to explore what games we already play with technology and how we get captured by games we don’t actually want to be playing. We’ll ask if automating everything the path to becoming maximally free (Fully Automated Luxury Communism, baby!) or if the way to liberation actually involve unplugging, disconnecting from, or destroying our machines?
You can read the detailed description and sign up here! Also check out Hyperlink.Academy – I’m so excited about the educational experiments they’re running and am looking forward to using their new rhizomatic collaboration platform HYPERSPACE for this course.
Liberation Through Automation!? will take place Wednesdays 3-5pm EST which hopefully means more people around the world can join, and people who still have summers off or non-traditional work schedules can participate. If there’s interest but the time doesn’t work I may run another cohort. But I may also never run it again, so if you’re curious, sign up now! Space is limited! If you have questions or need some financial assistance, just send me a note, I’d love for us to play together!
Ludic Liberation Lab will return in August as well – stay tuned for the announcements and mark your calendar for Thursday, August 12!
with jest & justice for all,
Natalia
Existential Gamemaker / Destroyer