Excerpts from the diary of the fictionaut: On Fictiocratic Operation no. 27C, Tallinn

2014-07-17

Excerpts from the diary of the fictionaut

by Agnieszka Pokrywka

Fictiocratic Operation no. 27C

27 Dec 2013 – 2 Jan 2014

Ptarmigan, Tallinn, Estonia

6 December 2013

Fictiocratic Operation no. 27C was calling¹ its participants as The Great Nature Theatre of Oklahoma in Kafka’s America was calling its potential personnel: vaguely and only once, filtering by its bizarreness only those people who might fit. As for Kafka Oklahoma seemed to be a fantasia of a place for me fictiocracy became a place of fantasia.

The response for fictiocratic strainercall was surprisingly big and enormously creative. Similis simili gaudet. Seems that nonconventional form of the call attracted similar replies. Somebody wrote in the submission: “The ideas you propose to explore in Estonia are in the air here also” therefore “I cannot and will not miss this opportunity (even if I miss it)”. The responses confirmed our suspicions: fictiocratic movement already exists although not yet properly named and recognized.

At the end 11 people from the wide fields of game design, film, psychology, music composition, alternative medicine, curating, architecture, fine arts, choreography, neuroscience were selected. Nobody refused their attendance.

27 December 2013

First participants arrive by bus, by ferry, by plane. Some wander around alone, some other get here in guided groups. Friends and strangers. My past, my present and most likely my future gathered in one spot. Throwing away unnecessary items goes simultaneously with equipping in needed ones.

From now on most of the meals are going to be collectively prepared by rotating teams. Beside that there is no rigid or clear schedule yet. No prediction is able to reveal at once how to decompose one of the most ritualistically dense time of the calendar: Christmas holiday season with its pick around New Year’s Eve. Nothing strange that most of the arrived people are still not sure what exactly they came for. One has to be vigilant enough in order to upgrade from the participant to explorer.

28 December 2013

Each time when I try to describe and put fictiocracy in to the static definition it seems to be one step ahead formation of my words. Nevertheless I still keep trying.

Fictiocracy is subversive, persistent and systematic complex structure which as a whole can be understood as a meta-reality social movement consisted of people openly willing to live according to fiction covering different spheres of their lives: language, communication, behavior, movement, body, relationships. This openness highlights treated as given current fictional basis of societal norms and give it back to the scope of creation. What blocks us from that? Why do we have to be secluded from the broader ability to create own conventions and make them valid in much wider context than just artistic? Sadly, for many it is easier to imagine the end of the world — an asteroid destroying all of life, and so on – than imagine ourselves living in more creative behavioral system than this proposed by our civilization².

In order to prepare participants to embrace that painful fact we serve them pills of forgetfulness. Everyone gets a multiple choice of purple, white, green and pink pill to respectively forget conventions, language, physical and social.

/*1*/ Imagine that you can cure yourself from a certain conditioning framework by swallowing the pill. What it would be? How do you feel after such medication?

After this treatment we listen to Pekko’s³ lecture about fictiocracy and later on we talk in variety of details about personal stories and common interactions which actually never happened. The plot is created on ongoing basis.

Once again Ptarmigan⁴, a bit empty, abandoned, traceless space located in the Old Town of Tallinn, proves its mutable, vessel-like nature. During Fictiocratic Operation Ptarmigan’s freshly ground coffee has a smell of the last solution, a mirror becomes an observer, sound of the water makes us special and toilet gets occupied by invisible observer who sits insolently on the chair whether the room is busy or not.

29 December 2013

The group of 15 people (11 incarnated explorers and 4 commanders) is spread in to 4 divisions according to random methods. Each has a certain amount of time to exchange ideas and then present them in a free-form to others. There are two rounds: one takes place in the inner space, another in the outer space of Ptarmigan.

/*2*/ Go through interiors of generally specified, accepted and therefore narrowed functionality and try to redefine it in order to expand usability of those areas. Example: lavatory with the lights turned on becomes a toilet and with the lights turned off a contemplation room.

/*3*/ List all the formations which you belong to wether it’s your nationality, bank, regular customer program or library. This is who you are.

/*4*/ Write one word in the middle of the page or board. The next word should be derivative of the first one. Repeat this process infinitely or till you manage to fill the field completely. Each new word can become a multiple source. Branch it. Example: love is fear, hygiene, comedy and silence at once.

/*5*/ While going through obscure talk turn on speech recognition software in order to interpret it. Example: understanding is about crystal rooster⁵.

/*6*/ Extract actions from subjects and put them in to two separated jars. After all draw one word from each container and perform such combined instruction. Examples: stalk the tree, poke the street light, follow the stranger.

31 December 2013

The last day of the year is fully focussed on replacing by the new creations fictional, repeatable and socially accepted patterns of the New Year’s Eve. When ready Ptarmigan is going to open its doors to the wider public in order to offer this creation to the society as potential convention.

We gather on the morning to brainstorm. We analyze New Year’s phenomena according to Ari-Pekka’s⁶ diagrams. We try to sort out what makes that very day a New Year’s Eve, what are the components of it. On this basis we make a list of various interventions and spread among three coherent groups managing different areas of the action. One team takes care of logistics and supplies. Another crew operates in a spontaneous and secret mode interrupting ongoing processes⁷. The core of the whole evening is created by the third team which works on a set of different rituals in order to bring us from year 2013 to 2014.

/*7*/ During New Year’s Eve spent in a group of people, get assigned one super-power (wether by yourself or someone else). Preferably it’s a feature already characteristic for you although much more exaggerated and exposed. Afterwards you throw one or more dices. Number of meshes indicates the number of interactions between you and other individuals based on chosen super-powers. Each meeting can be quite intense since it’s a result of an encounter of two very sharply set characters. Each interaction brings you closer to the end of the list. The end of the list is the beginning of your New Year. In this manner everyone goes through the actual transition between years in a different moment. Some people will be trapped there forever.

We are not anymore a group of organizers, participants and spectators but a bunch of related to each other individuals. There is a healer, listener, storyteller, energy-giver, future-past-teller… Someone is shooting films, someone else is taking portrait pictures, different person is creating an island of creatures made of aluminum foil. Everyone in his own role and way.

1 January 2014

It’s a time of summaries and reflections. We go through an atmospheric talk in the circle where person after person expresses his own reflection about past days. On the side explorers are documenting their achievements wether fictional or real. After that we draw maps which illustrate the process which each of us went through. Later on everyone explains shortly how the map works. At the end we perform an extract from Fictiocratic Operation where each day of experiences and emotions becomes 1 minute filled by body movements. The last supper.

2 January 2014

Participants are departing to their origins. While waiting for the moment of separation we still keep experimenting. Our interaction turns in to clothes exchange. It became a base for our communication and sort of good bye ceremony.

3 July 2014

Verbalizing an experience of a formal organizer and informal participant of such flexibly structured event is challenging. Words very often pauperize an experience which although already in the past still evolves making new constellations with stratifying present events. That’s why I was hesitating to write down my reflections on Fictiocratic Operation for long. Now I close it in the box made of words which can be simultaneously treated as a ‘gift’ and as a ‘step’. The ‘gift’ contains 7 (2+0+1+4=7) objectified, developed and tested during Fictiocratic Operation set of instructions. They can be reused in various contexts whether alone or in a group. The ‘step’ I put on the ground and treat as a tread to this what next, this what I would not be able to reach without climbing on it. From here the horizon seems to be a bit wider. I see the future developments of seeds sown in Tallinn. Thank you Miga and MigAA for making it possible.