ideasfromanotherapocalypse

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

Shrine As Practice

(Photos: Patrick Stuart, Scrap)

Attention As Devotion

In Nottingham we visited the Museum Of Curiosities.

It boasts "haunted items from around the world", gathered via its owner's "paranormal investigations and his contacts within the world of the macabre".

Mummies, tools from Victorian morgues, dybbuk boxes. Basically: goth Halloween kitsch.

Besides a shelf of "spell kits", I took no photographs, inside. I have to admit I was unnerved.

Back home, a collection claiming to exhibit cursed items would have been quite serious. Displaying a command of ilmu; an institutional mastery over spiritual entities. It would feel keras.

Here, in the secular UK, it is some dude's prodigious collection of spooky memorabilia. The prop puppet from Saw sits amid a classroom-photo's worth of haunted dolls. (Patrick's thoughts on the Museum are nuanced and worth reading!)

(Image source)

One doll caught my eye. Propped on a desk, red, clown-like---surrounded by a shrine of letters. Wall text explained the doll's name was Tommy:

"We are not going to give out any information about the effects he has on the living ... if you do get affected in any way and it continues you can write a letter to tommy to ask him to stop affecting you"

With the museum's address appended.

Tommy's letters spilled over and were tacked onto the facing door. Some were in Arabic. Signed greetings from all over. "We believe in you Tommy!" "You are very nice." "We all love you very much!"

Were these genuine petitions to Tommy, so he'd stop haunting them? Or an ironic, impromptu museum guestbook?

Whatever the case: people seemed sincere participants in this letter-writing ritual; in juicing Tommy up; in saying they believed his story.

In paying tickets of their attention to make him realer.

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(Image source)

Devotion As Attention

In mid-March 2025, it came out that the century-old Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman temple---a small place of worship in downtown Kuala Lumpur; built in 1893, predating Independence---was slated to be demolished.

Jakel Group, a textiles and property-development corporation, was staking their claim to the temple's land. Jakel intends to build a shiny modern mosque, in its place.

(Image source)

Lawyers and activists came out in support of the temple. Jakel explained they had purchased the site from City Hall; it is unclear how City Hall had ownership of the site in the first place.

Eventually things were "resolved"---the local Hindu community agreed to have their temple moved to a nearby site; Jakel will build their mosque, as planned.

A frustrating resolution, in a Malaysia riven by ethnic and religious supremacy. In a different time, in a better Malaysia, the temple need not have moved.

Yet:

("People sleep in tents, ministers sleep in mansions." Image source)

The truth is that situations like these are pretty common. Kuala Lumpur's face is ever a-blur: old communities and edifices making way, often against their will, for towers and glass; malls, condos, mixed developments with rooftop pools.

Under the Torrens system, City Hall gets to decide who owns what land. And City Hall has always been developer-friendly, if not developer-bought.

How many low-cost flats and semi-rural kampungs and "squatter" communities fall before the diggers of the wealthy? How many of their disappearances go uncommented on, or are waved away in the name of "progress"?

The Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman temple became a national story is precisely because it is a temple.

Devotion is attention.

And while religion often devolves into fascism or communalism, it is nice to have a god on your side, if you are up against Mammon.

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(Photo: John Smalley)

Shrine As Practice

I've been thinking about shrines a lot, lately.

Shrines as play. I built a shrine to a crocodile god, in a gallery show about TTRPGs.

(Photo: Grace Wong)

Shrines as memory. Sharon's Portal work is a performance piece, fire ceremony, and photo posters permanently installed at a Port Dickson beach to remember two beloved mangrove trees.

Shrines as resistance.

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(Image source)

Gods From Dreams

In the popular Malay cosmology, geographical features both natural (trees, termite mounds, mountains) and man-made (mansions, highways, museums) are often inhabited by penunggu---literally: "waiting entities"; in other words: "guardians".

Datuk kongs, earth deities worshipped by Chinese communities here, whose shrines dot the landscape throughout the Archipelago, are a kind of penunggu.

Worship of a datuk kong usually begins with a dream. The deity appears to a local in a vision, and commands them to build a shrine.

In 2018, after a spate of homophobia and transphobia in the news, Sharon dreamt of a sea goddess coming out of the sea, wearing the rainbow colours of the queer flag.

(Art: Shika)

In obedience to Sharon's dream I wrote her datuk into a short story.

If the same dream came to us today, maybe we'd be more confident in our convictions, and build a shrine to this queer goddess in our town, for real.

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("Tree Shrining", Gabrielle Bates)

Gods From Art

I was once told that Australian governments are obliged to consult Indigenous communities before approving any development plans.

And since the most features in the landscape are imbued with history, with stories, with ecological and cultural meaning, development always happened slower than developers liked.

