Deus ex Poiesis: A Manifesto for the End of the World and the Future of Art and Technology

In 2020, the Doomsday Clock advanced to just one hundred seconds before nuclear midnight, the hour at which atomic armageddon would end the world as we know it. Using the Greek theatrical device of deus ex machina and Heidegger's reliance on poiesis as a liberating for-ce from technological enframing, I propose the concept of deus ex poiesis as a potential model for addressing the seemingly insurmountable challenges of the anthropocene, an era in which industrial technologies have instigated global climatic changes on the scale of Earth's five mass extinctions. Drawing on additional theoretical insights from Gregory Bateson, Jack Burnham, Donna Haraway, Alva Noë, Rita Raley and others, my essay discusses two aesthetic approaches: 1) digital artworks that explicitly engage in forms of (h)activism through tactical media; 2 artworks that develop and apply ways of knowing that lie outside of rational scientific models and that explore hybrid forms of perception and expanded states of consciousness. Artists considered include Electronic Disturbance Theater, rTMark, Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev, Roy Ascott, Pauline Oliveros, and Kim Jeong-Han. En 2020, el Reloj del Juicio Final avanzó hasta cien segundos antes de la medianoche nuclear, la hora en la que el armagedón atómico acabaría con el mundo tal y como lo conocemos. Utilizando el recurso teatral griego del deus ex machina y la religancia en la peiesis de Hei-degger como fuerza liberadora de la estructura tecnológica, propongo el concepto de deus ex poiesis como un modelo potencial para abordar los retos aparentemente insuperables del antropoceno, una era en la que las tecnologías industriales han instigado cambios climáticos globales a la escala de las cinco extinciones masivas de la Tierra. Basándome en reflexiones teóricas de Gregory Bateson, Jack Burnham, Donna Haraway, Alva Noë, Rita Raley y otros, mi ensayo analiza dos enfoques estéticos: 1) obras de arte digital que se comprometen explícita-mente con formas de (h)activismo a través de medios tácticos; 2) ...