A conversation with Joanna Riquett about ritual
A conversation about ritual, narrative openness and creating a space in which people can bring their own meanings.
Joanna Riquett is a Colombian acquaintance of Zéphir who has worked in narrative design. At the time of our conversation she was based in Colombia and expected to be in Paris at the end of June. We spoke about how ritual and narrative might shape the installation without prescribing what people should experience.
Do not tell people what to feel. We imagined a parody of the worst version of the experience, with a voice booming: YOU FEEL GOOOOOD. YOU FEEEEL CONNNEECTEDD. Explicit instructions leave little room for interpretation and may make people want to leave. Food for thought, by contrast, gives them a reason to stay and contemplate.
Begin with a small ritual. Taking off shoes or putting on a robe could mark the threshold into the installation. The robe did not need to resemble a monk’s clothing; its purpose would be to give participants something shared that gently unified them.
Joanna described an immersive desert experience that began with a loud sandstorm before arriving at an oasis. It suggested that an experience could have a clear arc and atmosphere without explaining exactly what that arc meant.
Leave space for people to bring their own narrative. The installation could plant seeds for inquiry through mystery, an unfamiliar object, or relationships people might not otherwise have considered. Rather than supplying all the meaning, it could let participants bring their own ideas into it.
One possibility was to invite people to bring an object that mattered to them and share its meaning. We discussed community-sharing and trauma-recovery practices, including Dharma sharing circles after meditation, where people listen without judgement or immediate reaction. Verbalising an experience, having it understood and hearing I hear you can create a sense of validation and acceptance.
Make the space intuitively non-threatening. Within that openness, the experience still needs a few strong pillars: fundamental ideas that work reliably and remain clearly present without dictating what every participant should think or feel.