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Leonardo Abstracts Service

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    Desouky, Batool "Programmoire: refiguring the archetype of the witch for a political agency in the technocapitalist present." Masters of Fine Art in Computational Art , Goldsmiths, University of London, 2020
    Keywords/Fields of Study : technology, magic, tech-magic, technosolutionism, agency, archive, magic squares, combinatorics

    Abstract: How can we transform the archetype of the witch into a figure relevant for modern capitalism? This paper delves into the early relationship between capitalism and witchcraft to describe the anti-capitalist roots of magic practices and what that relationship can look like today in the context of late-capitalism as technology becomes a ubiquitous tool of oppression. Accompanied by reflections on my own computational art project, the paper journeys across four key terms: magic, technology, agency and archive, to tie in the research with artistic practice. In it, I interrogate notions of techno-solutionism, productivity and personal agency by using a combinatorics algorithm to generate sigils based on mediaeval Arabic mathematical studies of talismanic objects known in English as magic squares. By using methods long held to be the domain of computing (the use of symbolic logic and language-to-function association), I propose a form of tech-magic that highlights the presence of computational processes within witchcraft. In so doing, I articulate magic as a practice of executable intentionality to move it away from the space of “glitch” and create a witchcraft that empowers a personal and political agency through co-opting and subverting methods widely considered central to the field of technology.

    Department: Computing , Goldsmiths, University of London
    Advisor(s): Helen Pritchard