"Ludomancy: Games as Occult Practice in Between States"

Games and the occult are deeply intertwined, from the first knucklebone dice used in both divination and gambling, to the ritualistically encoded ancient Egyptian board game of Senet, to the arcane tarot cards that serve simultaneously as card game and devices for cartomantic fortune telling. The Magician card to whom the Trans-States 3 Conference is consecrated is in French the “jongleur” (juggler or mountebank): a man whose altar doubles as a cardsharp’s table. Games exist in a trans-state par excellence: between frivolity and profundity, the material and the digital, this world and the other(s). In this talk, the presenter will explore games as a means of shifting between states of being and consciousness, with particular focus on two case studies, both of which he works on as a designer: Deadhaus Sonata and The Arcana Ritual Theater. Deadhaus Sonata’s Trinary Archetype system allows players to shift between physical, magickal, and essential states. Similarly, Arcana is a ceremonial magick simulator which enables players to perform occult rituals in a magic theater to summon spirits, perform astral projection, and unlock the mysteries of the multiverse. Similar examples of digital and tabletop games will reveal play as an occult practice. While the Satanic panic of the 1980’s may have been literally false in its claims that Dungeons and Dragons was a route toward Satanism, games can function as imaginative gateways to other planes of existence (whether the Egyptian astrological magic of Nephilim, the Left Hand Path Qlippothic Gnosticism of Kult, the magisterial, multimodal magic of Invisible Sun, or the solitary hermetic magic of Seekers Beyond the Shroud). Through theoretical analysis and practical performance, the presenter will conjure up a vision of ludomancy (the magic of play), suggesting that it can reveal the play at magic’s heart and open up playful space within ossified traditions

Mindful Pregnancy

Presentation materiuals used by publishers at London Book Fair and Frankfurt Book Fairs 2015/1

ANTI Contemporary Art Festival 2017: Water

This curatorial practice research gathered international artists and performance makers with academics and actors working in the fields of public health policy, local and national governance and environmental and biological sciences to deliver a programme of publicly sited and participatory performance works and a seminar focused on the politics, poetics, aesthetics and ecological paradigms of water. Produced by ANTI Contemporary Art Festival (Kuopio, Finland) in partnership with the Finnish organisation Our Water Conscious Land, the research presented an interdisciplinary set of enquiries that, across creative and discursive frameworks examined how water, and the processes that enable and construct human interaction, are variously apprehended in terms of political and ecological crisis and danger (the human cost of waterborne migration, global warming etc.) and (allied to romanticism’s natural-world narratives and historical cultural/creative practices) as ‘life giving’ and the locus of ‘progress’, leisure, urbanism, civility and exploration. The performance works offered open engagement with, and reflection on, these propositions to a broad public audience of 11,000 people, with presentations including: Mark Požlep (SI), Island; Gwendoline Robin (BE), Cratère n°6899; Milla & Pertti Martikainen (FI), Global Flood; Anouska Samms & Sofia Pancucci-McQueen (UK): The Baths, Professor Minty Donald & Nick Millar (UK), Watermeets Kuopio; French & Mottershead (UK), Waterborne; River Lin (TW), Cleansing Service; Instant Dissidence (UK): Dancing With Strangers: From Calais to Finland; Alan Dunn & Jeff Young (UK), Music for the Williamson Tunnels: a collection of the sound of dripping water; Kaaos Company (FI), Pond. The international seminar Politics and Poetics of Water included presentations from programmed artists Milla Martikainen and Andrew Mottershead alongside: Antti Rautavaara, Senior Water Advisor, Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tiina Arpola & Antti Kotimaa, Savonia University of Applied Sciences & Games for Health, and Simo Pehkonen, Professor of Environmental and Biosciences, University of Eastern Finland

Understanding entrepreneurial deviance through social learning and entrepreneurial action theory: an empirical study

Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine entrepreneurial deviance from the perspective of New Zealand's commercial honey producers. The study adopts entrepreneurial action and social learning theories and proposes a theoretical framework in the context of entrepreneurial deviance. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through online surveys from 52 professional beekeepers. Findings: Overstocking of beehives, encroachment, biosecurity threats and unfair competition were most common forms of deviance affecting participants. While these predominantly responded through investing in disease prevention, security equipment or by reporting deviant incidents, finding proper solutions remains elusive. The findings revealed robust alignments with both theories. Overall, offenders’ perceived incentives to act illustrate alignment with social learning theory’s four key constructs. Entrepreneurial action emerged through individual perpetrators’ evaluation and subsequent maximisation of potentially lucrative opportunities. Originality/value: The study addresses an important and under-researched dimension, notably, the negative or “dark” side of entrepreneurs, in this case, illustrated through greed and disregard for fair and proper ways of conducting business. This knowledge gap is even more obvious among small and medium business, which is also the focus of the research. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

Uncertainty and adaptation in the context of Brexit: An entrepreneurial action and dynamic capabilities approach

Purpose – The purpose of this exploratory study is to propose a framework to understand firms’ adaptation to uncertainty and change, specifically, in regards to the perceived impacts of the Brexit phenomenon. In doing so, the study considers entrepreneurial action theory (EAT) and the dynamic capabilities approach (DCA). Design/methodology/approach – Face-to-face interviews were conducted with owners and managers of 34 family-run firms operating in Italy’s Prosecco Superiore and Spain’s Cava industries. Findings – The element of uncertainty due to the imminent Brexit decision clearly emerged, and was demonstrated through various effects on firms, including the falling British Pound. The findings revealed that combining the EAT and the DCA provides a stronger explanation in understanding adaptation to uncertainty. For example, sensing (DCA) was suggested to be a precursor of opportunity attention and evaluation (EAT), or recognising opportunities, and was subsequently manifested by operators’ action, or seizing (DCA), including through more involvement in exports and wine tourism. Originality/value – The study is one of the few efforts to date to examine the potential impacts of an uncontrollable contemporary phenomenon, and ways to adapt from the perspective of entrepreneurs involved in a traditional and socioeconomically significant industry. The different adaptive strategies that emerged from the findings can provide practical insights. The proposed framework emphasises the theoretical and practical value of understanding adaptation through the lens of the adopted theoretical foundations