Core77

In an age when technology is omnipresent, in a society of flux, transparency and of widespread surveillance and paranoia, the Internet seems to have become the favorite support system for an upsurge in rumours and wild conspiracy theories. New media now give rise to the very same controversies that surround Science Fiction and scientific progress in general. Dark Designs questions the current relevance of conspiracy theories and their digital avatars and will explore the notion of art, technology and conspiracies in a series of events taking place in venues across Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland. The event takes a thoughtful and incisive look at the concept's ambiguity, history and links to philosophy, research, art and technology.

More after the jump.

Organised by Maison d'Ailleurs (House of Elsewhere) - the museum of Science Fiction, Utopia and Extraordinary Journeys - and the University of Art and Design in Geneva (HEAD), Dark Designs includes a symposium featuring acclaimed science fiction writer, Norman Spinrad; director of transmediale, philosophers Pierre Lagrange and Daniel Pinkas; Stephen Kovats; scientists Herbert Keppner and Jerome Charmet and many others.

The symposium takes place in the new wing of Maison d'Ailleurs - Espace Jules Verne - which opens ten days before Dark Designs.

Dark Designs also includes an exhibition of digital art by students, located in Yverdon-les-Bains' historic 13th century Savoyard castle, and an evening of performances by artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, and Gaspard Buma; hosted by the picturesque theatre, L'Echandole, situated in the caves of the castle.

images via Dark Designs