“Interrrational”
(2013) performed
with Magnhild
Fossum in
Cabaret Voltaire,
Zurich. Costume
by Eloisa Avila,
Hans Leidescher.
Photo credit:
Kaspar König.
of basic science would give my practice a new
voice for critical engagement.
PS: In “Intro to Interstellar Travel: Genes Memes
Temes,” you assume the role of a professor in a
digital future in which Earth’s organic spheres
are simply historical marvels. This ongoing series
creates the space to somewhat objectively assess
human biological and technocultural evolution in
relation to the temes, or the replicating “genes” of
technological beings. What inspired you to create
this series, which, on the one hand, is ironically
and self-reflexively funny, and, on the other hand,
seriously evaluates famed and relatively controversial figures in science including Susan Blackmore,
Richard Dawkins, and Charles Darwin?
ZM: “Intro to Interstellar Travel” is an educational presentation on evolution, but it also
releases evolution into a realm of speculative fantasy. It creates, or should create, an
invitation to flexibly engage with ideas that
are otherwise perceived as inevitabilities or
incomprehensible.
SciArt in America April 2014
“Scientism in the Arts and Humanities,”
by Roger Scruton, is a sober essay in which
Scruton spends one section explicating the
meme. He contends that a meme isn’t science but rather “scientism”—a “subversive
concept,” no different than ideologies of
Marx and Freud. While I have read this
article since developing “Intro to Interstellar
Travel,” and my angle is more along the lines
of dark humor, I like that Scruton so adroitly
recasts a theoretically scientific concept as an
ideology which is then accessible to scrutiny
from within the humanities.
As for the work’s inception, it came out of
an experimental graduate course run by Brian
Conley called “Far Far Future,” and I just
kept reworking it, and re-performing it even
after graduating. I’m continuing to work on it
because it could be better, but the important
part of the piece doesn’t happen during my
performance anyway. It happens in the Q&A
and post-performance discussions with the audience.
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