Ritual Technology

Thoughts

  • Rituals are the feedback loops we construct to construct ourselves.
  • Rituals shape the medium of time.
  • Rituals orient us.
  • Rituals are protocols.
  • Ritual is a form of play.
  • Rituals take place in a world set apart.
  • Rituals make meaning.

Highlights

  • "Like all play, rituals require a suspension of disbelief. We have to be willing to play. In games studies, this stance is called the lusory attitude."
  • " All play moves and has its being within a playground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the “consecrated spot” cannot be formally distinguished from the playground. The arena, the card table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis courts, the court of justice, etc, are all in form and function playgrounds, i.e. forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart. (Johan Huizinga, 1938, “Homo Ludens”)" -"In Game Studies, these worlds-within-a-world are called magic circles"

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