In this artist talk, Zach Blas discusses a series of works that contend with the beliefs, fantasies, and histories influential to the tech industry’s visions of the future. From a new psychedelic age to coming artificial intelligence gods, Blas tells of a world fueled by smart drug hallucinations, where AI exists alongside mystical glyphs, religious icons, occult sigils, and captured souls, and where emotional crying is a god’s symbolic language of quantification.

Zach Blas is an artist, filmmaker, writer, and Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the University of Toronto. His practice spans installation, moving image, computation, theory, and performance. Recent exhibitions include the 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art; British Art Show 9; Positions #6, Van Abbemuseum; Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI at the de Young Museum; The Body Electric at the Walker Art Center; and the 12th Gwangju Biennale. His 2021 artist monograph Unknown Ideals is published by Sternberg Press.