The Internet allows us to discover, select and combine the spiritual traditions that best suit us. In a new exhibition, artists are exploring the connection between ancient beliefs and future systems.

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Dortmund, Germany-"Let's use smartphones and tarot cards to connect the spirit," the text on the wall reads under soft ultraviolet light. "Let's make DIY equipment to listen to the unseen world."

The spell printed as wallpaper is part of the "Cyber ​​Witch Manifesto" by French artist Lucile Olympe Haute, an installation in an exhibition titled "Technical Shamanism" , The exhibition will be on display at Hartware MedienKunstVerein in Dortmund, Germany on March 6, 2022. The group exhibition brings together the works of 12 artists and collectives, exploring the connection between technology and the profound ancestral belief system.

In our always-on life, the supernatural is at a high-tech moment. Spirituality is everywhere: Self-help master Deepak Chopra co-founded his own NFT platform, Witch is reading tarot cards on TikTok, and the artificial intelligence-driven astrology application Co-Star has been downloaded more than 20 million times.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Talbert, Assistant Professor of Faith and Digital Ethnography at Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg, has an explanation. "Because of the globalization potential of the Internet, people can access belief traditions that were not easy to access before," he said. He pointed out that in the United States, more and more people consider themselves to be "spiritual" rather than "religious," adding that the Internet allows these people to discover, select, and combine the spiritual traditions that most appeal to them.

"Technoshamanism" curator Inke Arns said in a recent exhibition that contemporary artists also recognize the ubiquity of profound spirituality in the digital space. "I asked myself,'Why do people in different parts of the world have such a strange interest in not only reactivating ancestral knowledge, but also combining it with technology?'" she said.

Arnes said that for artists, the answer usually comes down to anxiety about the environment. "People realize that we are in a very terrible situation," she added, "because the burning of coal and fossil fuels. And it will not stop." She said that the combination of an ancient belief system that is more in line with nature and new technology is for artists Provides hope for tackling the climate crisis.

Fabiane Borges, a Brazilian researcher and member of the Tecnoxamanismo network, said that while technological progress is often seen as a damage to the environment, artists, indigenous activists and hackers are trying to reclaim technology for their own esoteric purposes. The group organizes meetings and festivals. Participants use equipment including DIY hacking robots to connect with the belief system of their ancestors and the natural world.

In Dortmund's performance, the light of hope shined in several works that imagined the future of human beings beyond the earth. The 50 prints in the "Technoshamanic Systems: New Cosmological Models for Survival" series created by British artist Suzanne Treister fill a wall of the museum, depicting the spiritual possibility of our species' survival.

Treister's neat, colorful works on paper feature flying saucers and stars in the Kabbalah Tree of Life, as well as imagined scientific systems and blueprints for alien architecture. As billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos see outer space as the next frontier for human expansion, Trest envisions a utopian alternative: space exploration is a ritual The process in which vision plays an as important role as solar energy and artificial intelligence.

Arnes said that many esoteric practices connect communities with higher powers, which is why outer space has appeared in so many contemporary artists’ spiritual explorations. "It establishes a connection between the micro world and the macro world," she added, creating "the idea of ​​a world that not only includes the earth."

Of course, technicians have proposed a more digital way to enter the new world: virtual reality. Many of the founders of VR are interested in psychedelic experience, which is a common feature of shaman rituals. (The recent upsurge in the ayahuasca ritual, where participants drank a psychoactive beer, shows that this attraction is still strong.) Researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK even used VR to try to replicate a kind of magic Mushroom hallucinations.

In the "Technoshamanism" exhibition in Dortmund, several works provide viewers with psychedelic visual effects. Morehshin Allahyari's VR work "She Sees the Unknown" is reminiscent of a sinister goddess; at the request of the artist, the VR headset is worn in a dark space, letting evil spirits circling menacingly on the audience. Another work experienced through augmented reality glasses guides the audience in a meditation ritual in a huge pulp temple, using video holograms to weave a spiral light path.

Other artists did not invent their own virtual spiritual places, but tried to reveal some of the lost meanings that already existed. For example, Tabita Rezaire's website describes her as "infinity in the form of a therapeutic agent" and is showing a film installation exploring the Stone Circles of Gambia and Senegal. In a film shown on a flat-screen TV on the floor of the museum, Rezer investigates the original use of the ancient ruins through documentary interviews with local guardians, astronomers and archaeologists. Using numerology, astrology, and Africa’s traditional understanding of the universe, the interviews are superimposed on the hypnotic CGI visualization of outer space.

Researcher Borges said that technology and spirituality can also be combined to preserve ancient cultural customs that may be lost. She recalled that at a festival organized by her network in Bahia, Brazil in 2016, teenagers with mobile phones recorded a full moon ceremony performed by members of the indigenous community Pataxó. Borges said that this video shows the Pataxos speaking their ancient language in a trance, which was later passed on to local university researchers who are working to expand the dictionary.

Tolbert of Pennsylvania State University said that the interaction between new tools and esoteric practices can be seen in various mysterious practices. "Technology has always been part of spirituality," he pointed out, citing psychics that have their own Facebook groups and ghost hunters who use electromagnetic field detectors. "I think most of them don't think this represents any kind of conflict," he added.

Perhaps, as the "Internet Witch Manifesto" implies, hackers and witches, programmers and psychics may have more in common than expected. As Tolbert said: "If technology is not a way for individuals to find answers, then what is technology?"