Ghost Camps are communal camping moments where participants are invited to re-imagine the traditional mythologies around the left through workshops, readings and screenings. How are ideas of communities, ecology and agency mutating through the prism of digital culture and silicon valley business models. What are the pitfalls of those mythologies and how to overcome them.

With the revival of right-wing and fascist ideologies Ghost Camp finds ways of discussing these mechanisms and find alternative counter strategies and practical ways of defense. Noticing their use of survival camps to enhance communal bonds Ghost Camp uses that same strategy as a counter tactic. Where those camps usually result in an even further exclusive and disconnected community the aim is to provide something starting communal that can, in turn, become inclusive and outwards looking.

For this edition focus has been on bio-hacking or reclaiming the freedom to heal your body outside of a state / company structure. Larping and larping rules as potential for negotiating exchange in a post #metoo era. Capture the alt-right flag and how to build your survival kit. In general and as an overall umbrella theme, we are looking at edging and separation as violence against ecosystems of persons (in the broad sense, plants, humans, animals, AI etc…)

This project is organized under the umbrella of the Mycological Twist in collaboration with Leslie Kulesh. This years Ghost Camp was hosted by La Dépendance, an artist-residency program run by Jan van Oordt. It concluded with a display of the remnants of workshops via an informal walk through the different notions explored during those 3 days.

Ghost Camp 2 featured contributions by YGRG, Holly White, OMSK Social Club, Joey Holder, Huw Lemmey, Leslie Kulesh, Raffael Dörig and Jean-Francois Henry.
With many thanks to all participants: Dane Sutherland, Holly White, Jan M. Kunkel, Jan van Oordt, Joey Holder, Juliette Desorgues, Lea Collet, Marios Stamatis, Nilz Källgren, Penny Rafferty, Rosanna Puyol, Samuel Capps, Thomas Sidali.

Full program:

👻 Ghost Camp 2 👻 – 6/10 Sept 2018

Arrival on the 6th:
Introductory sound piece: Huw Lemmey – Spiritual doctor
Distribution of Leslie’s Pockets.

Day 1:
Breakfast : Text 1 YGRG – Element 74 by Syinat Sultanalieva http://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/9831/being-lgbtq-element-174-syinat-sultanalieva-shtab (a short queer sci fi story by the writer from Bishkek)
Morning 10am – Foray for Edible and Medicinal plants
Lunch
Afternoon – Fabric dye
Diner
Evening – Defense against the dark Troll: Dungeon and Dragon edition

Day 2: (8th)
Breakfast : Text 2 YGRG – Toward a cybernetic communism: the technology of the anti-family by Nina Power https://libcom.org/library/toward-cybernetic-communism-technology-anti-family-nina-power (more serious text, a critique of Shulamiths Firestone’s Dialectic of Sex, an analysis of emancipatory powers of technology)
Morning – LARP / OMSK Social Club
Lunch – Contraceptive Lunch
Afternoon – DIY Recipes by: Karin Borer – How to build a coockoo chair; Aurelio Kopainig – How to make sour dough and bake bread with it; Maya Minder – Kimchi/Fermenting ideas; Silvia Studerus – experiments with boredom. Contributed by Raffael Dörig, as a part of “I Am Flowers. I Am Animals” at Kunsthaus Langenthal.
Diner
Evening – DIY Calendula (and plants from foray) Oil with Holly

Day 3: (9th)
Breakfast : Text 3 YGRG – Les Guérillères by Monique Wittig from page 85 in the book until page 97 (attached, is a novel about a war of the sexes, where women ‘engage in bloody, victorious battles using knives, machine guns and rocket launchers’.[1]Moreover, sympathetic males join them in their combat.)
Morning – Capture the Alt-Flag
Lunch
Afternoon – Free time?? Or Recap group discussion??
Diner
Evening – ‘Adcredo – The Deep Belief Network’ by Joey Holder – 30 min

Day 4: (10th)
Travel Home