Dawn of the Truth Wizards

2014 Dawn of the Truth Wizards: A research event with Franco Bifo Berardi and Alexander Galloway (McGowan/MacCathmhaoil)

Dawn of the Truth Wizards was a research discussion held in the Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, on cognitive capitalism and its emergent desire to capture the truth of the soul – from emotion capture systems to corporate mindfulness. Featuring speakers Franco Bifo Berardi (focusing on The Soul at Work (2011)) and Alexander Galloway (The Interface Affect (2012), Protocol – how control exists after decentralisation (2004), The Exploit (2007)) and an invited and open Dublin audience. This event took place as part of our work as associate artists on the Prosperity Project with artist Jesse Jones and CREATE – Ireland’s National Development Agency for Collaborative Arts.

Dublin has pictured itself as centerfold of cognitive capitalism since its micro-soft beginnings. Hard, wired to Google, Twitter and Facebook now, our docklands serve as a secret portal for capital’s hidden worldwide flows. Meanwhile there are rumors of the passing of the Turing test. The network is transforming behind our eyes; and conscious interaction with computers will soon be in our past. Hal-like, the network nodes reach now beyond the boundary of the screen. They scan for our emotions while we look away. Offline has vanished. Nowhere to run to now, nowhere to hide:

You step into the bank. Your eyebrow moves. Your credit rating drops downwards to the void. You look up while yesterday’s memory arrives. You bite your lip in carefree recollection. The light begins to touch your face again. The decision is made. Your overdraft dreams fade to grey. This is what it feels like to be loved by the machines.

Before our discussion we looked at a Bank of New Zealand website that represents one of the first commercial online applications of emotion tracking, followed by an introduction to the Wisdom 2.0 movement. This was followed by a screening of our film from A Guided Meditation on the Machines.

Producer: Lynnette Moran for CREATE.
With thanks also to John Buckley.