Digital Occultism

Veranstalter*innen: Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures , Mikkel Rørbo, Sophie Publig, Maya B. Kronic

In a post-vibe shift era where technology and esotericism converge, Digital Occultism explores the ways occult traditions permeate our understanding of the mediated technological present. The histories of both the occult and technology have long been intertwined, meddling with our political imaginaries and peddling knowledge from beyond. From the algorithmic depths of social media to the viral logic of memes, the language of the occult has become an unspoken grammar for interpreting technologies, politics, and culture in an era marked as post-truth. As final puzzle piece to the Digital Occultism class investigating how esoteric ideas and language resurface as both content and tools to navigate the contradictions of contemporary digital environments, the symposium combines presentations, lectures, a panel and a collborative session with Urbanomic on CCRU‘s Numogram.

Doin it for the ’Gram: A Numogram Workshop
in collaboration with Urbanomic

Rediscovered by Ccru in at the terminus of the last century, today the Numogram circulates as a memetic token locked on to the vaguely occultural murkmare of a world that has finally caught up with it, in an age of epistemic breakdown, digital contagion, weird theory, schizoposting, and network spirituality. It is also the object of intensive nummological research, and continues to be employed as an instrument for divination and magic(k)al practice. With contributions from multiple perspectives, this hybrid irl/online workshop aims to plot out the numogram in its differential relations with the Western esoteric tradition, occultism, philosophy, mathematics, cybertheory, and more…

Online participation for the Numogram session via Urbanomic’s Discord.
More information here.

Schedule
10:15-12:30h: Student presentations
Anka Stieber Ronnie Danaher Pascal Stütz & Lukas Liszka Regina Fuchs Charlotte Kufferath Lisa Marie Schmidt Chiara Kristler & Marcin Ratajczyk Eliška Jahelková Maximilian Marcus Mulholland-Licht
12:30-13:15h: Lunch break
13:15-14:30h: Presentations by S()fia Braga & Shaka McGlotten followed by discussion/Q&A with Mikkel Rørbo & Sophie Publig
14:30-15:00: Break
15:00-19:00: Numogram Session in collaboration with Urbanomic (stream via Urbanomic Discord)
15:00: Lendl Barcelos, Amy Ireland: Counting for Meat Puppets
15:45: Mer/Maggie Roberts (0(rphan)d(rift>): IIS Murmur Xes Katak Spl/ce: 0rphan Drift’s SYZYGY Demon Avatars
16:30: Lucía Morales (Colectiva Tzitzimiyotl): General Numogrammatics: Retrospective of an Absent Field
17.00: Workshop contributions
17:45: Maya B. Kronic: Numogram vs Esotericism