Cybermancy

Teodora Dimitrova

“Cybermancy” looks at human’s desire to predict the future with an emphasis on the tools and systems involved in that task. For that purpose I designed 3 speculative “tools” for prediction for 3 characters from existing forecasting fields- climate scientists, economists, and fortune tellers. Throughout history, everything from our economic system to our relationship with nature and ourselves has been profoundly affected by the early predictors, the model makers, the champions of cause and effect. From bone casting, tea leaf reading, drawing lots to sophisticated algorithms, big data, and AI, our tools have certainly evolved, however the underlying principles remain the same. Today If there is a modern equivalent of the oracles of the ancient world, they reside somewhere in the circuits of our computers. Every day they are fed with data, and every day they are consulted for future predictions. The speed and scale in which our faith in “black boxes' ' evolves, with little consideration of how they operate and who is in charge doesn’t feel so different from what people had used divination for in times of social crises. Through the redesigned objects and series of interviews with experts from current fields of prediction, the project acknowledges each field's continued links to the past and their entanglement with belief practices, contrary to idealised narratives of modernity being entirely secular and rational.

Instagram: @the.cyber.mancer
Website: www.teodoradimitrova.com
Email: teodora.dim001@gmail.com

Cybermancy

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