Performance artist Zadie Xa with percussionist participate in this year’s marathon at City Hall:
Guest Ghost Host Machine! marathon
Chamber Room, Level 2, City Hall, London
7 Oct 2017 – 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM
BROADCAST LIVE ON SERPENTINE RADIO AT radio.serpentinegalleries.org
The 2017 Marathon brought together artists, scientists, activists, engineers, poets, sociologists, philosophers, filmmakers, writers, anthropologists, theologians and musicians to consider the advent of ‘artificial intelligence’, consciousness, interspecies cooperation, machines, trans-humanism and non-linear time.
The Marathon sought to illuminate the ways in which these fields of exploration leave unrecognisable traces and unknowable apparitions in the present. Taking place at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA), it was the twelfth in the series of Marathons presented by the Serpentine Galleries.
In 2015, the Transformation Marathon launched the first-ever broadcast of Serpentine Radio, the Galleries’ online radio station, with twelve hours of the event taking place on stage and a further twelve hours on air. The GUEST, GHOST, HOST: MACHINE! Marathon built on this model and extended it, wherein the entire day of talks, readings and performances were conceived for radio and broadcast online at radio.serpentinegalleries.org.
Participants and contributors included: Etel Adnan, Fatima Al Qadiri, Amnesia Scanner, Ain Bailey, Shumon Basar, Louise Belfrage, Daniel Birnbaum, Black Quantum Futurism, Andrew Blake, James Bridle, John Brockman, Thomas Buckner, Federico Campagna, Jimena Canales, Ian Cheng, Emanuele Coccia, Patrizio Di Massimo, Manthia Diawara, Marcus du Sautoy, Keller Easterling, Richard Evans, Briony Fer, Charlie Fox, GAIKA, Gilbert & George, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Boris Groys, Anupam Guha, Juliana Huxtable, Evan Ifekoya, Caroline A. Jones, Hannah Catherine Jones, Isaac Julien, Natalie Kane, Dean Kenning, Alexander Kluge, Paulo Lemos Horta, Esther Leslie, Ranjana Leyendecker, Jason Louv, Louisa Martin, Kenric McDowell, Sarah Morris, Timothy Morton, Walter Murch, NAKED, Philippe Parreno, Micki Pellerano, Gala Porras-Kim, Johannes Paul Raether, Venki Ramakrishnan, Alice Rawsthorn, Raqs Media Collective, Jasia Reichardt, Tobias Revell, Richard Sennett, Murray Shanahan, Himali Singh Soin, Hito Steyerl, Jenna Sutela, Jaan Tallinn, Eduardo Terrazas, Eugene Thacker, Adam Thirlwell, Enrique Vila-Matas, Julia Voss, Marina Warner, Zadie Xa, Joanna Zylinska, and more.
On the occasion of the GUEST, GHOST, HOST: MACHINE! Marathon 2017, Raqs Media Collective presented Hollowgram, a new holographic sculpture commission which considered the inner life of power. Situated in Francis Kéré’s Serpentine Pavilion for the duration of Frieze Week (3-8 October, 10am-6pm), Hollowgram reflected on majesty and the marble and bronze statues commemorating historical figures in Kensington Gardens. The concept of the GUEST, GHOST, HOST: MACHINE! Marathon was shaped in collaboration with Raqs Media Collective.
Programme
10AM-1PM
Yana Peel, Introduction | Hans Ulrich Obrist, Introduction | Raqs Media Collective, Introduction | Gilbert & George, GODOLOGY! | Shuddhabrata Sengupta and Anupam Guha in conversation | Murray Shanahan, Conscious Exotica | Dean Kenning, Stuck Machine | Jimena Canales, A Short History of AI (in conversation with Siri) | Natalie Kane and Tobias Revell, Haunted Machines | Thomas Buckner sings work by Etel Adnan | James Bridle, Failing to Distinguish Between a Tractor Trailer and the Bright White Sky | Timothy Morton, Here Come the Lizard People | Paulo Lemos Horta, From Aleppo to Paris: The Origins of “Aladdin” | Joanna Zylinska, The End of Man: A Tragicomedy1-5PM
Louisa Martin, Lossy Ecology Glossary | Alice Rawsthorn, Quiet please. I am analysing. | Traumatic Phenomenology: The Ghosts in the Machine: | James Bridle and Caroline A. Jones in conversation | Shumon Basar and Fatima Al Qadiri in conversation | Ranjana Leyendecker and Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation | Nights and Spirits: Adam Thirlwell and Marina Warner in conversation | Isaac Julien and Walter Murch in conversation, moderated by Hans Ulrich Obrist | Eduardo Terrazas and Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation | Philippe Parreno and Esther Leslie in conversation | Panel discussion with Andrew Blake, Venki Ramakrishnan and Jaan Tallinn, moderated by John Brockman and Hans Ulrich Obrist | Hito Steyerl, Bubble Vision5-10PM
Boris Groys, Becoming Immortal – Becoming a Machine | Gala Porras-Kim, The Hidden Voice of the Past AI and Wisdom Traditions: Kenric McDowell and Jason Louv in conversation | Charlie Fox, Karloff | Zadie Xa with Jihye Kim, Perfumed Purple Rice and Sateen Songs for Sadie | Marcus du Sautoy, How to Make a Zombie | Emanuele Coccia, Thinking Matters | Johannes Paul Raether, Protekto.x.x 5.5.5.1 in Identitecture | Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster | Ian Cheng and Richard Evans in conversation | Evan Ifekoya and Hannah Catherine Jones, Healing Exercises for Limitless Potential (H.E.L.P) | Jenna Sutela, Extremophile, a co-commission with Goethe-Institut and Haunted Machines | NAKED, Total Power Exchange | GAIKAINTERLUDES
Ain Bailey | Amnesia Scanner, AS DARSDISTRIBUTIONS
Federico Campagna, Angels Outside the Machine | Micki Pellerano, Our Lady of the ElementalsMAP ROOM, 12PM, LOWER GROUND
Book Launch: Seeing is Believing – On Hilma af Klint and Her Inner World
A book presentation and panel discussion with Daniel Birnbaum, Briony Fer and Julia Voss, led by Louise BelfrageCOMMITTEE ROOM 1, 1PM, 3PM, 5PM, LOWER GROUND
Patrizio Di Massimo, I am not the body, I am not even the mind: a guided meditation, accompanied by Nicoletta Fiorucci on the Alchemy Crystal Singing Bowls
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