You cannot have it both ways: the unMonastery demands a simple life of hard work. Adapting the posture that the world is complex so that tasks are best left unfinished is cowardice. To remove the Protocol from the BIOS is to perform a sleight of hand maneuver that is transparent in its collusion with a culture of denial. Solving the conundrum of personal reluctance to make hard decisions may prove to be our most valuable contribution to ‘The Process’.
If the unMonastery is primarily a hub which links local needs with initiatives of a global scope; that which defines us is not our friends who work on the global scene, nor the dinner parties that worked in Matera. We need to define what we do in order to cultivate this connection. It is written that The Geek shall not inherit the Earth. The key moment of the unMonastery contract is service to a vibrant community. Without being embedded into such a community we are not living a life unMonastic.
It is a great challenge to see how a Transmediale presence embraces these working principles. At this moment the going idea is to form a recruitment centre around engaging small groups of people who are playing an as yet to be fleshed out boardgame. As more and more tables each become their own unMonastery participants will be confronted with what they can contribute and how their individual skills and concerns can find the resonant walls of a supportive community.
To present that in an exhibition setting is neither to serve soup, nor to have speeches by others, but to invite all our friends and make them sit down to the unMonastery boards to play a round of unMonastery. So people from Matera, random visitors from Berlin, and the cleverest people we know can try and do the unMonastery together, similar to Bang!.
To design the unMon game we need to define:
characters with descriptions
conflicts
a goal to reach by the end of the game
etc.
If the game is called The Process, is not the Protocol its set of rules? The greater community encourages the naked Athenians to design and play the game ad nauseum.
Nice idea! I looked up Bang! and it seems to me it derives its playability from players having mutually conflicting goals. The Sheriff wins by killing the Outlaw, the Outlaw wins by killing the Sheriff etc. This is very much in line with what I know about building game-theoretical models: if everyone’s interests are aligned and everyone’s friends, there is no way to build an interesting model: the model, predictably, says everyone cooperates.
So how will you do this? Does anyone get to play the Speculator, or the Real Estate Market, or the Risk-Averse Mayor?
Thanks for staying in the loop. So, is it official, the unMon is going to be at Transmediale? Would love to help, but I’m not clear as to how the design process is happening… Are you preparing it in advance - eg the roles, or are people attending sort of finding their roles as they play, in an unMon “simulation”?
The unMon MethodKit could offer clues as to what the roles could be. I’m looking at the cards and thinking of Survival strategist, Network interfacer… who knows. Anyway, well done guys.
Hi Noemi, yes, we are going to be at Transmediale, 19 Jan to 2 Febr. The festival itself is 28 Jan to 2 Febr. Please come! As far as details - everything is in flux at the moment - will keep you posted about how things evolve?
Still no update on the program though. I am considering coming, I saw the tickets are 20 eur per day and 90 or so the full access. Any chance we can get a group discount if a bunch of us in the community are going? @SamMuirhead, @Caroline_Paulick-Thiel, @danohu, @Dorotea will you be there?
Besides Bang!, there is also TransAmerica and Rush Hour which can be used as inspirational models, I think. I would like to believe that conflict can be (at least partially) replaced by inertia (like in Rush Hour) or competition for / rationalisation of resources (Transamerica).
