Welcome to Erewhon: A contemporary fable about living beings and machines

Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the Office of the Arts at Georgia Tech present a series of films by Gwenola Wagon and Pierre Cassou-Noguès that explore a world where technology and automation drive all aspects of life on Earth.

This event is free, but pre-registration is required.

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Pierre Cassou-Noguès and Gwenola Wagon will introduce the project Welcome to Erewhon, which was co-directed with the artist and researcher Stéphane Degoutin, and will be on hand for a post-show Q&A. 

The films offer a loose adaptation of a philosophical fable published in 1872 by the British writer Samuel Butler. In the fictional city of Erewhon, automation is considered as an evolution of the “machine” species comparable to the evolution of biological species, but at a faster pace. This hypothesis governs the habits and inhabitants to the smallest aspects of their lives. Humans, animals, and plants are linked in a cloud that processes all mental matter. Algorithms can give voice to the dead. This is how the spirit of Samuel Butler can still circulate through images of the city.

Meet the Collaborators

Pierre Cassou-Noguès, philosopher and professor at the University of Paris 8, is the author of several books which combine philosophy and fiction, including Les Rêves Cybernétiques de Norbert Wiener (Seuil, 2014). His last book Technofictions (Cerf, 2019) investigates the various ways in which technology presently transforms our forms of life through eight short stories. www.pierrecassounogues.com Hyperlink name with url and make bold

Gwenola Wagon is an artist and assistant professor in the Art Department of the University of Paris 8. She has produced numerous sound and moving image installations in France and abroad. http://nogovoyages.com/ Hyperlink name with url and make bold

Co-production: Dispositif pour la Création Multimédia, CNC (Dicréam), Jeu de Paume espace virtuel. With support from: Artec, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Laboratoire TEAMeD, Université Paris 8.

This event is co-organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the Office of the Arts at Georgia Tech.