ABOUT

This project is stewarded by Cy X (they/we), a black queer agender cyberwitch, love influencer, and pleasure ceremonialist. Cy attended New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program from 2019 to 2021 developing a cyber witch practice focused on the relationships between magic, rituals, and technology. After graduating the program, they left with more questions and newfound curiosities.

When did technology become something that was mostly associated with machines and the software of so-called “genius” white men?

What would it be like to reclaim our ability to cast spells, engage in magic making, and create change across time and space with or without our computers and devices?

What if we see our cyber technologies as earth-based and our earth-based practices as technologies?

Setting the Intentions

This coven and any resulting spells center the experiences of black and brown queer and trans people, many of whose technologies have been regarded as inferior, obsolete, or unintelligible.

This collective space (online, offline, asynchronous, synchronous) and any resulting spells are not and will never be for institutions who are seeking to commodify for their own material gains and ego. You have been warned.

Background

This project, like many things, was not created in energetic isolation. Shared Body (fka Portal.Web) began as my 2021 Processing Foundation Fellowship project with Johanna Hedva as mentor.

The Processing Foundation supports artists, coders, and collectives in expanding the communities of technology and the arts to include and support those who have not had equal access because of their race, gender, class, sexuality, and/or disability.

This project will continue and be developed further in a yearlong residency at The Culture Hub.

2023 Update

Shared Body continues to morph and grow! It’s core ethos is still alive and it continues to expand now connecting the threads between the body, earth, technology, and the erotic. There will still be almost monthly activations, open residencies, and educational resources archived here throughout the year. After the Water as Technology Open Residency, Cy made a call to action for others to utilize that same format. Cy will be creating a toolkit to make the process easier for others, in the meantime, if you’re curious about starting an open residency, please reach out!