Paper short abstract:

This presentation will focus on the representation of magical practices in popular culture, especially digital entertainment.

Paper long abstract:

The study and practice of magic has been for decades associated with secrecy, vigorous study of ancient texts and participation in rituals determined by the initiation degree of the associate. These ideas, often revolving around the concept of exclusivity, have been slowly deconstructed under the influence of post-modernity and a new trend of magical practice has been slowly emerging, and “invading” households ever since. Thanks to the advancement in modern technologies, the possibility to study esoteric teachings has never been easier. Ancient grimoires in their digital form are just a mouse click away, do-it-yourself videos on how to conduct rituals have been flooding streaming services and online shops specialized in selling components and ingredients for magical practice are flourishing. One of the channels where the representation of magic - as the practice, so the practitioners, is rapidly expanding, is the realm of digital entertainment. This presentation will focus on exploring the variations of the reimagination of magic in the digital world. By finding parallels with known esoteric teachings, as well as analyzing the influence on the players, I would argue, that through various depictions, narratives and references, the magical practices are rooted in the entertainment industry and as such in the modern society in more forms that one would initially expect.

Paper short abstract:

The work of Andrei Tarkovsky is heavily focused on the connection between spirituality and technology, individuality and society. This presentation will focus on the analysis of Tarkovsky’s work as a way of expressing one’s spiritual beliefs through the technology of cinema.

Paper long abstract:

For Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the most influential directors in cinema history, spirituality and metaphysical themes are closely and undividedly connected with art. His idea was that during the artistic process, the artist mostly resembles the Creator, as he is creating whole realities purely out of his mind. In his own philosophy, the emergence of arts reflected the spiritual needs of society. Through the technological craft of cinematography, a connection between the simplicity of nature and the transcendental spheres of existence could be attained. As such, many of his movies bear heavy metaphysical themes, that are still a subject of interpretation of cinema critics and fans alike. The world is full of mystery and that is what he is trying to convey in his images. Even though his philosophical movies can be perceived as being filled with symbols, and he perceived art as a symbol for eternity, he still considered them very limiting. Any puzzle, or riddle, representing a symbol is exhausted the moment it is solved. In his work he was striving to overcome this limitation, and with the help of cinema depict the world, as well as the representation of infinity, as a never ending source of meaning. One of the most iconic movies he made is undoubtedly Stalker (1979), which deals heavily with the concept of faith, interrelations between technology, rationality of science and culture. Elements of this movie, such as the inaccessible and desolate Zone, the mysterious Room as well as the characters within the story reflect different aspects of spirituality, oppression, modernity and faith. Stalker is but one of Tarkovsky’s philosophical movies dealing with the dichotomy between spirituality and technology. This presentation aims to analyze the possibilities of art and cinema as an expression of one’s spiritual beliefs and worldviews.

Paper short abstract:

The existence of shamanism in contemporary, technologically advanced society is marked as but one of its modern incarnations. The combination of technological means with traditional shamanistic techniques is also noticeable in audio-visual performance art.

Paper long abstract:

In its millennia-long history, shamanism has undoubtedly transformed from one form to another. The existence of shamanism in contemporary, technologically advanced society is marked as but one of its modern incarnations. The combination of technological means with traditional shamanistic techniques is also noticeable in audio-visual performance art. Several artists actively apply modern media, such as experimental music or video projection, as a way of expressing the healing methods and spiritual conversations that are typical of shamanic practise. This presentation will focus on several chosen case studies where the artist combines shamanic ritual with modern performance art, where the main focus will be on the expressions of the artists as well as the perception and experience of the audience during the performance.

Paper short abstract:

Interdisciplinarity in the field of esotericism has now found a meeting point between the technological, the spiritual and the chemical to promote a new vision of spirituality and consciousness exploration.

Paper long abstract:

In contrast to the opposition between technological advancement and esoteric traditionalism, this paper will explore not only its reconciliation and consequential transcendence of these aforementioned categories. I will argue how the focus of these fields stems from an extension of the mental faculties whether into higher states of consciousness as interpreted in the spiritual traditions or else in the capacity to extend one’s will or consciousness one’s environment as in the case of robotization and technologization. The latter is not lost also on disciplines such as magical ritual which attempted to control and engineer the material and spiritual world. The advancement brain to machine interface as much as the revaluation of psychedelics, meditation and related mystical traditions has launched a movement which was once imagined only in science fiction. The arts, sciences, humanities and literature all come together reimagining the figure of the shaman, the wise man, the explorer and the magical practitioner. This paper will explore this phenomenon as a pragmatic resolution of existential issues which attempt at a “Conicidentia Oppositorum” of human understanding between the numinous and the mathematical which was not lost on the traditions of old.

Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the intertwining of technology and esoteric motifs in 1920s cinema, which reflects notions of the new technology of cinema itself as uncanny. It is argued that this needs to be situated in a longer tradition reaching back to Spiritualist use of photography and other technologies.

Paper long abstract:

Focusing on the films Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (Paul Wegener, 1920), Häxan (Benjamin Christensen, 1922), and Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922), the paper discusses how technology and esoteric motifs are intertwined in 1920s cinema, and how this reflects notions of the new technology of cinema itself as uncanny.

In Der Golem, magical technologies bringing dead matter to life through a secret word (and the use of amulets) parallel how cinema technology creates movement where there is none and can make mortals live perpetually on screen.

Häxan dissects magical technologies like love potions, flying ointments, and spells, taking as its task to explain their supposed effects in a rational manner, whilst paradoxically relishing every opportunity to use the cinematic technology of special effects to draw the audience into a realm where the aesthetic pleasures of uncanny magical spectacle trumps cold rationality.

Nosferatu shows the simultaneously esoterically inclined and scientific professor Bulwer making the invisible – microbes – visible via the technological means of a microscope, in the same manner that cinema can uncannily display things we could not see in the “real” world, such as supernatural occurrences. For example, when the vampire drives his carriage through the forest the cinematic technique of undercranking allows us to see its supernatural speed.

The technological advances of cinema on display in these films – including camera techniques such as double-exposure, undercranking, reverse-motion, and stop-motion animation – are, then, employed to conjure a sense of the uncanny, and marks cinema itself out as uncanny. The paper contends that this mirrors the effects of technological devices, such as cameras, used in Spiritualist contexts in the preceding decades, which were arguable used concurrently to provide “scientific proof” of the supernatural, to debunk it, and to strengthen the uncanny aura of Spiritualist phenomena.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the intersections between magic and technology as discussed in chaos magic forums on reddit.com. A brief introduction on the chaos magic current is provided. The main body focuses on the interactions between reddit users regarding the use of technology in magic.

Paper long abstract:

"Technomancy...is the magickal study, practice, or phenomena of mystical occurrences or actions involving advanced technology". Thus reads the brief description in the r/Technomancy subreddit (reddit.com), a rather small forum with around 2,000 members. Its logo, however --an eight-pointed star called the "symbol of chaos"-- shows the clear influence of a much larger current in modern occultism; that of chaos magic. Indeed, in the 38,900-member subreddit r/chaosmagick, discussions on the intersections between technology and magic abound. A common topic in both forums is the use of computer coding for the creation of sigils or familiar spirits. These are often described as AIs--programmable entities for which the practitioner provides input ("if this...then that") according to which they are meant to function.

This paper aims at exploring the intersections between magic and technology, and the general idea of technomancy in contemporary chaos magic discourse and practice. A brief introduction and definition of chaos magic and its history will be provided, pointing out key points and ideas where technological innovation and theory have played a central role in the development of the current. For example, instances of programming language appear in chaos magic literature as early as in 1981.

The main body of the paper will focus on the images, language, terms and examples (particularly from the field of coding) used by practitioners in the r/Technomancy and r/chaosmagick subreddits. Special interest will be given to those points where occultists try to negotiate, debate and/or validate the use of technology in magic. This digital ethnography of sorts thus offers a glimpse not just of modern occult theory as it is developing in these communities, but also their practices and tools.

Paper short abstract:

This paper offers an archaeological and genealogical tracing, as well as a retrospective re-assessment, of cyberpunk countercultural “techno-spiritualism,” which arose out of an enchanted response to the digital revolution at the end of the 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

By the end of the 20th century, the digital revolution swept the western world, carrying significant implications for human culture and cognition. As a result of digital technology, persistent rates of message transmission and production gave way to a roaring flood of media and information that, in turn, had a fragmenting effect on stable cultural forms and modes of subjectivity and cognition. Thus, the postmodern cultural moment was, de facto, established.

