HOMO LUDENS Response
I think this quote from The Dawn of Everything is relevant to this reading: Around the same time that Marcel Mauss was combing French libraries for everything that had ever been written about the Inuit, the German ethnologist Franz Boas was carrying out research on the Kwakiutl, indigenous huntergatherers of Canada’s Northwest Coast. Here, Boas discovered, it was winter – not summer – that was the time when society crystallized into its most hierarchical forms, and spectacularly so. Plank-built palaces sprang to life along the coastline of British Columbia, with hereditary nobles holding court over compatriots classified as commoners and slaves, and hosting the great banquets known as potlatch. Yet these aristocratic courts broke apart for the summer work of the fishing season, reverting to smaller clan formations – still ranked, but with entirely different and much less formal structures. In this case, people actually adopted different names in summer and winter – literally becoming someone else, depending on the time of year
Worlds Unfolding: Reflections on UAAD.art's Virtual Creation Systems
"The act of creating or reshaping a world—whether physical, virtual, or conceptual—by transforming environments, relationships, and systems to reflect specific values, perspectives, or possibilities.It is a practice of imagination and agency that spans storytelling, art, system design, and technology, rooted in and responding to social, cultural, political, technological, and ecological contexts. World-making invites us to reimagine what is possible and to actively shape conditions for alternative futures to emerge."
Storytelling Devices in Spatial Structures
Linear Storytelling
media objects are placed throughout an enviornment in a linear manner or maze like manner to lead a viewer through a narrative in an a to b fashion
Non-Linear Storytelling
media objects are placed throughout an enviornment circularly, or within the maze there are trap doors and false starts
Ethnographic Context
Building on Clifford's "partial truths" framework, this analysis examines how these enviornments both reveal and obscure designer intentionality...
My Notes in Full
I want to take this concept from “worlds unfolding - ideas and prompts for virtual world making” to create a non human character with a human form but the way that the player interacts with them in a very unique and role to it. in the glossary, they lay out very neatly, the concept of a prompt, entity and a non human subject A prompt being a guiding question statement or exercise to spark discussion. I think I need to craft my prompt and present it to actual siqpuaq people.
Entities have a rich history of Syncretism and pluralism in colonized societies that have been preserved through various means.
Examples of Syncretic Traditions
| Tradition | Region | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Santería | Cuba | A fusion of Yoruba religious practices with Catholicism, where African orishas are associated with Catholic saints. |
| Vodou | Haiti | Combines West African Vodun with Catholicism, incorporating rituals, spirits (lwa), and Christian saints. |
| Candomblé | Brazil | A blend of Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu beliefs with Catholicism, emphasizing orishas and community rituals. |
| Our Lady of Guadalupe | Mexico | The Virgin Mary is venerated in a form that incorporates indigenous Aztec goddess Tonantzin's imagery and symbolism. |
| Rastafarianism | Jamaica | A mix of Christianity, Pan-Africanism, and Ethiopian cultural symbols, with Haile Selassie as a central figure. |
| Chrislam | Nigeria | A fusion of Pentecostal Christianity and Islamic practices, common among Yoruba communities. |
| Bwiti | Gabon (West-Central Africa) | A spiritual practice combining animism, ancestor worship, Christianity, and the ritual use of iboga. |
These examples highlight how cultural exchange and colonial histories have shaped unique religious and spiritual practices worldwide.
I want to have smoked salmon embody an entity in the environment that eventually anthropomorphs into a human, or even the water the salmon relies on to flow freely. Explaining to the colonizer Russians that this exploitation and overstaying of their welcome will eventually lead to dam infrastructure and strip mining and eventually, evil.
One thing that’s confusing me about their definition of liner vs non linear storytelling is they actually don’t define either really well but lay out quite effectively how to do it, these definitions feel less a glossary on how to read what they are saying but more a way to replicate these ideas laid out.
They define simulation as having evolving and possibly infinite outcomes, which in the prospect of designing a game like that is deeply appealing. I still want to return to mine only having one possible outcome that opens up the possibility of the infinite to the player but actually just ends up being an eternal recurrence. (Think all this has happened before, and it will all happen again BSGalactica/Peter Pan lol)
Ok once I got to the intro to the prompts, it’s very obvious this is a how to book. From the intro:
"you may approach these prompts in a linear sequence, building your virtual space layer by layer, or engage with specific sections non-linearly based on your creative focus. We also encourage you to contribute to this evolving conversation. If you feel inspired to add your own prompts or share insights from your creative process, we’d love to hear from you! You can submit your contributions via email (hello@uaad.art) or send us amessage through Instagram DM (@uaad.art). Let’s build worlds together."
I will likely revisit this text once I have more of a framework and research to work with, I skipped through most of the exersises but I see how they can be benefical in the long run. I really wanted to get to the meat of it all. I saw a flowchart/map of how these prompts all connect on their instagram page, which i will imbed a gif of right now.
