Reimagining and Revealing Our Relationship with Machines through Mystical Practice

Written by myself and my co-teacher Erica Kermani this blog post describes outcomes and gratitude for our class Scripting is Scrying (part of a larger pedagogical practice of Digital Divination), taught at School for Poetic Computation in 2024. Excerpt Below:

"Scripting is Scrying speculates on ways to build harmonious relationships between machines, humans and non-humans through divinational practices. We challenge the notion that computation began in the so-called Global North and that technology must be devoid of sacred principles. We also analyze how western and capitalist hegemonies have shaped technology to serve systems of oppression and extraction. Throughout the 10-week period, participants engaged with new computational tools/concepts—randomness, Markov chains, and machine learning—to develop their own browser-based oracles. Alongside technical lessons, we delved into readings and listenings that served as seeds for discussion. We looked at indigenous cosmologies, Afrofuturist visions, the sacred potential of digital artifacts, and the protocols and computation embedded in rituals. We asked questions like:

How might we relate to technology differently if we consider the resources and systems behind its making?

How can it (we) be generative rather than extractive?

Whose perspectives and voices are encoded into our tools?

How can we more deeply consider intention, trust and reciprocity when designing digital experiences?"


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