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Technocapital Utopias and their Reactionary Shadows | Wassim Alsindi

Today, new forms of imperialism are emerging on land, sky, sea, and space, led by messianic anti-democracy elites who seek to reshape the global polis. In this talk, Wassim Alsindi argues that these new patriarchs wish to challenge the nation-state system itself, through the creation of privatised zones of exception such as charter cities and network states. Framed as libertarian utopias, these emerging polities leverage ecological exploitation, patriarchal chauvinism, and colonial logics to enshrine the crowns and empires of tomorrow.

Wassim Alsindi is the creative director of 0xSalon, a counter-institutional collective critically engaging with technology through art and philosophy. He holds a doctorate in experimental quantum physics, writes an editorial column for the MIT Computational Law Report, and co-founded MIT’s Cryptoeconomic Systems journal. He has performed, lectured, and exhibited in over 30 countries, at venues including ZKM, Karlsruhe; Unsound Festival, Kraków; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Akademie der Künste, Berlin; CITY CITY Gallery, Bangkok; Something Else, Cairo; AVTO, Istanbul; and FIBER Festival, Amsterdam.