G O S S I P O L O G Y
Storytelling for the Apocalypse - Creating Collective Narratives of Survival
by Ipek Hamzaoglu and Malu Blume
The long-term project GOSSIPOLOGY focuses on feminist speculative fiction storytelling. The goal of the project is to develop a tool box that serves to tell utopian/dystopian stories that echoe site-specific local myths, gossip and histories.
During our workshops we use directed writing exercises in order to merge individual imagination into collective mythologies that reflect experiences of resistance and survival. GOSSIPOLOGY aims to explore the use of emancipatory narratives as a tool of political action from the margins. We believe in the transformative potentials of collective dreaming of our past(s) and possible futures. Furthermore we investigate gossip as a methodology of queer-feminist counter discourse and knowledge-production.
"When we gossip, we share vital information. It is a form of conversation and language that bonds communities. In places where the information is not present and the authorities such as the state do not share any knowledge about important decisions that they take on people and their land, gossip is a way to find out about missing informations. It is also the tool of disturbing the very same power through communal bonding and disobedience under the radar. Gossip is anonymous, it never starts anywhere but is retold by many. It circulates subversively against the power by the dis/possessed. Gossiping is not only a crucial way of sharing information but also a way of adding knowledges that are regarded nominal cracking the assumed mainstream narratives." (Ipek Hamzaoglu)
Impressions from the writing and video workshop "Post-apocalyptic Storytelling", Sinopale 2019
G O S S I P O L O G Y
Storytelling for the Apocalypse - Creating Collective Narratives of Survival
by Ipek Hamzaoglu and Malu Blume
The long-term project GOSSIPOLOGY focuses on feminist speculative fiction storytelling. The goal of the project is to develop a tool box that serves to tell utopian/dystopian stories that echoe site-specific local myths, gossip and histories.
During our workshops we use directed writing exercises in order to merge individual imagination into collective mythologies that reflect experiences of resistance and survival. GOSSIPOLOGY aims to explore the use of emancipatory narratives as a tool of political action from the margins. We believe in the transformative potentials of collective dreaming of our past(s) and possible futures. Furthermore we investigate gossip as a methodology of queer-feminist counter discourse and knowledge-production.
"When we gossip, we share vital information. It is a form of conversation and language that bonds communities. In places where the information is not present and the authorities such as the state do not share any knowledge about important decisions that they take on people and their land, gossip is a way to find out about missing informations. It is also the tool of disturbing the very same power through communal bonding and disobedience under the radar. Gossip is anonymous, it never starts anywhere but is retold by many. It circulates subversively against the power by the dis/possessed. Gossiping is not only a crucial way of sharing information but also a way of adding knowledges that are regarded nominal cracking the assumed mainstream narratives." (Ipek Hamzaoglu)
Impressions from the writing and video workshop "Post-apocalyptic Storytelling", Sinopale 2019