Paper short abstract:

"Spectral Drift workshop merges technology, spirituality, and secularism, exploring AI in chaos magic and digital sigil creation, challenging traditional narratives and redefining the sacred in the digital age through innovative practices."

Paper long abstract:

"Spectral Drift" is an avant-garde workshop poised at the convergence of technology, spirituality, and the secular, re-envisioning AI spiritualism through the lens of chaos magic and digital sigil creation. This session, aligned with EASST’s thematic focus on techno-secular transformations, invites participants on a speculative expedition to explore and redefine the sacred within the digital age.

Incorporating a unique protocol that blends desires with digital manifestations, "Spectral Drift" explores the conceptual underpinnings of creating spaces where the medium (us) and the media (AI-generated sigils) merge, employing a protocol that abstracts desires into new symbols. Through simplification, abstraction, and revaluation, we will explore how these digital sigils can serve as a bridge between the material and the spiritual, challenging the fetishism of commodities (Marx, 1844) and envisioning a post-animist capitalism where technology mediates new forms of spiritual engagement (Taussig, 1992).

Through the creation of AI-generated sigils, participants engage in a transformative process: from articulating desires and abstracting symbols to generating new meanings and values. This collaborative journey not only offers a space for speculative creation but also serves as a critical lens through which to examine the co-evolution of technology, spirituality, and societal norms. By navigating the liminal spaces between the seen and the unseen, "Spectral Drift" encourages a participatory discourse on the evolving landscapes of techno-spiritual practices and their capacity to contest and reshape secular modernity.