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Title

Your reality transformation is almost complete: Ian Haig's 'Chronicles of the new human organism'

Author(s)

Tofts, Darren

Abstract

Imagine putting a video camera into the hands of a Death Valley outsider artist convinced that the mother ship is about to land at any minute. Imagine, too, that when it arrives it brings with it a new phase of human evolution in the name of the reptilian mind and the hormonal earth. Pretty predictable fare when you think about the long and disrespectable history of New Age new beginnings for the human species, from the Heaven's Gate cult, Erich von Daeniken's Chariots of the Gods books, to Extropianism and the various nuances of trans-humanist thought. But what if that artist hailed from the Antipodes and brought a colder, pragmatic eye to the very idea of transcendentalist thought to do with human evolution. Australian media artist Ian Haig has consulted the manual on transitional thinking and done something unspeakable to it. Haig's most recent work, 'Chronicles of the new human organism' (2005-2010), is a film that takes the viewer on a journey through a range of ideas, systems of knowledge and questions relating to the origins of the human species, global warming, new forms of human sexuality, sacrifice, parasites, communication with the dead, and alien evolutionary technology. Did I mention Martian communication?

Publication type

Journal article

Source

Vlak, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Sep 2010), pp. 150-152

Publication year

2010

Keyword(s)

Film studies;  Haig, Ian;  Media art

Publisher

Litteraria Pragensia

ISSN

1804-512X

Publisher URL

http://vlakmagazine.blogspot.com/

Copyright

Journal issue selection © VLAK 2010. This paper copyright © 2010 Darren Tofts (copyright of individual pieces remains with contributor). Paper reproduced here in accordance with this policy.

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