Lecture-performances by Zach Blas, Andy Holden and Dominika Trapp

Curator: Borbála Szalai

Zach Blas: Metric Mysticism
In this lecture-performance Blas gazes into the crystal balls of Silicon Valley and charts the transmutation of big data into a magical substance that predicts—and polices—our future. Focusing on the appropriation of mysticism and magic by Silicon Valley start-ups and governmental surveillance agencies alike, Blas suggests that the crystal ball, a transparent device that permits one to see into the future, has come to stand in as a paradigm for how tech entrepreneurs prefer to imagine the algorithmic processing of information. Blas asks, against the prediction of the future, if redirecting our gaze can offer a way to better comprehend the crisis of the present?

Metric Mysticism is Blas’s most recent lecture-performance that has been already presented in the last months at Transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Gasworks, London; Tensta Konsthall, Spånga, Sweden; and in e-flux, New York in conjunction with Blas’s first solo show in New York at Art in General.