CANSELLED/POSTPONED TO 2022
Open Stage at Pixelache 21 - sign up
Sign up notes
Character archetypes
Riot queers
No change has ever happened by asking nicely, oppression begins to back away only when bricks hit the air. There are many ways of resistance from open and direct movements to personal and symbolic, and from tearing down oppression to building self-sufficiency outside of it’s reach. Resistance is a part of your identity and a part of your queer identity. Naming oppression and positioning one’s self in opposition with it can be scary and hard, but it also gives some kind of a piece of mind in taking ownership of one’s life. Because oppression would be there - in opposition with you - anyway.
Riot Queer: New Face of Riot
Two years ago you would have never guessed you would become some sort of a public face of queer resistance. It just sort of happened mostly because you are active, passionate and don’t avoid that spotlight (like many - for totally valid reasons - do). You have complicated feelings about being in the spotlight. You would be lying if you said the subculture ‘fame’ part of it doesn’t feel good, but it’s also taxing especially when you’re doing so much other stuff too. You kind of know should probably rest more, but don’t really know how to make it happen.
Riot Queer: Veteran
You have been public about queer resistance for a long time, from the first steps of some of the important groups. Others trust your experience and you take some pride in it. You’re happy about New Face of Riot and others taking some of the expectations off of you, but there’s also a hint of jealousy in letting go of the spotlight.
[The character probably isn’t that old - like someone in their thirties has had enough time to be around and become this archetype.]
Riot Queer: Nihilist
Humankind is racing to self-destruction and meanwhile accelerating in cruelty towards our own and other species’. Because capitalism. Resistance is self-care and survival. Concretely in antifascism is self-defence and for your mind: when the shitpile that is oppression is burning even a little at some corner, you can feel a moment of peace in the warmth of the flames. You don’t necessarily mean to romantice nihilism, but often end up doing so.
Riot Queer: Academia
The official systems of knowledge are authoritarian to their core and linked to both capitalism and other forms of oppression. But you still want to have a career in your field of study. It’s a calling and you do want to believe that the academic world can change. Or at least for now you do, because you often feel like you’re losing this one. Maybe the system cannot be changed from within. Maybe it’s time to find other ways to do what you love. Maybe it’s time to find that brick.
Riot Queer: Squat
Squatting is both to attack and to build. It shows that oppressive walls can be challenged. To take back, to take autonomy. You still appreciate the rush of a new space, but nowadays focus more on long term projects. It’s easy to romantice all of this (and it deserves to be romanticised!) but you always remember you found your first squat in a time of very concrete need for a roof over your head.
Soft Queers
Queer scenes tends to value things like care and emotional labour as actual labour. And not to just expect it just because someone has done it before and is good in it. Usually. In principle. Soft queers personify care: self-care, care for close ones and community care. You build the softness and safety (with limits) that bring people together in a sustainable way. But soft does not equal mild or meek. Safe can enable intense.
Soft Queer: DIT
Using DIT as a term does not mean not think less of the more classic DIY, which you totally value! DIT just highlights co-operation and skillshare in DIY. The self-sufficiency of your dreams is communal. You can fix a bike, a porch and maybe even a phone, but at the moment it feels important to focus on learning skills like fixing clothes and gathering edible plants. The kind of stuff your grandmother knew.
Soft Queer: Community Elder
You kind of personify queer communality in Helsinki-scene. You’re the trusted one, the warm one who’s always been here, the one who gets things done. You’ve been a part of some legendary clubs and other projects and you still have enough contacts to that one big rainbow-association to be able to borrow their resources from time to time. The one you stopped being active in when you got frustrated in assimilation politics.
[The character probably isn’t that old - like someone in their thirties has had enough time to be around and become this archetype.]
Soft Queer: Soft Voice
You have the spoons and the passion to talk about inclusion and intersectional issues a lot. Even in public. And even online, but mostly to and inside your communities. You believe in radical softness and radical vulnerability and you practise what you preach. And that’s why people listen to you. Softness does not mean a pushover: you’ve become very good at naming and enforcing your limits when needed. Which leads to a weird situation where you’re sometimes seen as very angry or very brave when you don’t really see yourself as either.
Soft Queer: Iron Nurse
There’s a surprising amount of queerpunks working in care. Not enough to overrun the feeling of otherness in a cishet-normative work environment. But enough to not feel alone. And enough to warrant the term queerpunks in care. Care is a heavy line work you thrive in not by being tough, but by being present and by doing the good kind self care that names limits and seeks support (not the capitalist bullshit kind!).
Soft Queer: Queer Youth Care (Iron Nurse variant)
You’re a youth worker specialised on working with queer kids. This kind of work gets really close to you and you try to have the limits you want to keep clear in your mind. Your presence is maybe not the easygoing smiles -kind good for hospital wards, but based more on being an example. Showing that people can be incomplete and have faults and still be reliable.
Art Queers
You live for and through your art. And your art is queer. You probably both hope for and fear the day your art would not have to be about (your) otherness. Queer art is intimate and that can get complicated. The feeling of having a voice (being a voice) is empowering, but there’s also the lingering fear of being met as an object to voyer upon, the exotic other.