In this paper, I argue that the cyberpunk counterculture of the nineteen eighties and nineties - which arose, in part, as a symbolic-cultural response to the technological configuration of the digital revolution - was one of the first cultural movements to conflate between the postmodern sublime (facilitated by the digital revolution) and the religious sublime. Cyberpunk theory and fiction often portrayed the chaotic techno-symbolic realm with recourse to religious rhetoric and symbolism. This is most apparent when considering cyberpunk imaginations of cyberspace, which was often depicted as a liminal, non-representational, ‘gothic,’ and chaotic realm of pure potentiality. Thus, according to cyberpunk imagination, the immersion in cyberspace (now conceptualised in an enchanted manner) enabled, among others, new forms of psychedelic experimentalism, magical empowerment and ritualism, digital sorcery, and, ultimately - mystical transcendence. Cyberpunk counterculture thus embodied a contradictory thematic binary, simultaneously depicting the dystopian and fragmentary aspects of postmodern techno-culture, while at the same time locating within it, utopian and quasi-religious emancipatory potential.

With recourse to diverse cultural fields - such as cybernetics, cyberpunk theory, science fiction, counter-cultural thought, and western esotericism – the first part of this paper will offer a genealogical and archeological tracing of cyberpunk techno-spiritualism. The second part of the paper will draw this genealogical tracing into the present moment, offering remarks on the complicated and multidimensional legacy of this cultural theme in contemporary times.

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of the paper is to present the recurring ways that technology appears in video games. The way it is presented is not random but consistent with the motifs of the diffused new religiosity.

Paper long abstract:

A contemporary mythology is developing in today’s diffused new religiosity. The neomythological schemata are influenced by the mythology of the New Religions and diffused religiosity and reproduce their basic distinctive features. This neomythology, as it is portrayed through comics, video games, fantasy movies, etc., presents beings and worlds that have supernatural and imaginary characteristics, and attempts to present their qualities as logical and scientific. In particular, in video games, which constitute the most contemporary and popular expression of neomythology, technology – in terms of weapons, machines and devices – is incorporated into their various plots in the typical and usual way of discovery and use of such tools, while at the same time taking on characteristics that were once attributed to magic and religion. In an imaginary yet convincing way, within the limits of virtual realities, a new version of technology is being presented: a divine or magical technology emerging as a super-technology. Being presented as a divine, miraculous, magical act, as the technology of alien beings and as a secret science of superhuman beings, technology takes on a supernatural dimension and is featured in the ‘scientificated’ magic and religion of these new digital worlds.

Paper short abstract:

‘Magic’ is mostly viewed as a practical endeavor, I argue that a contemporary example of ‘hyperstition’ as a ‘magical’ technology could be seen as an account of ‘theory practice’. Such theory practice could reveal the metareflective functionality inherent in the concept of ‘magic’ itself.

Paper long abstract:

From the inordinary Warwick university classes to the strange online experiments, the concept of ‘hyperstition’ was developed as a technology of fictioning reality. Offered neither as a literal nor as metaphorical truth, it is employed to mark a process of ideas becoming reality. Thus, it appears to function as a description of the ‘magical’ act in itself. ‘Hyperstition’ is understood to be primarily a divinational instrument because its purpose is to make a narrative about the future that could be capable to intervene into the present. Through the recombination of different cultural meanings, a new divinational scheme is produced (for example, Numogram - an equivalent of a quasi-Tree of Life – serves as one of its main apparatuses). While a clear-cut history of esoteric ‘hyperstitional’ practice is not easy to delineate (with a few exceptions of occult practitioners: Anders Aamodt, Neospare and Vexsys, Gruppo di Nun), I argue that the phenomenon of ‘hyperstition’ which partly belongs to the field of esotericism can be read as a rare account of ‘theory practice’. There, the transformational shift of a practitioner’s ontology happens through the theoretical reconceptualization. It could be seen as a counterintuitive claim, bearing in mind the traditional esotericists’ devaluation of theoretical approach towards esoteric knowledge and reality, however, I suggest that by treating the practice of ‘hyperstition’ seriously we could come upon the conceptual part of the case of ‘magic’. Even in dismissing the inherent element of conceptuality at the basis of ‘magical’ practice, one is forced to recognize the potentiality of its metareflective structure. This structure, I claim (through the analysis of an example of ‘hyperstition’), could be seen as a functional part (as a reconceptualization of a current ontology-enabling technology) of ‘magic’. In short, what outwardly happens in the ‘hyperstitional’ theory practice is an aspect of a hidden structure of the concept of ‘magic’.