Objectification of Morals

There exists an interesting sphere of lifeless words in our languages; funny relics, lofty items nagged to pieces, words simply not understood and words we refuse to understand. Abstract concepts as such always run the risk of being emptied of shared experience and sensory images. Just think about the whole moralist arsenal: words that have been ruminated in the public sphere until only the letters and sounds are left. But that isn't the whole picture. Because, in this worn out state perhaps they can be experienced anew without being topridden by semantics and conventional circumstances. For example, one may, like in early childhood, let the concepts grow concrete, on the hither side of their meaning; to draw forth phonetic associations, inner images and on the whole push the empathy of the senses before the material possibilities of language, thus disturbing the coagulations of symbolic identity logic. Collective experimenting in this spirit should also be able to provide certain insights into, or experiences of, those processes that once gave birth to language: this broken promise and this summons to new agreements.

This game emerged from a discussion about the moral concepts and our alienated feelings towards them. We focused on exploring the "seven deadly sins" just because we have no relations to them. The game transforms abstractions into things without any urge to symbolize or redefine: when the word becomes flesh it simply sits down next to us, like a chair on the chair.

The first operation of the game exploits the material fantasy: Choose an abstract concept. Independent of one another, each player chooses a single material characteristic he/she associates with the concept; like blue, crisp, pointed, smoking etc. Together, using analogical thinking, the players then have to decide which object may possess every single one of these characteristics, and which exists in the material world out there. As objects we have chosen not to count invented things, where the substantive needs a determination (such as jelly chair).

Niklas Nenzén

Envy Sharp Sugary Smoking        Black Fast

Gluttony (excess) Greasy Brown Sticky Ample Swarming             Vomit-smelling Dying

Greed Square        Wounded Slippery Moist Creaking

Pride Crank (naut.) Bubbly Tense           Pointed Pointed Pointed

Fornication (lust, lechery) Finned Scratched Jerky Soiled Twiggy Sweet Leaking

Wrath Burning Crisp Convergent       Cracked  Woody

Acedia (indifference) Hermetic Flat Dusty Insurveyable         Floury Monochrome Transparent Monochrome

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Sloth Tottering Runny Heavy Green Soily Solvable Viscous

Lying Rough Warming Shelled Fat Metallic-shining   Yellow Sticky Slick