Art Queer: Art School
A year from now, you’ll graduate from a prestigious art school knowing that you’ll be able to make a living with a career in art. Being a highly trained professional is an important part of your identity, but the closer you get to graduating, the more unsure you get about being able to combine being a professional artist and a queer artist. If you’re supposed to be able to see art as a (paid) job, does it make sense to pour the deepest and most vulnerable parts of yourself into it.
Art Queer: Career Launch
You have just got your first grant, contract or other chance to make your art without worrying about anything else for a while. This is your dream right here, you’re living your dream. Still, the pressure to succeed and make the most of this chance sometimes makes it difficult to enjoy yourself (or to take care of yourself). Or actually, quite often. But then comes the next moment of flow and you’re invinsible and full of joy again.
Art Queer: Cishet Money
You're a professional queer artist who has found some sort of balance on having art as a job and making intimate art from adjusting to different audiences how much of yourself you pour into your work. Often this means selling surface to cishets and you're a bit sad about how little time and energy that leaves to do other stuff. Still, wouldn't go back to always cruising at two minutes to burnout, balance is a precious thing.
Art Queer: DIY
You don't want to make art within power structures like capitalism and official art education, you visited that world shortly and saw it offers no wellbeing for you or your art. So you've learned your skills in more horizontal, peer to peer ways. You're into art as a part of grassroot exchange economy and other means of income that fit into your art work. You want to make art direct to people: raw, open and uncompromised.
Art Queer: Underground Star
You’re maybe the hottest name of the underground scene of queer [drag or some other performing art]. The ug-scene is super important to you, it’s the first community you’ve felt you can truly be yourself, it’s a family. That’s why you want to stay furiously loyal to your roots if you manage to make this a profession. Which is something you’d like, but only if it’s possible to do without compromises in your art or in who you are.
Open Stage at Pixelache 21 - sign up
- First check out the notes and the list of character archetypes below. (And the game's main page, if you didn't allready.)
- Then fill out the SIGN UP FORM
- You'll get a message about participant selection and a short character info at the beginning of April. And full character at the beginning of May
- For any questions, you can reach me at pihlajaisuni at gmail dot com
Sign up notes
- Age limit 18
- The game is designed for lgbtq+ players, with a few spots open for allies. Materials use the word queer and the position this game takes is queer (as in this is queer art by a queer artist), but queer does not need to be a word all players or their characters use. This is completely about your own identification and no one will measure if you're "enough of something" - yes you are!
- Sign up form ask - for the purposes of casting romantic contacts - what will your characters gender and sexual/romantic orientation be. You can leave this empty if you're not interested in having romantic contacts for your character.
- The characters share the gender and sexuality of their players, not neseccarily identical, but similar enough that the queer experience is shared. Some differences can make for an interesting viewpoint to your own experience. This is also what enables cishet-ally participation: having a "what if" -viewpoint to yourself.
Character archetypes
- Open Stage uses concept-like character descriptions of three queer clans with five character archetypes in each.
- The clans are a shared part of the archetype, not actual in game groups
- These are short descriptions for sign up. The final versions are a bit longer but still very much concepts - leaving room for the player to flesh out and modify their character.
Riot queers
No change has ever happened by asking nicely, oppression begins to back away only when bricks hit the air. There are many ways of resistance from open and direct movements to personal and symbolic, and from tearing down oppression to building self-sufficiency outside of it’s reach. Resistance is a part of your identity and a part of your queer identity. Naming oppression and positioning one’s self in opposition with it can be scary and hard, but it also gives some kind of a piece of mind in taking ownership of one’s life. Because oppression would be there - in opposition with you - anyway.
Riot Queer: New Face of Riot
Two years ago you would have never guessed you would become some sort of a public face of queer resistance. It just sort of happened mostly because you are active, passionate and don’t avoid that spotlight (like many - for totally valid reasons - do). You have complicated feelings about being in the spotlight. You would be lying if you said the subculture ‘fame’ part of it doesn’t feel good, but it’s also taxing especially when you’re doing so much other stuff too. You kind of know should probably rest more, but don’t really know how to make it happen.
Riot Queer: Veteran
You have been public about queer resistance for a long time, from the first steps of some of the important groups. Others trust your experience and you take some pride in it. You’re happy about New Face of Riot and others taking some of the expectations off of you, but there’s also a hint of jealousy in letting go of the spotlight.
[The character probably isn’t that old - like someone in their thirties has had enough time to be around and become this archetype.]
Riot Queer: Nihilist
Humankind is racing to self-destruction and meanwhile accelerating in cruelty towards our own and other species’. Because capitalism. Resistance is self-care and survival. Concretely in antifascism is self-defence and for your mind: when the shitpile that is oppression is burning even a little at some corner, you can feel a moment of peace in the warmth of the flames. You don’t necessarily mean to romantice nihilism, but often end up doing so.
