A topic for anyone from the Edgeryders community who is interested to join OpenVillage House Sidi Kaouki. Raise your hands! 
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Great, looks perfect for me - I might be bringing support, Maria from Brussels, will discuss it tonight over the dinner. I am already checking the flights. Juhuuu!
well now i really want to come to the residency!
**quickly checks diary and changes all his plans for March!
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hi @hazem, what do you need from me to officially apply to come to the residency?
I’d love to come and do some of my own creative writing in the location, as well help out with the boring internal tasks (like cooking, cleaning etc)
I’d be interested to help out @matthias with his coffee project (although i can offer only physical help, rather than technical/coding) Similarly i’d be happy to support @winnieponcelet with the OpenInsulin section should that be more helpful.
I would expect to spend 2 days a week specifically helping out on the OpenVillage Projects.
The rest of the time i would split between writing my own creative writing projects, some exploration of the development of new rituals in the OpenVillage environment, and some personal work (hopefully with @natalia_skoczylas, @nabeel_p and @noemi +others) on the planning for OpenVillage Festival 2018.
I can come out for the whole March session (arrival date may be a few days later due to work schedules)
As well as wanting to spend some time hanging out with the ER people working on great stuff it will be a useful investigating to what extent my new job roles can be managed remotely.
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Hey @alex_levene
sorry for the late replay, was traveling without proper Internet.
I am really excited that you are interested in coming, will save you a space in March. ( you officially applied 
)
Just to be clear that the travel budget is limited and priority is for the people from MENA to get the travel funds, but the house is open for everyone.
Currently I am writing from the house, will update the wiki with some more detailed description of the house and divide the rooms on the people for the coming month.
greetings from Sidi Kaouki
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That’s brilliant, thanks Hazem. Not to worry about the travel budget, that was expected. One reason why i wanted to confirm early so i can book cheaper flights.
I’ll keep an eye on the wiki for updates, but i’m holding out on @unknown_author to set up this rooftop tent now! Fingers crossed.
flights booked. It’s real
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hey @alex_levene can you tell me the exact dates as I am compiling a calendar for the house.
greetings from Kaouki,
Hazem
Hi Hazem,
I arrive in Essaouira on Tuesday March 6th around 4pm
My flight back to the UK is on Tuesday April 3rd leaving at 10:45am.
Looking forward to seeing the space. I’ve added the Dynalist to my own one, so it’s fun to see things starting to come together. I may add some note onto it myself. I’m planning to buy some micro projectors to bring with me so we can run some film screenings in the local community and in the house. I could also leave them afterwards. They only cost about 30Euros each, so i think its a worthwhile investment.
Can you share some photos of the spaces on the ER platform. Might be nice to see how it all looks now, before thing start off, so we can compare them with what it looks like when everything is up and running, and then at the end.
Hi Nidhal,
I write work on the edge of poetry and theatre. I’ve spent a few years working on a project that uses the stories of the ancient constellations from across multiple ancient civilizations. I’m looking at the growth and development of the stories, trying to find the common themes and ideas that underlie all the stories.
My plan is to finish off the writing on 2 of the pieces, so it will be writing and a little bit of rehearsal/performance work.
Seems interesting ! What are the research methods you’re working on ?
Sad to miss you, @alex_levene… I am in the house now, but will leave well before you are due to come through. I will stay in touch via the platform.
Shame to not see you too @alberto, but i’m hoping that i will be on the platform a lot more over my residency.
I’ve started to think about what i’m going to do out there, not quite at the planning stage yet, but won’t be long.
Hi @Nidhal
My research always starts with books. Usually ancient Greek or Roman texts in translation. Or texts from the Babylonian cuneiform tablets. I start by reading and reading and reading. Starting to see where there are overlaps: Where an icon from one culture appears in another, or where a similar story thread is echoed in another. It’s a bit like tracing the roots of language (a language of mythology)
I have this view that in the modern Western world we treat ancient myths and stories like we treat the stories in texts like the Bible. We say “this probably didn’t happen exactly as written, but we believe that these people were based on real people”.
I now believe that this isn’t true of the ancient myths.
I think that most of the oldest myths actually tell completely fictional stories that are drawn from celestial events (at least at their very beginning)
Is it likely that a man called Hercules existed and performed a series of tasks that made him renowned all over the ancient Mediterranean? Maybe… Until you realise there’s a similar story that predates Herakles by about 800 years based on ancient Akkadian god myths. Then you find out that in this other myth the God is question is the Sun God, who travels around the globe and undertakes 13 tasks (one for each constellation of the Mesopotamian Zodiac)
Suddenly it seems much more likely that this is a metaphorical story that explains early celestial patterns.
Anyway, that’s a small insight into the beginnings of the research process. After that i start by writing out the bare bones of the myths across all of the cultures (where parts are identical, where there is a different, special flavour) Finally i work out what story i want to tell. Trying to iron out the problematic parts of ancient stories that i think do not deserve to be carried forward (mostly the rape) Finding more imaginative ways around sexual violence.
Once i have a basic story thread i start to think about how it may work in performance. But for now i’ll hold off on the full explanation of that area… 
@alex_levene hii, so sorry for the late reply but I was super busy last period. This is an interesting logic dealing with such a research, I did really enjoy reading.
Just tell me if you need any help especially if you one day come to deal with north african arab myths or stories 
Hello beautiful Kaouki people! I am in Morocco for a month or two and I was wondering if it’s possible to pay you guys a visit. I wanna get to know personally some of the edgeryders members, check out what projects you guys are working and share some of my ideas, love and knowledge.
Hello @wanatani! Lovely proposal, but the Kaouki prototype is finished. We left the house in early May, no one is there anymore. Sorry…