Event overview
public programme lecture with Wassim Alsindi
What if the medieval Crusades never truly ended? Instead, what if they became the template upon which modernity was modelled: a blueprint that reveals its true horror in our current age of technofascism. We will explore the possibility that the libidinal forces within medieval Europe – which fueled militarised pilgrimages to the Levant in the late 11th century onwards – persist today, haunting contemporary politics and technology.
With their dreams of new Network State empires, resource extraction, and supremacist domination, today’s tech overlords are the descendants of Europe's Crusaders. Though the methods have evolved, the Western will to power and conquest – The Chain Mail Gaze – remains the same, a thousand years later. From Pope Urban II to George W. Bush, from Dwight Eisenhower to Christopher Columbus, from Richard the Lionheart to Heinrich Himmler, the cultural logic of the Crusade as a righteous, civilisation-defining ideological war has left an indelible mark on the world's past, present, and possible futures.
Wassim Z. Alsindi is the convener of 0xSalon, a counter-institutional collective critically engaging with technology through art and philosophy. His research practice is primarily concerned with the externalities of networked technologies. Wassim holds a doctorate in experimental quantum physics, holds an editorial column at the MIT Computational Law Report, and co-founded MIT’s Cryptoeconomic Systems journal. Recent writings have been published by 0xFolklore, Aksioma, Ars Scientia Journal, Miskatonic Virtual University Press, NOIA Magazine, Posthuman Press, and The Philosophical Journal of Agorism. Through 0xSalon, Wassim has authored numerous solo and collaborative creative works spanning experimental music, satirical theatre, speculative fiction, sculpture, games, poetry, and machinic scripture. He has performed, lectured, and exhibited on five continents, at venues including Akademie der Künste (DE), Art Dubai (AE), Au JUS (BE), AVTO (TR), Chaos Communication Congress (DE), CITYCITY Gallery (TH), Cypherpunk Congress (AR), Funkhaus (DE), Goldsmiths (UK), Institute of Contemporary Arts (UK), Kulturværftet (DK), MIT Media Lab (USA), Norbergfestival (SE), Something Else (EG), The Barbican (UK), Unsound Festival (PL), and ZKM (DE).
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Oct 2025 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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