Lecture by Arianna Forte: Casting a spell in computational regimes: ritual practices for a transfeminist counter-apocalypse
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Duration 45 min
8th March 2024 7pm
Mz*Baltazar’s Laboratory
Divinatory readings of the flow of data and ads generated by our smartphones, ritual sessions of digital “healing” from the data trauma suffered on social media, spells inscribed in the codes of raster files to reclaim our cultural identities by taking selfies. Who are the witches who navigate digital systems and interpret them with ritual practices between the artistic, the magical and the political?
From a critical reflection on the ongoing cultural and existential transformation that sees data and computation as phenomena that have re-signified our presence in the global and hyper-connected world and that reveal new forms of domination and subjugation, the present investigation is an examination of artistic practices envied as “rituals of resistance” at these systems.
Specifically, a close look will be made at the phenomenon that is referred to by the author as “Digital Esoterism”. Pointing, to the new generations of artists who in the post-covid era adopt the archetype of witchcraft to navigate systems of computational oppression: from Cyberwitches claiming a 2.0 spirituality, Digital Doulas proposing data healing, to Digital Tarot Readers in which algorithms are conceived as divinatory prediction systems. They claim a transfeminist approach in direct connection with the experiences of Cyberfeminism, which since the spread of the Internet had highlighted the structures of domination, marginalization and oppression inherent in technological systems.
At the end of the lecture there will be a time for sharing the personal “rituals”proposed by the guests and the local art community.
This lecture aims to present the themes and initial results of the research Casting a spell in computational regimes: ritual practices for a trans-feminist counter-apocalypse that curator Arianna Forte is conducting as part of the Italian Council (2023) program supported by the Ministry of Culture’s General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity.
Bring your own digital/ esoteric rituals!
Call for collecting ritual practices
The renowned Italian anthropologist Ernesto De Martino investigated the ritual strategies of traditional cultures for years and defined them as cultural instruments of protection or redemption to support the collapse of any possible ordered universe of meanings.The symbolic efficacy of the ritual, its actions,its repetitions,its intentionalities, served to exorcize a profound crisis of existence, the perception of the end of the world.
What are the contemporary rituals to resist and address the entropic crisis found at every level of human experience and also of the imaginaries that run through today’s culture? From the pervasiveness of digital systems, the dominance of patriarchy, the collapse of climate change to the surveillance regimes of late capitalism?
We call for collecting each kind of digital esoteric ritual practices, personal or collective cultural tools, that each of us puts in place and wants to propose to navigate the ineffable of the contemporary,
On Women’s Day, we ask you to come to Mz*Baltazar’s Laboratory and propose: your own art practice that uses ritual methodologies, your own personal spell, your digital summoning, your own herbal concoction or any kind of esoterism that can challenge the existing everydayness, specifically focusing on gender inequalities and digital capitalism.
We accept all types of proposals from the wacky to the simple: that brings together ancient traditions, magic, politics, activism and art
There will be an opportunity to enact your ritual or simply tell about it. We invite you to attend the March 8 program at Mz*Baltazar’s Lab and at the end of the lecture there will be a convivial time to return the call for rituals
Please for information and to answer the call write to ariannaforte@erinni.net
Bring your own digital/ esoteric rituals! is part of the research Casting a spell in computational regimes: ritual practices for a trans-feminist counter-apocalypse that curator Arianna Forte is conducting as part of the project supported by the Italian Council (2023) program promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
With the Kind support of:
About Arianna Forte
Arianna Forte is an independent curator and researcher based in Rome. Her research concerns the ways in which contemporary art practices critically hybridize with the languages of technologies and sciences, creating opportunities for social imagination.The body, illness and gender identity are constant themes of her investigation, taking an intersectional transfeminist approach. She has founded ERINNI, a curatorial platform that brings together art and activism to explore the intersections of science, technology and gender identity. She recently won the award to support curatorial research of the Italian Council 12th edition with the project Casting a spell in computational regimes: ritual practices for a trans-feminist "counter-apocalypse."
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