Official! Event Program, Lineup, and Schedule for Total Renaissance Salon

This is where it all begins

We’re doing this. In only three more days, Cultural Futurist Salon I - Total Renaissance is happening. Here you can find the official event program with descriptions of all the live talks, readings, and performances you’ll be witnessing. I’ve also posted the Zoom link for my subscribers under the cut. Remember that it’s not too late to join as a paid subscriber if you’d like to attend Total Renaissance on the 22nd and gain entrance to all upcoming Cultural Futurist salons that will be held monthly in 2024. These digital events that will feature my favorite philosophers, writers, performers, and musicians. Cultural Futurist salons will also be popping up IRL next year, but we can discuss that later. For now…

DO YOU WANT TOTAL RENAISSANCE?

What is a renaissance? A renaissance is a period known for its explosive creativity and cultural awakening that marks the transformation of a zeitgeist. A renaissance can be a resurrection, revival, and revolution all at once. It begins at the vanguard — where philosophers, writers, performers, and artists with a shared understanding come together to set the foundation for a new era and parallel establishment.

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EVENT PROGRAM

2:00 PM EST / 7:00 PM GMT - Rachel Haywire: Opening Keynote [5 minutes]

Rachel Haywire will welcome everyone to the first Cultural Futurist salon and set the tone for the event with a speech and some music.

2:05 PM EST / 7:05 PM GMT - Owen Cox: Welcome to the Dark Renaissance [10 minutes talk + 5 minute Q&A]

What is the Dark Renaissance? Owen Cox is here to tell the story. He’ll introduce us to the concept while diving into it full force, discussing the platforms involved, the community behind it, and the metaphysical implications of the current. He’ll also discuss what that Dark Renaissance means for the wider culture, announcing his speculations on where it might be going. Strap in, because the Dark Renaissance may already be upon us.

2:20 PM EST / 7:20 PM GMT - Raven Connolly: Return of the Philosopher Queens [10 minute talk  + 5 minute Q&A]

In 2020, Raven Connolly joined up with Rachel Haywire to host the Philosopher Queen Series at The Stoa after Rachel penned The Philosopher Queen Manifesto. As they set out to define their new archetype, they hosted various women who discussed their views on spirituality, philosophy, metaphysics, archetypes, sexuality, beauty, and the darker undercurrents of the female form. As many people find themselves interested in the Philosopher Queens once again, Raven Connolly is back to rekindle the fire and discuss the legend of the Philosopher Queens with a renewed beginning.

2:35 PM EST / 7:35 PM GMT - Cadell Last: Inside the Underground Networks [10 minute talk  + 5 minute Q&A]

When the 20th century made it clear that we could directly enact revolution via popular consciousness, the only next logical move for the philosopher was to shift towards the primary process, the unconscious, and move underground. Cadell Last has lived within and interacted with underground theory, being an active constructor of underground networks. He believes that this process needs to intensify in 2024 and beyond, viewing networks as a fragmented multiplicity of drives, peripheral to the (dying) cultural epicentres of our world. He’ll be discussing how we don’t wish to remain marginal, but rather to move beyond the weird characteristics of scene kids and forge the professional alliances necessary for a real intellectual milieu that will create a total renaissance that must first enter the unconscious.

2:50 PM EST / 7:50 PM GMT - Birgitte Rasine: Algorithms and the Great Disconnect [10 minute talk + 5 minute Q&A]

They say we have become isolated, disconnected, atomized. The bonds that used to link societies together are breaking down. The individual is put on an altar and the collective are turned into adoring masses. Behind all the hand-wringing about our mental health and the calls for mindfulness lies a simple fact: we are giving up our minds to algorithms. Our language, our interactions, our preferences, and the way we spend our time and what we focus on, are increasingly directed by algorithmic feedback loops. We're not losing our minds. We're giving them up. Birgitte Rasine will talk about how to stop the algorithmic slide, and regain the right to our own mental faculties and creative talents.

3:05 PM EST / 8:05 PM GMT - Lee Poechmann: 10 minute reading from Florida Gothic

Lee Poechmann is a writer and architect who loves to travel. His most recent book, Piranesi in the Palms: A Florida Gothic Exploration, takes a fresh and Floridian look at Gothic themes through provocative and personal poetry. The Gothic fear of the unknown and the irrationality to madness are interpreted through his unique modern lens. He will be performing a live reading of several poems from this seminal work.

3:15 PM EST / 8:15 PM GMT - Jack Skelley: 10 minute reading from Myth Lab: Theories of Plastic Love accompanied by TikTok Alarm Clock with DeepSNAKES AI

Jack Skelley is the author of The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker (Semiotext(e), 2023) and various other transgressive works of literature. He is in a psychedelic surf band called Lawndale that just released an album called ‘Twango.’ Here, he’ll present and discuss TikTok Alarm Clock, an algorithmic “theory” rendered with DeepSNAKES AI. This piece is from his forthcoming book Myth Lab: Theories of Plastic Love. 

