press release
THE REAL
TRUTH. A WORLD'S FAIR
28 July to 19 August 2012
THE REAL
TRUTH A WORLD'S FAIR
A project
by Suzanne Treister at Raven Row over four weekends featuring four keynote
speeches within a specially designed theatre: A global futurist, a U.S.
Security Agency insider, an anarcho-primitivist and the international
expert on world's fairs... Alongside an exhibition including three unique
libraries, two video lounges and designs for a virtual world's fair.
WEEKENDS
28/29 JULY, 4/5, 11/12, 18/19 AUGUST 2012
Saturdays:
3pm: Exhibition open. Food will be served
5-7pm: Lecture/Performance (see below)
7-9pm: Exhibition open. Food and drink will be served
Sundays:
11-6pm: Exhibition open, with screenings of previous lecture/performances
These events
are free. No booking required. Expanded seating area
Since London's
Great Exhibition of 1851 world's fairs have provided a space for nations
to represent themselves. They are potent signs of the fantasies, politics
and technologies of their times and aspirations for the future. THE
REAL TRUTH A WORLD'S FAIR exposes aspects of the present and
proposes ways into the future.
A contextual
introduction will be provided by Robert W. Rydell's in-depth analysis
of the politics and histories of world's fairs, to be followed by lecture/performances
from three visionary speakers: John Zerzan, Jim Channon and Richard
Thieme, who actively devote their lives to ideas, visions and projects
for the future of the planet.
During
the weekends Raven Row's upstairs galleries will house three libraries:
A Military/Intelligence Recruitment Library, Fifth Estate Anarchist
Magazine 1965-2012 and Jon Bewley's 'Conspiracy Theory' Library. Historical
artefacts from world's fairs, designs for a virtual world's fair, and
memorabilia provided by each speaker will also be displayed. Screenings
in the video lounges will include Strange Culture by Lynn Hershman
Leeson (2007) and Das Netz by Lutz Dammbeck (2003).
THE REAL
TRUTH A WORLD'S FAIR will provide audiences with extraordinary
food for thought and action.
Suzanne
Treister is a London-based artist. Her most recent project, 'HEXEN 2.0',
was shown this year at the Science Museum, London, travelling to Hartware
MedienKunstverein, Dortmund; D21, Leipzig; Secession, Vienna and P.P.O.W,
New York.
SATURDAY
28 JULY, 5pm
ROBERT RYDELL
CRYSTAL PALACES, CRYSTAL BALLS, AND CRYSTAL-CLEAR ILLUSIONS OF PROGRESS:
FROM WORLD'S FAIRS TO THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Robert
Rydell is Professor of History and Director of the Montana Humanities
Institute at Montana State University. He has written books that examine
the power of the world's fairs to define the modern world, especially
to lend legitimacy to America's growing imperial ambitions after the
Civil War. Rydell demonstrates ways that international exhibitions reveal
intersections between the cultural politics of race, class and gender
and afford important insights into the complexities of globalisation.
SATURDAY
4 AUGUST, 5pm
JOHN ZERZAN
THE MURDEROUS IDOLATRY OF THE FUTURE: ANARCHO-PRIMITIVISM AND THE END
OF TECHNOLOGY
John Zerzan
was active in the sixties in San Francisco and Berkeley. A leading participant
in the contemporary anarchist resurgence, Zerzan's political project
calls for the destruction of technology. He draws the distinction between
tools that stay under the control of the user, and technological systems
that draw the user into their control. His critical ideas have challenged
symbolic thought, mathematics, art and the concept of time. Zerzan has
published in the Detroit magazine Fifth Estate and his books
include Elements of Refusal (1988, 1999), Against Civilization
(1999) and Future Primitive Revisited (2012).
SATURDAY
11 AUGUST 4pm
RECITAL FROM MEMORY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS BY
MONICA ROSS
5pm
JIM CHANNON
GO PLANET! A STRATEGIC VISIONARY STORY AND ART FOR THE NEXT MILITARY
CENTURY!
Jim Channon,
a former Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army, is a futurologist
and military theorist. As a professional soldier, he commanded five
combat units, with two years in Vietnam, and in 1978 created the First
Earth Battalion Field Manual for non-lethal warfare. In his work as
social architect, philosopher, and futurist he remains a key adviser
to military think tanks and specialises in 'Natural Security' and 'Global
Reconstruction'. He has created designs for a global village, a district,
several bioregions, and the planet connected with a webocracy, 'imagining
the Army's full potential as an instrument for the future.' Jim Channon's
history was explored in Jon Ronson's book, The Men Who Stare at Goats
(2004).
SATURDAY
18 AUGUST, 5pm
RICHARD THIEME
A WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS: CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND THE NECESSARY COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE
OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Richard
Thieme speaks professionally about the challenges posed by new technologies
and the future, and how we might reinvent ourselves to meet them. Clients
range from GE and Microsoft to the National Security Agency, FBI, US
Secret Service and US Dept of the Treasury. Formerly an Episcopalian
minister, Thieme has also spoken for sixteen years at the Black Hat
Briefings on intelligence and corporate security, and at Def Con, an
annual computer hackers' convention. Thieme's books include: Islands
in the Clickstream (2004) and Mind Games, A Collection of Nineteen
Stories of Brave New Worlds and Alternate Realities (2010).
Raven Row
56 Artillery Lane London E1 7LS
T +44 (0)20 7377 4300
info@ravenrow.org
http://www.ravenrow.org