Honestly? This is how it should be anywhere.

Much of Australian artist Gabrielle Bates's work is about challenging gentrification and community-shattering urban change. This is explicitly a magical practice: "Artist-as-Witch".

Beginining 2016, her practice of tree shrining, the artistic and ritual investiture of trees with divine and magical significance, has been performed around Sydney.

(Photo: Sharon Chin)

It was also enacted in Kuala Lumpur, as a way to reify an otherwise dour and conventional protest action, to save the Taman Rimba Kiara forest park.

Turning trees into small gods---does that protect them? I don't know. I think it gives them attention. An opportunity for devotion.

Taman Rimba Kiara survived.

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(Photo: Jamie Sutcliffe)

Shrine As Strategy

On Saturday 22 March 2025, at Bonington Gallery, as part of WEIRD HOPE ENGINES, I was on a panel with Chris Bisette and Laurie O'Connel and David Blandy.

We are tabletop roleplaying game-designers. "Game Design For Planetary Survival" was the subject we were meant to discuss.

I was very nervous about speaking, and panicked, and forgot what I wanted to say. (I spent my time waffling on about my hometown, mostly.)

I wanted to say this:

(Photo: Bonington Gallery)

You cannot have "planetary survival" without a relationship to place.

Late capitalism has become really good at keeping us "un-placed"---digital ghosts drifting frictionless through the world at the speed of a map app's "x hrs away" estimate.

"Globalised" (meaning: rootless) beings are easier to atomise into units, commodities.

How can we claim to have a handle on any sort of material reality if we skip over the material realities where our actual bodies live?

Placedness, rootness, localness. Gradual relationships to your immediate neighbourhood, your specific landscape: the trees on your street, flowering in season; the history of the bus you take daily; the habits of animals in your municipal waterway.

As game makers and players we are pretty good at imagining stuff. We play with secret histories, strange magics, odd gods, alternate futures. We are already good at creating shrines to such things, at our tables.

Why not make shrines, IRL?

What is the genius loci of your landscape? What memorial can you build at the entrance to your neighbourhood? What spirit lives in your favourite tree? What is an appropriate votive offering for the fish-god gestating in the canal; the engine-god in the car you drive to work?

We are very good at immersion, at playing as if things were real.

So make it real. Speak to your trees, aloud. Let your neighbours see. Leave candles at the memorial you made on your roundabout. Build an altar to birds. Cast spells at a protest rally.

Because attention is devotion, and devotion is attention. If that dark god Mammon, whose name is Capitalism, has seized speedy, frictionless materialism---deliberate animism is radical.

Have relationships with the gods of your life, your community, your stories. Build shrines to them. Focus on them. Make them real. Make your place real.

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

I just finished Win or Lose and I feel like I'm seeing a lot of people treat Kai's episode as if the trans rep is a "tee hee" Easter egg snuck in to get past the censors, which frustrates me. Like no, the episode is explicitly about being trans. Disney may have got cold feet and cut several lines, but I don't think they could have removed the transness from the show without taking a sledgehammer to every episode.

I think we should celebrate the months of time and effort that went into making Kai's story so good and so integral to the show as a whole, rather than pretending it's a grab bag Pixar salvaged from Disney censors at the last minute. The team who made it consulted researchers (as well as Chanel Stewart and her family), went through multiple storyline concepts (as the so-called "censored scene" going around shows), and must have been fighting Disney every step of the way to get it across the finishing line.

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

UK people: a transphobic petition to repeal the Gender Recognition Act currently has over 10,000 signatures; this is the point at which the government is legally obligated to respond. Please sign and share this one as widely as you can to show the government that there's more support for trans people than the transphobes want them to believe.

Please remember to confirm your signature! This is important as your signature won't be counted until you verify it through the email you'll receive.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701159

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

Boss is asleep, cannot stop me from frogposting

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

***VETTED PALESTINIAN FUNDRAISERS***

***The following fundraisers have all been vetted by either Gaza Vetters or @90-ghost***

A ceasefire deal may have been struck, but this is still a time of uncertainty for people in Gaza. They still face an uphill battle to survive and hopefully to recover and rebuild - as they have many times before, with courage and resilience. Part of that uphill battle has been because of Gofundme and Tumblr unjustly terminating people's accounts, and I cannot stress enough how the vast, vast, vast majority of Palestinians' accounts that you will find on here genuinely do represent struggling families. Out of the 34 that I have checked (against other authorities, as I can't vet myself), only 1 was a bot. The following families have all reached out to me, and I really want to make sure you know how even a little donation makes a huge difference, and even if you can't afford to donate right now, please, please, please share.