3:25 PM EST / 8:25 PM GMT - Half-hour Break/Set with DJ Haywire

3:55 PM EST / 8:55 PM GMT - William Burg: How to Create a Music Festival in 27 Easy Steps [10 minute talk accompanied by SMITE! and Uberkunst noise performance]

William Burg is a noise artist and festival organizer who formed Norcal Noisefest, an infamous noise festival in Sacramento, California. He will conduct a multimedia audio and video performance of a 27-slide presentation on the history of the Norcal Noisefest, including useful advice for potential organizers of noise festivals, anecdotes about the origins and influence of the Noisefest, and accompanying audio by SMITE! and Uberkunst.

4:05 PM EST / 9:05 PM GMT - Charlotte Dune: 10 minute reading from Acid Christmas

Charlotte Dune is is the author of the Psychedelic Love Series novels Cactus Friends and Mushroom Honeymoon. She grew up reading science fiction books in a geodesic dome in rural western Virginia, roamed the globe with the US Foreign Service, worked on films in Canada, and now writes and lives in South Florida. Her most recent book is a dystopian holiday novel called Acid Christmas, which she’ll be gracing us with a reading from.

4:15 PM EST / 9:15 PM GMT - Richard Cabut: 15 minute reading from Looking for a Kiss and Disorderly Magic

Richard Cabut is a British author, journalist, playwright and musician. He published the punk fanzine Kick between 1979 and 1982, which became pivotal in developing a positive form of punk based on individuality, creativity, and rebellion. After his adventures in the UK punk band Brigandage, he became co-editor and author of the anthology Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night (Zero Books, 2017) and author of Looking For A Kiss and Disorderly Magic, which he’ll be reading from at our salon.

4:30 PM EST / 9:30 PM GMT - Peter Clarke: Network States for the Creative Class [10 minute talk + 5 minute Q&A]

Creative people naturally cluster together, which is why creative people in the real world always end up in the same few cities. The first question with network states is this: how can a digital interface give creative people a sense of belonging to something that loosely resembles a state? The next question is, how can this new online community materialize in the physical world? Peter Clarke will explore a few answers to these two questions as he highlights a vision for how the world would look in the future if network states for the creative class flourished.

4:45 PM EST / 9:45 PM GMT - Tim Pickerill: A History of the Avant-Garde [10 minute talk + 5 minute Q&A]

From the Marquise de Sade to Antonin Artaud, the Avant-Garde has always challenged the establishment, academy, and norms of society. Bohemian artists have a tradition of pushing aesthetic limits and deconstructing images. Meanwhile, Dadaists have overturned the very meaning of art itself as an artistic statement. Women have even used their bodies as the site of artistic creation, remaking how we see material reality and riding the culture of modernity, demonstrated by projects like Pussy Riot. Tim Pickerill will take us on a journey through the rich and powerful history of the Avant-Garde, sharing its radical legacy with us.

5:00 PM EST / 10:00 PM GMT - Chris Gabriel: The Trickster and the Clown [10 minute talk + 5 minute Q&A]

We all know the story of The Tricker, but how does The Clown fit into the picture? Chris Gabriel of YouTube fame, known for his popular MemeAnalysis channel, will take a look at the symbolic nature of the Evil Clown, where he falls biblically and astrologically, namely as a Capricorn. When we think of The Trickster we often think of The Joker or a figure like Aleister Crowley, but who or what represents The Clown? More importantly, how does The Clown become The Evil Clown? We’re going for a deep dive on this one.

5:15 PM EST / 10:15 PM GMT - Pilleater: Anatomy of a Salon [10 minute talk + 5 minute Q&A]

A salon is a gathering of intellectuals, often counter-academics, that serve an important design. Salons may involve statements of underground elitism or mark metaphysical shifts in a zeitgeist. Salons have their own distinct anatomy, which Pilleater will be discussing in detail, analyzing the very fabric of salons as philosophical production units. When forbidden ideas take shape through the medium of a salon, what hides behind the curtain?

5:30 PM EST / 10:30 PM GMT - Maulfongo/Hybrid Code Selector .444b - 15 minute musical performance

Hybrid Code Selector .444b parallels Rafa Vargas Bernad’s personal and creative journey and his need to constantly code-switch in his communications through a hybrid audio generation process. He plays with techniques at the intersection of composition, improvisation, chance, and conflicting cultural idioms. An Oregano Brujo plant, with a sensor and a microcontroller, acts as an instrument played for the performance as an organic-digital hybrid electromagnetic-field-capacitance-controlled oscillator. This piece is an extension of Rafa’s new, more music-than-noise-leaning polyrhythm-based project, Maulfongo.

5:45 PM EST / 10:45 PM GMT - Richard Leviathan/Ostara - 5 minute musical performance and 10 minute reading from Odes

Richard Leviathan is a neofolk musician known for his projects Ostara and Strength through Joy. His most recent Ostara album Age of Empire is a bold, confronting and provocative response to a world on fire, a tragic reflection on the hubris of power and the exile of truth. He is also a prolific poet and philosopher who will be reading from his most recent book Odes after an Ostara performance. Odes begins with the Presocratics, the Stoics, the Neoplatonists, and the Enlightenment. Then it ends with the Moderns, Post-Modernists and dark stars of the Counter-Enlightenment.

Official link to the event is behind the paywall here: