Mark will be presenting Radionics and Witchcraft, as part of the Art, Ecology and Science Fiction series with Dr John Cussons.
"If, as Arthur C Clarke famously observed, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, then can we accept that any sufficiently advanced magic is also indistinguishable from technology?"
In this illustrated presentation, Mark Pilkington presents a historical overview of psychotronic devices - the radiant collision point of witchcraft, art and technology. Psychotronic devices fuse aspects of vitalism, electromagnetic field theory and psychic sciences like telepathy, psychometry and dowsing.
From an orthodox materialist perspective they are cargo cult technology, a fantasy of science. But it is too simple to reject all psionic devices out of hand as deceptions or slight-of-mind; Instead, we can perhaps best understand them as technological adaptations of ancient, sympathetic magical practices, a magic that feeds on, and is fuelled by, the conviction of both the practitioner and the subject.
Mark will look the development of psychotronic technologies from the 19th century to the present, a journey that incorporates experimental medicines, science fiction fandom and some of the world's most prestigious art galleries.
The talk will be followed by a performance from Luminous Foundation at 8pm; a musical collaboration between two veterans of ambient experimental electronica Téléplasmiste's Mark Pilkington and Urthona’s Neil Mortimer. Expect pulsing trance rhythms and shimmering, ethereal textures that will transport you to the outer realms of the acoustic cosmos.
£5.00 on the door (or £8 joint ticket for talk and performance)
