thN Lng folk 2go.

The Confraternity of Neoflagellants (Norman Hogg, Sargeant-at-Law and Neil Mullholland, Keeper of the Wardrobe)

The Confraternity of Neoflagellants are lay peoples dedicated to the ascetic application, dissemination and treatment of neomedievalism in contemporary culture. Borne of the new irrationalism of zombie capitalism, they are attuned to the scent of medieval in the creative commons, in the folkmote, the plateau of middle, in the unbundled territoriality of post-post-industrialism. Working with our ensemble of fellow neomedieval travellers, the Confraternity are currently researching the collaborative manufacture of a portable reliquary device, which will meet the hand luggage specifications of major airlines and can also transform into a full-scale gallery exhibition-to-go. This technological reliquary of contemporary relics will tour the earth’s continents, revealing and renewing its treasures in each of its sites of pilgrimage.

thN Lng folk 2go is a fantasy travelogue. This swarm-authored illuminated user’s manual will simultaneously validate and ritualise the reliquary device within a mythical canon, providing a non-linear object biography of the artefacts it contains. Multiple manuscript sources detailing the real and imagined journeys of famous medieval travelers—such as Prester John, Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville and John Capgrave—will be mashed-up with accounts of contemporary international travel reproduced in memetic commercial and fan websites, in film and television, and in popular fiction and travel writing. These traveler’s tales will be reanimated in the adventure block format of the ‘Fighting Fantasy’ role-play novel. True to FF game play, the reader will be prompted by multiple numbered choices giving the impression of progress through time and space. As they follow their quest, however, it will become apparent that only the central pages of the book have been transcribed—all paths now lead back to the perpetual present of the geographic middle ground. It is the epicentre of the book that provides its beginning and end. Here, within this spatiotemporal flux, virtual pilgrims will find an operating manual containing the deployment of its delights.

RELEASE DATE: Spring/Summer 2012

The Confraternity of Neoflagellants are lay peoples dedicated to the ascetic application, dissemination and treatment of neomedievalism in contemporary culture. Borne of the new irrationalism of zombie capitalism, they are attuned to the scent of medieval in the creative commons, in the folkmote, in the molar time of the plateau of middle, in the unbundled territoriality of post-post-industrialism. Their investigations so far include, but are not limited to, a series of published features on neomedieval art, the exhibition “Avalon” at the Embassy Gallery in Edinburgh, the performance symposium “An Unco Site!” for the Edinburgh Art Festival in 2010 and a nascent series of literary re-interpretations (New Lanark, after Alasdair Gray’s epic novel).

The Neoflagellants are an equal opportunities confraternity bound by chirograph: Norman James Hogg, Sergeant-At-Law, Prof Neil Mulholland, Keeper of the Wardrobe, and Dr Simon O’Sullivan, Atilliator.

Codex: www.confraternityofneoflagellants.org.uk