OPEN SOURCE SIGIL
OSS is a workshop where participants will delve into the realm of modern cyber witchcraft and magical materialism. Through the creation of seals - symbols infused with intentions - we will harness interactive technologies to weave electronic spells of resistance and invoke new collective rituals.
By embroidery customised magic seals using conductive thread onto textiles or clothing, we will transform them into capacitive sensors. These sensors will be part of a network of non-verbal human interactions and open source software, evolving into tools of sound agency. Each gesture or touch will evoke sounds, facilitating a shared performative narrative.
This ritual of collective resistance integrates open source technology, mystical data and contemporary enchantment to amplify the power of individual and community actions and catalyse transformation.
The cultural practice of incorporating words and symbols into fabric to convey political statements and/or somatic experiences has historically been a widely used method for exercising agency.
We will learn how to create a Magic Seal from an intention. Each participant will embroider its own seal on a fabric using conductive thread. This seal will become a symbol charged with intention and magical power. The conductive thread allows the seal to interact with capacitive sensors, creating a link between physical gesture and sound.
We will use capacitive sensors to detect human interaction with the sigils and we will connect them to an Arduino.
Once the signals are received by the Arduino, they will be transmitted to Pure Data (Pd) and will be mapped to sounds or recordings that we will decide during the workshop, creating an interactive sound composition. Each gesture or touch on the seal will initiate a sound, which can be a tone, a word or a sound fragment, generating a performative spelling.
The act of embroidering and activating the seal becomes a ritual of collective resistance, where each sound generated by the sensors represents a unique voice, contributing to a shared sound spelling. At the end of the workshop, participants will feel the power of the individual gesture transform into a collective sound composition, where technology and magic meet, amplifying the power of intention and community.