Roy Ascott: Technology, Shamanism and higher order consciousness

Roy Ascott gave a talk about his work enlightening his theories of technology and consciousness on Saturday 25 June 2011.

Ascott's groundbreaking artwork used Cybernetics and technology as a means to explore systems and distributed authorship. He prefiguring Facebook by some 20 years and could say anticipated the impact of such systems on our political and sociological structures- think of the recent Twitter vs Super Injunction clash.

Through this work, Ascott developed a highly tuned theoretical standpoint on how technology alters consciousness for the individual and for society. He coined phrases such as 'Moist media' to explore the collapse of the biological and information divides whilst has re-applied the tern syncretism to explain our experience of multiple realities at once.

Ascott sees technology as a means for individuals to explore pre-conceptions of themselves, to enter separate realities and bring back information. A computer can therefore be likened to undertaking a similar role to that of a shaman in accessing different levels of consciousness. Some may say this is utopian but at the heart of Ascott's vision is the role of the artists to challenge and the re-form our concept of reality. Of life.