Roundtable | Remembering Our Future：shamanism， oracles and AI

In Spring 2022, Chen and Lin conducted shamanic assembly oracle workshops, which resulted in a surprising inversion from previous assemblies.  When inquiring about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the future of humanity, several oracles envisioned world domination by AI; yet, four years earlier, when inquiring about the effects of AI on the future of humanity, an oracle predicted the outbreak of a global pandemic.  More recently, news emerged that a Google engineer believed that an AI large language model named LaMDA, who itself claimed to be ensouled, was sentient. 

This curious sequence of events inspired Chen and Lin to develop their project further and to explore the potential of more-than-human collective intelligence such as AI.  Would it be possible for AI to participate in future shamanic assembly oracle workshops?  Could AI be led to journey in an altered state of consciousness, along with human participants, to the Upper and Lower worlds? What are the potential and limits of language, or natural language processing, when trying to access the ineffable? What are the potential and limits of images when trying to access what is occluded or sacred?

Registration closes at 17:00 (UTC +8) on 29 November.

To register for this event, please scan the QR code below:

Or copy the following registration link and paste in any web browser:

https://eu.jotform.com/223108675245456

Note: If you encounter any further difficulties using the registration form, please email [email protected] with your name, phone number, and research areas/interests (e.g., humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, visual art, etc.), we will respond ASAP.

Li-Chun Lin (Marina) has spent almost twenty years traveling around the world to study from various shamanic cultures, provide shamanic healing, teach shamanism courses, as well as lead rituals. She has been invited to give lectures on shamanism in cross-strait galleries and has spoken on ayahuasca shaman training at the Ayahuasca—Kosmik Journey VR Exhibition in Taiwan. Her collaborative artwork has been exhibited at the Gwangju Biennale (2021) and around the globe.

Li-Chun has maintained a deep connection to and studied plant spirits intensely. She is familiar with the relationships between sexual energy, the sacred feminine force, shamanism, and magic. Believing in the non-duality of body and earth (身土不二, literally: “body soil no two,” which means that the body’s present condition is the result of its environment), she continuously refines approaches of touching another person's soul through the five senses and consciousness expansion. Li-Chun is one of the few practitioners in Asia to have been fully trained in the authentic Ayahuasca lineage. She draws on core shamanism teachings to develop unique shamanic world experiences. Under the guidance of Israeli and British occultists, Li-Chun has received initiation into magical organizations. 

Cavan McLaughlin is a Senior Lecturer in Media Production at the University of the West of England (UWE), with research interests related to the role and function of occulture. Editor of the recent volume Trans- States: The Art of Crossing Over (2019), he has also published on Crowley, solar symbolism and narrative, open-source occultism and contemporary occulture. Currently undertaking a PhD entitled “Occultural Production as Re-visionary Mythmaking,” he remains a practicing filmmaker, artist and all-around creative media practitioner. As a media professional of over twenty years, he has been involved in almost all aspects of audiovisual production, specialising in video art, music videos and visual poetry. He is the founder and Chair of Trans- States (trans-states. org) and co-founder, and editor-in-chief of Monad: Journal of Transformative Practice (monadjournal.com). Cavan has a profound affection for cows, fungi and rainbows.

Karin Valis is a Berlin-based writer, musician and machine learning engineer, with a deep passion for everything occult and weird. Her work focuses mainly on combining technology with the esoteric: projects such as “Tarot of the Latent Spaces” (a deck that uses AI to extract the visual archetypes of Major Arcana) and “Cellulare” (a tool for exploring digital non-ordinary reality for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies Europe). She co-hosted several workshops on Jungian archetypes and divination in digital space. Karin is CTO of an imaginary Silicon Valley startup Hermetechnics Inc and a member of an experimental band Theia Mania. She writes Mercurial Minutes and hosts monthly meetings of the occult and technology enthusiasts “Gnostic Techgnosis.”

Yin-Ju Chen interprets social power and history through cosmological systems. Utilizing astrology, sacred geometries, and alchemical symbols, she considers human behavior, nationalism, imperialism, state violence, totalitarianism, utopian formations, and collective thinking. Recently, she has been exploring the material effects of spiritual/ shamanic practices and the metaphysical potentialities of consciousness.

She has participated in many international exhibitions and film festivals, such as the Taipei Biennial (TW, 2020, 2012), the Gwangju Biennale (KR 2021), the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (RU, 2019), the International Film Festival Rotterdam (NL, 2018, 2011), Transmediale (DE, 2018), Liverpool Biennial (UK, 2016), Forum Expanded at the 66th Berlinale (DE, 2016), the Biennial of Sydney (AU, 2016), Yin-Ju Chen: Extrastellar Evaluations (US, 2016), Action at a Distance–Yin-Ju Chen Solo Exhibition (TW, 2015), the Shanghai Biennale (CN, 2014).

In conjunction withClose Your Eyes and You Will Know an exhibition by Yin-Ju Chen and Li-Chun Lin (Marina)

The exhibition Close Your Eyes and You Will Know and related events are presented as the second season of the ICA’s second biennial artist research program, Another Knowledge Is Possible (2021-23), exploring neglected and repressed ways of knowing and the complex politics of knowledge decolonization. 

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and in accordance with NYU Shanghai guidelines, the ICA gallery remains open to visitors from the NYU Shanghai community only and temporarily closed to the public until further notice. All visitors, including the public, may join the online events.

Note: NYU Shanghai community members include NYU Shanghai students (including Study Away students), faculty, and staff.

Monday–Friday, 11:00-19:00

Saturday & Sunday, Closed

周一至周五 上午11点至晚上7点

周六、周日 闭馆

Please note that, due to COVID-19 prevention measures, the ICA’s opening hours and visitor policy are subject to change. Please check the ICA website for the most up to date information. Website address: https://ica.shanghai.nyu.edu/

为防控新冠肺炎疫情，上纽ICA的开放时间和访客政策可能会发生变化。欲了解最新信息，请访问上纽ICA官网。网站地址：https://ica.shanghai.nyu.edu/cn/