posted on 2024-07-12, 17:02authored byDarren Tofts
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?