Understanding Systems with governance machines and the future of futures

SESSION is a project modelling itself after an incubator that invites cultural practitioners to engage with questions that emerge out of a given exhibition.

Presented in collaboration with SAVAC, curator María Alejandrina Coates will lead this third iteration of SESSION to flesh out the meanings embedded in Bahar Noorizadeh’s work and discuss how they play out in daily life. Noorizadeh’s After Scarcity draws on the theories of cybernetics, particularly those proposed by Soviet cyber-economists between the 1950s–1980s, as platforms for building new coalitions and social relationships in a contemporary environment. However, an engagement with the philosophy of technology requires us to first clarify the language being used. This workshop will invite members of the public to unpack and discuss concepts explored in Noorizadeh’s video, tracing the ways in which technological interfaces structure economic and political systems.

María Alejandrina Coates is currently researcher-in-residence at SAVAC, working at building critical digital literacy systems with racialized artists.

Space is limited. Please RSVP to office@mercerunion.org or 416.536.1519

SESSION is made possible with Leading Support from TD Bank Group