Aidez la famille MOKDAD a survivre au genocide israélite - @ommohamed-52

Evacuate My Last Family Members in Gaza - @anasfamilys

Help Abd AL Salam and his family get through this war inGaza

Help Hassan and his family get out of Gaza - @yousefhasan55 @hasanamasi00 @hasanamasi0

Donate to Save Hanan Al-Salout's Family in Gaza - @hananfamily7

Save Kareman Dohan's Family from Despair - @kareman-palestine3

Support Wafa's Fight for Safety and Health - @wafaaabd2 @wafaaresh

Support Nabila's Fight for Health and Dignity - @nabila1960

Help Samir and his family get out of Gaza - @sameer-gaza0

Trapped Family in Gaza Appeals for Help to Survive

Fidaa's Family - @fidaa-family2

Reunite a Family Torn Apart: A Daughter's Plea from Gaza - @hashem-bader

Help Mohiy and his family - @mohiyfamily

I hope people will help me travel outside Gaza - @mohmmed88

Help Rudina's family get out of the country - @samagaza1 @samafamily2

Help Me Secure a Better Future for My Daughters. - @toleen-hassouna

Help Iman and Her Family Survive in War-Torn Gaza - @eman-family

Kawthar family to evacuate from Gaza war - @kaw95thar1

Help us to survive from this war - @mohammed-2007-mohammed

Rebuilding Live: A Mother's Plea for Hope and Safety in Gaza - @noor0

Helping Heba Family : Escaping War to a New Life - @malakfamily

Announcing a campaign to evacuate Ahlam for treatment abroad - @ahlam2ram

Hope and Safety for Amal and Her Children in Gaza - @amalfamilygaza

Help Falastin's Family Survive & Escape the Genocide in Gaza - @falestin-iw

Hope in the Eyes of the Young - @familgazaamal1

Help Mahmoud Support His Family - @mahmoud-gaza10 @mahmoud12-jaafar

Support Shadi's Family in Their Time of Need - @suhailaalwan2 @esraapalestine

Abood Resh's Family - @aboodfamily2

Help Ahmed Jehad and his newborn survive! - @ahmad-syam

Help Zaen and Yehya to get out of Gaza - @hyamshehab222

Jamil Totah's Family - @tahani-family

Support Khawla's Family in Gaza Crisis - @kh-family5

Help Ahmed And His Family Survive In Gaza Crisis - @ahmed-firmly2

Helping the Ahmed Fathi family achieve a better future - @ahmed-fathi-gaza

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

If you haven't watched it I highly recommend watching the videos (you can find them on YouTube)

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

After almost a year, finally presenting:

Bob’s Burgers: Animation Error Part 7

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

Please don’t skip 🍉🇵🇸

"I am Khawla from Gaza, 34 years old. I stand before you as a person trying to support her family of 5: Me, my husband, and my three children: Muhammad, who is 5 years old; Sham, who is 3 years old; and Ghazal, who is nearly a year and a half old. In our terrible conditions, My son Muhammad contracted hepatitis from drinking contaminated water, and both he and Sham are deprived of their right to register in kindergarten, daycare, or other educational institutions. Additionally, due to the circumstances and lack of income, necessary benefits like milk are not provided to baby Ghazal.🫂💙🥺

With that, my husband's livelihood ha been completely destroyed since we are no longer entitled to work; and we expect to live under miserable conditions in tents in Mawasi Khan Yunis. It is difficult for me to find the words to describe what we face every day in Gaza; with no food, no medicine, no clean drinking water; with oppression, helplessness, psychological pressures, doubts, and daily traumas caused by everything around us and inability to care for loved ones. the fear of danger, disease and death never leaves us🍉🫶

Now, I find myself in this difficult situation, and humbly ask for your help to save the lives of my family, especially my children, by getting us out of Gaza or helping us have money for medication or other necessities we may have access to. Asking for help is not easy, but we were left with no choice because we want to survive and we strive to rebuild our broken lives. We are very grateful for any help you can provide, no matter how small, as your help will contribute greatly to alleviating our suffering. I hope you will share my story with your family and friends."🍉🍉💙🇵🇸🇵🇸

Donation link⬇️⬇️

https://www.gofundme.com/f/

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

How long will we stay in this war? How long will we continue to endure death, destruction, fear, torture and heartbreak?💔

What is my children's fault in all this? They are innocent children. We live in fear. We suffer from the ravages of war. Please be with us, support us, and donate for the benefit of my children. War is cruel, and I cannot do anything but protect them with my body from the cold and fear.

Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #196 )

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

We’ll have to do dinner Thursday night instead.

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

Help me create a horror character to draw!

I'll add the other polls soon 👀

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

I am grateful for the assistance I have received so far, but I am still in need of more support to reach my campaign goal swiftly. This will enable me to evacuate my family from Gaza 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸.