Riot Queer: Academia
The official systems of knowledge are authoritarian to their core and linked to both capitalism and other forms of oppression. But you still want to have a career in your field of study. It’s a calling and you do want to believe that the academic world can change. Or at least for now you do, because you often feel like you’re losing this one. Maybe the system cannot be changed from within. Maybe it’s time to find other ways to do what you love. Maybe it’s time to find that brick.
Riot Queer: Squat
Squatting is both to attack and to build. It shows that oppressive walls can be challenged. To take back, to take autonomy. You still appreciate the rush of a new space, but nowadays focus more on long term projects. It’s easy to romantice all of this (and it deserves to be romanticised!) but you always remember you found your first squat in a time of very concrete need for a roof over your head.
Soft Queers
Queer scenes tends to value things like care and emotional labour as actual labour. And not to just expect it just because someone has done it before and is good in it. Usually. In principle. Soft queers personify care: self-care, care for close ones and community care. You build the softness and safety (with limits) that bring people together in a sustainable way. But soft does not equal mild or meek. Safe can enable intense.
Soft Queer: DIT
Using DIT as a term does not mean not think less of the more classic DIY, which you totally value! DIT just highlights co-operation and skillshare in DIY. The self-sufficiency of your dreams is communal. You can fix a bike, a porch and maybe even a phone, but at the moment it feels important to focus on learning skills like fixing clothes and gathering edible plants. The kind of stuff your grandmother knew.
Soft Queer: Community Elder
You kind of personify queer communality in Helsinki-scene. You’re the trusted one, the warm one who’s always been here, the one who gets things done. You’ve been a part of some legendary clubs and other projects and you still have enough contacts to that one big rainbow-association to be able to borrow their resources from time to time. The one you stopped being active in when you got frustrated in assimilation politics.
[The character probably isn’t that old - like someone in their thirties has had enough time to be around and become this archetype.]
Soft Queer: Soft Voice
You have the spoons and the passion to talk about inclusion and intersectional issues a lot. Even in public. And even online, but mostly to and inside your communities. You believe in radical softness and radical vulnerability and you practise what you preach. And that’s why people listen to you. Softness does not mean a pushover: you’ve become very good at naming and enforcing your limits when needed. Which leads to a weird situation where you’re sometimes seen as very angry or very brave when you don’t really see yourself as either.
Soft Queer: Iron Nurse
There’s a surprising amount of queerpunks working in care. Not enough to overrun the feeling of otherness in a cishet-normative work environment. But enough to not feel alone. And enough to warrant the term queerpunks in care. Care is a heavy line work you thrive in not by being tough, but by being present and by doing the good kind self care that names limits and seeks support (not the capitalist bullshit kind!).
Soft Queer: Queer Youth Care (Iron Nurse variant)
You’re a youth worker specialised on working with queer kids. This kind of work gets really close to you and you try to have the limits you want to keep clear in your mind. Your presence is maybe not the easygoing smiles -kind good for hospital wards, but based more on being an example. Showing that people can be incomplete and have faults and still be reliable.
Art Queers
You live for and through your art. And your art is queer. You probably both hope for and fear the day your art would not have to be about (your) otherness. Queer art is intimate and that can get complicated. The feeling of having a voice (being a voice) is empowering, but there’s also the lingering fear of being met as an object to voyer upon, the exotic other.
Art Queer: Art School
A year from now, you’ll graduate from a prestigious art school knowing that you’ll be able to make a living with a career in art. Being a highly trained professional is an important part of your identity, but the closer you get to graduating, the more unsure you get about being able to combine being a professional artist and a queer artist. If you’re supposed to be able to see art as a (paid) job, does it make sense to pour the deepest and most vulnerable parts of yourself into it.
Art Queer: Career Launch
You have just got your first grant, contract or other chance to make your art without worrying about anything else for a while. This is your dream right here, you’re living your dream. Still, the pressure to succeed and make the most of this chance sometimes makes it difficult to enjoy yourself (or to take care of yourself). Or actually, quite often. But then comes the next moment of flow and you’re invinsible and full of joy again.
Art Queer: Cishet Money
You're a professional queer artist who has found some sort of balance on having art as a job and making intimate art from adjusting to different audiences how much of yourself you pour into your work. Often this means selling surface to cishets and you're a bit sad about how little time and energy that leaves to do other stuff. Still, wouldn't go back to always cruising at two minutes to burnout, balance is a precious thing.
Art Queer: DIY
You don't want to make art within power structures like capitalism and official art education, you visited that world shortly and saw it offers no wellbeing for you or your art. So you've learned your skills in more horizontal, peer to peer ways. You're into art as a part of grassroot exchange economy and other means of income that fit into your art work. You want to make art direct to people: raw, open and uncompromised.
Art Queer: Underground Star
You’re maybe the hottest name of the underground scene of queer [drag or some other performing art]. The ug-scene is super important to you, it’s the first community you’ve felt you can truly be yourself, it’s a family. That’s why you want to stay furiously loyal to your roots if you manage to make this a profession. Which is something you’d like, but only if it’s possible to do without compromises in your art or in who you are.
