Register for the Zoom link here: https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_A0LkItCPSWylgJxRSQCCvA. Or stream via YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8hq6oU__viC_fDu2lhOe7w. Screen Lawrence Lek's films Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD), Geomancer, and AIDOL here starting Oct 19: https://lawrencelek.com/berkeley2020 Presented by the Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium; Berkeley Center for New Media, the Arts Research Center, and UC Berkeley's Department of Art Practice. Lawrence Lek, Artist, Filmmaker, Musician Interlaced with conspiracy theories and speculative fiction, Lawrence Lek’s CGI films, installations, and open-world games explore the geopolitical impact of automation and simulation. His cinematic universe is populated with dreamers—intelligent satellites, freedom fighters, fading superstars—all searching for autonomy in a future dominated by data. For this discussion about his work, Lek will integrate a live mix of excerpts from his recent films and video games, focusing on Geomancer (2017), and AIDOL (2019), his first feature-length film, which will be screened at ____. These projects revolve around the ideas theorized in Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD), Lek’s 2016 video essay about the parallels between Chinese industrialization and portrayals of AI. Lawrence Lek is a London-based artist, filmmaker, and musician who unifies diverse practices—CGI, audio-visual performance, gaming, and fiction—into a continuously expanding cinematic universe. Drawing from a background in architecture and electronic music, he produces simulations of real places within future scenarios and alternate geopolitical histories. These worlds are populated with characters who want to be creators - surveillance satellites, digital sculptors, pop singers - all searching for autonomy under uncertain conditions of existence. Truth is entangled with fantasy; there is no clear divide between the human and the machine, or between the real and the virtual. ------------------ Arts + Design Mondays is organized and sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Arts + Design Initiative. The series is co-curated by African American Student Development in the Division of Equity & Inclusion; Arts and Innovation Advocates at Berkeley Law; the Arts Research Center; the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Berkeley Center for New Media; Cal Performances; the College of Environmental Design; the Department of Art Practice and the Wiesenfeld Visiting Artist Lecture Series; the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; the Graduate School of Journalism; and the Richmond Arts and Culture Commission. Technical support and presentation offered by UC Berkeley College of Letters & Science, Division of Arts & Humanities. The 2020 series of Arts + Design Mondays is made possible thanks to the generous financial support of Nancy Olson and Buzz Wiesenfeld. For more information, visit artsdesign.berkeley.edu/mondays.