Help my family escape Gaza and rebuild our lives My family needs to evacuate Gaza for your safety. My family is struggling without shelter, food or health services. On October 7, 2023, we lost our home and have no plan for the future. Every day is a gamble, we don't know if we will survive. We are launching this GoFundMe for evacuation and basic needs. Your contribution could be a lifeline. Please, help us escape this nightmare. Share our story and stand with us in our time of need. Thanks for your support. Your donation makes a difference. Be the hope the world

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

Fundraising Campaigns for Palestine 🇵🇸

Hello, I've received many messages from people who need our help. I've tried to make sure there is some verification for each one. Please reblog even if you can't donate, it can save lives.

@monagaza1 ⭐️ Campaign: $18,999 / $92,000 - Vetted #164.

@mahmoudjsy ⭐️ Campaign: $3,654 / $25,000 - Vetted #190.

@mohammedaldeeb ⭐️ Campaign: €41,698 / €55,000 - Vetted #212.

@ahmadwaleed55 ⭐️ Campaign: $9,175 / $25,000 - Vetted #167.

@khalid-sisters ⭐️ Campaign: $2,755 / $15,000 - Vetted by association.

@palestinegazafree ⭐️ Campaign: $8,292 / $50,000 - Vetted by 90-ghost.

@hazemsuhail ⭐️ Campaign: €8,755 / €50,000 - Vetted by association.

@mohammednasr ⭐️ Campaign: £115 / £50,000 - Clean reverse image search.

@eyad-alanqar255 ⭐️ Campaign: €1,202 / €40,000 - Vetted by association.

@mahdimoh ⭐️ Campaign: kr930 SEK / kr200,000 - Clean RIS.

@ahmed-al-anqar ⭐️ Campaign: £342 / £60,000 - Vetted #23 by @gazavetters.

@anasalshrofa ⭐️ Campaign: €8,396 / €50,000 - Vetted #913.

@mariam2013y ⭐️ Campaign: $1,141 / $30,000 - Vetted by association.

@mahmoud-1995 ⭐️ Campaign: $15,113 / $50,000 - Vetted by 90-ghost.

@ahmad1988 ⭐️ Campaign: kr2,735 NOK / kr500,000 - Clean RIS.

@noorabd-1992 ⭐️ Campaign: $16,925 / $45,000 - Vetted by association + 90-ghost.

@abedalhdihesham ⭐️ Campaign: $5,605 CAD / $65,000 - Vetted #2 by @gazavetters.

@samialkhalili ⭐️ Campaign: €160 / €50,000 - Vetted #21 by @gazavetters.

@esraayyad14 ⭐️ Campaign: €20,509 / €45,000 - Vetted by 90-ghost.

@khaled-eltaban ⭐️ Campaign: £2,816 / £10,000 - Vetted by 90-ghost.

@farahmohanad2 ⭐️ Campaign: $2,532 / $35,000 - Vetted by association.

@mariam-gaza ⭐️ Campaign: $919 / $20,000 - Vetted by association.

@amnyaburas ⭐️ Campaign: $1,354 CAD / $68,000 - Vetted #17 by @gazavetters.

@balsamibrahim ⭐️ Campaign: €16,128 / €100,000 - Very likely legitimate.

@mohamedabuzoor ⭐️ Campaign: €1,682 / €60,000 - Vetted #503 and #27 by @gazavetters.

@majedgh2 ⭐️ Campaign: $5,141 / $70,000 - Clean RIS.

@abood-gaza3 ⭐️ Campaign: $7,423 / $40,000 - Vetted by association.

@ashraf-baker5 ⭐️ Campaign: €23,069 / €25,000 - Vetted by 90-ghost.

@asmaa-needs ⭐️ Campaign: €5,729 / €20,000 - Clean RIS.

@mohamed-meq ⭐️ Campaign: €314 / €90,000 - Clean RIS.

@help-mona ⭐️ Campaign: €9,134 / €185,300 - Vetted by 90-ghost.

@maysaayahya85 ⭐️ Campaign: €544 / €35,000 - Vetted by association.

+ I would appreciate being informed of any mistakes I may have made.

Updated as of September 16th, 2024.

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

The Internet Archive is vital for academia, especially academics who don't have access to institutional subscriptions/resources.

This is absolutely catastrophic.

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

I AM LA REVACHOLIÈRE.

I AM THE CITY.

BE VIGILANT.

I LOVE YOU.

[ideasfromanotherapocalypse]

(if you're seeing this post directly from apolladay just reblog DON'T VOTE as I think it will skew the answers. i didn't have enough followers to justify posting it myself lol)

I frequently realize I've been following someone for a while, but actually don't know what their profile picture depicts.