Category: The Future Weird

THE FUTURE WEIRD: REMOTE CONTROL

Posted on by spectacletheater

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ONE NIGHT ONLY!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26 – 8:00 PM

Nearly ten years ago, the US military went public with its efforts to hack into the bodies of insects. The goal was to take control of their movements from a remote source; to fly anthropodan bodies as chemical sensors and concealed cameras; to literally weaponize the fly on the wall. News reports that followed confirmed private fears such surveillance technologies were getting dangerously close to unbearable occult practices. Sophisticated and often cruel, possession is the cutting-edge of military research.

Of course, REMOTE CONTROL has long concerned witches and bitches – those women who see, take, and sell things they cannot grasp. Whether they wield it, or are used by it, such technology is deployed without regard for reciprocity or consent. Shrouded in secrecy and activated by sympathetic thinking and emotional manipulation, REMOTE CONTROL promises the loss of individual agency, as well as the thrilling ability to inhabit another’s body. From the excitement surrounding the technical apparatus to the far more sinister compulsion to repurpose the humanoid, we invite you to contemplate “the human of use of human beings” this month as The Future Weird presents REMOTE CONTROL.

REMOTE CONTROL features the work of
Shola Amoo
Fyzal Boulifa
Elaine Castillo
Zina Saro Wiwa
and Lab Rats
REMOTE CONTROL
1. a system for controlling something, such as a machine, from a distance, by using electrical or radio signals.

2. the movement of a body caused by thought or willpower without the application of a physical force.

see also: POSSESSION
1. to have or own (something).
2. to have or show (a particular quality, ability, skill) of spirits.
3. to enter into and control (someone).
a: a will-less and speechless human in the West Indies capable only of automatic movement. She has died and been supernaturally reanimated to serve.
b: a person held to resemble the so-called walking dead; especially; automation.

THE FUTURE WEIRD: SUPRA-PLANETARY SOVEREIGNS

Posted on by spectacletheater

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 – 8PM
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26 – 8PM

This November, the Future Weird returns loaded with the retro tropes of science fiction to pay tribute to space-age prophets, musicians and messiahs. We start with John Akomfrah’s The Last Angel of History, which packages historic Black sci-fi as a futuristic Pan-African venture. Eventually, it swaps techno-centric experiments for messianic characters who fight dominating narratives of science and progress for cosmic philosophies.

This time around we depart from our previous format (feature film + shorts) in order to include interviews, testimonies, and archival footage of magnetic, creative leaders who promise transcendence for their followers, and achieve intergalactic travel through prayer as well as funk.

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We’ll mix photos, tape-recorded testimonies, and home videos from South African church services in with Akomfrah’s all-start cast of American musicians, charismatic space captains and Star Trek heroines in order to collectively consider belief, art, truth telling, and forms of authority.

The Future Weird is a bimonthly series exploring contemporary film from the global south – with an African bias. Our title, “the future weird”, is inspired by The State’s ongoing documentation of non-western futurisms: http://www.thestate.ae/

The Last Angel Of History is presented with special thanks to Icarus Films.