Zach Blas is an artist, writer, and Lecturer in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. His practice spans technical investigation, theoretical research, moving image, conceptualism, performance, and science fiction. Recent exhibitions include Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI at the de Young Museum; The Body Electronic at the Walker Art Center; the 2018 Gwangju Biennale; and the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. Currently, Blas is a 2018 - 2020 United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellow.
Jubilee 2033, 2018
HD single-channel video, color with sound,
30’52’’., looped
The Seal of the Absolute, 2017
Fluorescent vinyl, dimensions variable
Palantir: Disappeared Internet, 2017
Etched glass sphere with 12 inch diameter, LED light
Palantir: Killed Internet, 2017
Etched glass sphere with 12 inch diameter, LED light
Courtesy: Studio Zach Blas
Jubilee 2033 is a re-imagination of scenes from Derek Jarman’s queer punk film Jubilee (1978). Jubilee 2033 follows author Ayn Rand (Susanne Sachsse) and members of her Collective, including economist Alan Greenspan, on an acid trip in 1955. Guided by an artificial intelligence named Azuma, they are transported to a dystopian future Silicon Valley. As the campuses of Apple, Facebook and Google burn, Azuma reveals that Ayn has become a celebrity philosopher to tech executives, whose writings foster their entrepreneurial spirit. Amidst the wreckage, Rand and The Collective observe techies being captured by anti-campus groupies, and bear witness to the death of the Silicon Valley elite. Inside an occupied office of Palantir Technologies, they encounter Nootropix (Cassils), a contra-sexual, contra-internet prophet, who lectures them on the end of the internet as we know it.
—Zach Blas