"Easily the most mind-opening presentation Moogfest 2016 had to offer – a multidisciplinary monologue that rivaled Brian Eno’s Moogfest 2011 keynote for all the unexpected twists and turns it took. This one-man show saw artist-musician Michael Garfield take a captive audience on a vision-quest through the lands where metaphysics and emerging technology meet. Make no mistake – it was a ramble, but an insightful and fascinating one from start to finish that traveled from the ancient dragon god Tiamat to the Victorians laying the transatlantic telegraph cable to the Manhattan Project giving birth to a new age of fear and awareness. The 'psychedelic century'? That’s the here and now that’s just beginning, and the more our technology graduates us to the alchemical act of creation, the closer humanity comes to confronting “the cosmic mystery that we are.” Heavy and heady stuff, and a pleasant counterpoint to the doom and gloom of the average transhumanist cybergrumps whose future-thinking seems improbably grounded in the limited perceptions of the present."
– Cap Blackard, Consequence of Sound
consequenceofsound.net/2016/05/moogfest-2016-festival-review-25-best-performances/
"Join paleo-ecologist turned multimedia performer Michael Garfield for a playful, deep-as-hell discussion on the major transformations just around the corner – and a lesson in how you can harness the momentum of this change!
Get ready for a very psychedelic century! As our technologies evolve to be much smarter and more omnipresent, we will have to find a different paradigm to handle the dissolving boundary between the 'made' and 'born,' the 'natural' and 'artificial.' With every passing day, we move a little closer to a world of magical immersive mystery, living high technology, and interactive and intelligent responsive media environments – in short, a world that looks and feels a lot like pre-modernity's alive and interested cosmos.
Maybe there is something to the notion that the insights of indigenous medicine traditions are just what we require to navigate this brave new digital society. Where cybernetic science meets the psychedelic revolution – where techno-telepathic art collectives jam with internet-connected whales and robots – this is where you'll find the bleeding edge of techno-shamanism. And you are invited."
– from the Moogfest 2016 program
moogfest.sched.org/event/6mFx/technoshamanism-a-very-psychedelic-century
Watch this talk with accompaniment from the Synesthesia visualizer:
youtu.be/9F58VwJD-nU
Listen to this talk on the Psychedelic Salon Podcast:
psychedelicsalon.com/podcast-508-techno-shamanism/