‘LYCAN’ – An exhibition by core.pan curated by Michal Novotný at FUTURA, Prague

core.pan
LYCAN

curated by
Michal Novotný

FUTURA, Prague
5 Mar – 28 Apr, 2019

Words by Michal Novotný

The title of core.pan exhibition references to lycanthropy, the self-transformation into a werewolf. Important is here not only the wolf, as a symbol of natural, wild, strongly sensual and vital forces, but also all the fancifulness of this idea, that however accompany mankind for centuries. Therefore it is probably also a symbolical symptom of the enforced, imposed division of nature and culture. Although the werewolf shapeshifting is not permanent and apparently it is possible to control it, in the later phases to a large extent, what happens here is immediate essential transformation of a given structure, that cannot be foreseen or explained from the previous structural ordering.

This sudden transition is similar to the “god from the machine”, the way of resolving the apparently unresolvable plot in the antic theatre, when a god, or rather a sculpture of god, was pulleyed on the stage to dramatically reverse the play’s conclusion.

As the name itself suggests, god from the machine is present in the works of core.pan literally. core. pan connects the core of the computer processor, the part that executes the necessary calculations, with panpsychism, the idea of certain consciousness, mind or soul as a universal feature of all things, alive or not. Hence it is Lycan, that overcomes with the power of its mind and will the nature-culture division becoming a being that is simultaneously a creature and a hero.

It would be a mistake to read the works of core-pan as a simple techno-optimism, belief, that the coming ecological catastrophe will be deflected by the development of science and technology. That would a gradual change, the idea of progress. core.pan are nonetheless also choosing a shape-shifting Lycan rather than a cyborg for their exhibition. Their point is therefore rather to re-acknowledge the spiritual dimension to technology, a step that could lead to this sudden quantitative transition, unexpected and incalculable, such as the appearance of consciousness, a change that is speculative. And the more for the fancifulness of this idea. Because we cannot speak here about a retreat to irrationality, but rather about the fact, that not only in technology development, the imagination of possibilities directly influences, what actually is possible.

Not without a cause we, therefore, encounter throughout the exhibition some sort of portals. However they be to virtual or imaginary worlds, it seems, those dispose of certain ecologies per se, certain vital processes insides of them. All works of core.pan are the results or clashes of physical or auratic material attributes, accidental- ity and the will of the authors that results in some sort Ofself-establishing arrangements, whether it be not entirely controlled computer animation, hand grinding into stone or the logic of internet memes.

Michal Novotný