Date: Monday, January 23
Time: 5 PM EDT

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"If, as Arthur C. Clarke famously observed, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, then can we accept that any sufficiently advanced magic is also indistinguishable from technology?"

In this illustrated presentation, Mark Pilkington presents a historical overview of psychotronic devices - the radiant collision point of witchcraft, art and technology. Psychotronic devices fuse aspects of vitalism, electromagnetic field theory and psychic sciences like telepathy, psychometry and dowsing. From an orthodox materialist perspective, they are cargo cult technology, a fantasy of science. But it is too simple to reject all psionic devices out of hand as deceptions or slight-of-mind; Instead, we can perhaps best understand them as technological adaptations of ancient, sympathetic magical practices, a magic that feeds on, and is fueled by, the conviction of both the practitioner and the subject. In this illustrated talk, Mark will look the development of psychotronic technologies from the 19th century to the present, a journey that incorporates experimental medicines, science fiction fandom and some of the world's most prestigious art galleries.

Mark Pilkington is the founder of the independent publishing house Strange Attractor Press, which he has run for almost two decades, and the author of Mirage Men (2010) and Far Out 101 Strange Tales from Science’s Outer Edge (2007). His writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, magazines, journals and newspapers – most recently Magic: Documents of Contemporary Art (2022), Death: A Graveside Companion, and catalogues for the Waking the Witch touring exhibition, the Courtauld Institute and the New Gallery. Mark also makes experimental electronic music in the duos Teleplamsiste and Luminous Foundation. He’s a regular speaker at galleries, universities and curious occult gatherings.