Techno-Shamanism and Queer Lineages: The Resignification of ESEA Ritual Narratives in Contemporary Media

This paper examines the emergence of "techno-shamanism" as a transmedia strategy employed by East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) queer and female artists to reclaim marginalised spiritual heritages. Under the umbrella of "techno-shamanism," shamanic practice is re-envisioned not as a static folk tradition, but as an adaptive technology for mediating modern identity. The study traces a narrative arc across three interconnected media forms. It begins with siren eun young jung’s archival film and performance works, which treat the yeoseong gukgeuk (all-female opera) as a ghostly, queer lineage of "becoming". This physical archive is then contrasted with Ayoung Kim’s Delivery Dancer Codex, where the female body is digitised via game engines to navigate a techno-shamanic urban labyrinth. Finally, the research explores the interactive "haunted architectures" of the game Devotion (Red Candle Games), where domestic spaces are transformed into digital altars of ritualised memory. By mapping the interactions between these works—from the archival body to the algorithmic city and the virtual shrine— this paper argues that ESEA artists are utilising new media to ensure the survival of ancestral myths, transforming the digital screen into a contemporary site of ritual resistance and queer world-building.