Specifications: 1hr 30 min, 70 people
The Queer Art of Spin the Bottle
A pleasure garden commissioned by Skinship (Berlin) for WHOLE Festival. The Queer Art of Spin the Bottle reimagines the popular party game many people experienced as teenagers, exploring its historical origins in divination and restructuring it to centre expansive approaches to sexuality, gender diversity, and kink practices.
It is interested in chance and distribution of affection: what happens if the person who receives your attention and warmth is chosen by chance, rather than chosen through the orientations of our desire, and therefore, hierarchies of desirability?
The Queer Art of Spin the Bottle incorporates hand-drawn cards to gameify and diversify ways to participate. Avgi Saketopoulou’s ideas around “limit consent” are applied to liberate and complicate how consent functions in the game, while being aware that part of the game’s erotic appeal is in “bending will” (Saketopoulou), playing with exhibitionism/voyeurism, and social pressures.
Time-travelling evocation of participants’ early memories of sexual experimentation is central in its affect, allowing participants to re-enter the playful space with different knowledge and values.
- “Joker” playing cards, a nod to Skinship
- “???” playing cards, a nod to Skinship
- Draft flowchart with the rules of the game