February Chronicle by Felix Bahret and Eli Witteman.

what is tradition? while each of our pasts surely remain within us, propel us, haunt us, etc., speaking of tradition implies an affirmation – conscious or otherwise – of historical patterns, habits or conventions. traditions are not always retrospective or representations of hegemonic rule. there are “radical traditions” (cedric j. robinson) aimed at transformation, as forms of knowledge, originating from a shared experience and culminating in fights of resistance. each instance generating know-hows and resources for the next. traditions are bound up with our cultural make-up and hasty dismissal can trigger traumatic responses. therefore, we had to proceed in the most cautious and responsible ways. thus, rather than defying or validating certain notions of tradition, we have first been focusing on in-depth introductions of ourselves. our intersectional identity “pizzas” are spiritual self-portraits. looking at the entirety of our personalities: which are the ingredients, the people, events, environments and artefacts that shaped our lives? what would be the sum, however simplified or shrewd, of what makes us ‘us’?

in preparing these chronicles, we were wondering whether we could re-stage these attempts of understanding, intuiting or even sensing the other, like we had done in various exercises before, by turning the visual residues of our pizzas into quiz material. the audio piece attached cuts up the - futile - negotiations aimed at constructing the logic of a game, a self-perpetuating machine that would recover some of the thrill of the actual, in-person encounters of previous sessions. rather than re-presenting the content of these games/images and thereby rendering individuals recognisable, we isolated the supporting-chatter, deemed inessential, which highlights the potential awkwardness of online social space.