Exploring tools for
re-enchantment

A weekly discussion group dialoguing on literature topics such as industrial managerial control, enclosure of the commons and the role of the body in the reproduction of labor.

In parallel, we developed strategies and designed embodied liberation tools for re-enchantment.

Our current techno-capitalist age, while producing systems of alienation and exploitation, also provides a range of opportunities for attention, strategizing, attunement, interpretation and imagination.

Max Weber wrote at the turn of the 20th century that modernity is characterized by the “disenchantment of the world,” that is the progressive elimination of magical and mystical thought in favor of secularized, rational and scientific thinking. This disenchantment paired with the emergence of an industrialized society and a capitalist economy, pushing forward technological development but also exploitation of resources and the prominence of disembodied, scientific thinking over other ways of knowing the world.

Re-enchantment toolkit

The commons

"It is to the discovery of reasons and logics other than those of capitalist development that I refer when I speak of ‘re-enchanting the world,’ a practice that I believe is central to most anti-systemic movements and a precondition for resistance to exploitation. If all we know and crave is what capitalism has produced, then any hope of qualitative change is doomed.

- Federici, Silvia

Throughout our discussion, we define commons to be autonomous spaces and should aim to overcome the divisions existing among us and build the skills necessary for self-government. it is also the first and foremost of social relations that represents the willingness to spend much time in the work of cooperation, discussing, negotiating, and learning to deal with conflicts and disagreement.

Text Visualizations

This word zone is categorized by works which shows the top three most popular works with five most frequently mentioned characters.
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We can know that Harry Potter 's characters appears in the reviews most frequently with "Harry", "Hermione". and "Draco" being mentioned most of the times.

This word zone shows the top five most frequent words including nouns, verbs, and props, etc. corresponding to three positive emotions.

The size of words are also ordered by their frequencies in our dataset

Reflection

Through coding one of the largest existing text corpora, understanding corresponding emotions, and prototyping data visualizations, I realized data driven opportunities can foster connections and empathy between individuals and create more possibilities in design. Moreover, the insights from this research can help the formation and sustenance of interpersonal connections online and maintain the supportive environment for teenagers.