“The garden has a strange atmosphere, the trees and the flowers… the effervescence of their fragrance, illustrate the infinite potency of neurotransmitters within our brains,” reads the computer generated narration of The Doors, a multimedia installation by artist Zach Blas. The soundtrack for this 2019 work made with xin and Aya Sinclair—presented on AQNB’s special Reversal Agents podcast for Rewire festival and broadcast on May 9—is now available to stream.
The West Virginia born artist has presented his increasingly topical explorations of psychedelics, technology, and the Californian Ideology for the likes of de Young Museum, San Francisco, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the 2018 Gwangju Biennale and more. Mixing poems composed by artificial intelligence, an AI generated voice trained from recordings of Jim Morrison, corporate nootropics literature and ASMR, The Doors is a queer science fiction work that unpacks the ongoing psychedelic imagination in Silicon Valley today.
New Psychedelia is the last of our Reversal Agents podcast for Rewire, which examines notions of the past and the future, human agency and healing, in music, art and culture right now. Past episodes feature Jack Halberstam, Evan Ifekoya, Every Ocean Hughes, Most Dismal Swamp and Clay AD.The four-episode special edition series is an extension of our ongoing Artist Statement podcast, available bi-monthly via our Patreon at www.patreon.com/aqnb.**
AQNB’s Reversal Agents podcast was broadcast for Rewire festival on May 6 to 9, 2021.
