Antikythera Call for Researchers

Call for researchers to join Antikythera—a program reorienting planetary computation as a philosophical, technological and geopolitical force.   

Applications are now open for Antikythera’s Studio, which will host 15-18 international, interdisciplinary studio researchers from February to June 2023. The program is free and includes a housing provision and a monthly stipend of 4000 USD (or equivalent when not in Los Angeles). All travel and other associated program costs will also be covered by the program.

Antikythera takes its name and inspiration from the Antikythera mechanism, discovered in 1901 in a shipwreck off the Greek island and dated to 200 BC. This “first” primordial computer was not simply a calculator; it was an astronomical machine, mapping and predicting the movements of stars and planets, marking annual events, and organizing a naval culture upon the globe’s surface. The Antikythera mechanism not only calculated interlocking variables; it oriented intelligence. The future of computation is tied to this relation between knowledge, navigation and the planetary. 

Instead of applying existing philosophy to the topic of computation, Antikythera starts from the other direction, recognizing that technologies generate ideas as much as ideas generate technologies. The program develops theoretical and practical philosophies through encounters with historic, present, and potential forms of computation. These new orientations take shape in speculative design proposals and projects that explore the implications of planetary computation and how to reorient its futures through writing, cinema, software, policies, programs, and more. 

Studio researchers from various disciplines—design, computer science, economics, philosophy, history, filmmaking, science and technology studies, political science, digital media and more—are invited to join over 75 affiliate researchers in developing new philosophy, research, and speculative design around five research themes: 

Synthetic Intelligence (the long-term implications of machine intelligence, particularly focused on natural-language processing and large language models). Hemispherical Stacks (the geopolitics of planetary computation, particularly focused on platform infrastructures). Recursive Simulations (the emergence of simulations as a technology across domains, from scientific to VR/AR, and the ways these models create worlds in turn). Synthetic Catallaxy (the ongoing and potential organization of computational economics, pricing and planning). Planetary Sapience (the long term evolution of intelligence, surpassing binaries of natural/artificial, human/machine, etc).

Antikythera is directed by Benjamin Bratton, philosopher of technology and Professor at University of California, San Diego, and author of many books including The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (MIT Press). Associate directors are Ben Cerveny, technologist, speculative designer, and director of the Amsterdam-based Foundation for Public Code, and Stephanie Sherman, strategist, writer, and director of MA Narrative Environments at Central St. Martins, University of Arts London London. The Studio is directed by architect and creative director Nicolay Boyadjiev. 

Antikythera Affiliate Researchers will include Blaise Aguera Y Arcas, Memo Akten, Raphael Arar, Feryal Behbahani, Ray Brassier, Joanna Bryson, Holly Jean Buck, Jimena Canales, AA Cavia, Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavungha, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Manuel Delanda, Beatrice Fazi, Yakov Feygin, Peter Galison, Bernard Dionysious Geoghegan, Nils Gilman, Ken Goldberg, Katherine Hayles, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, Helen Hester, Yuk Hui, Lydia Kallipoliti, Ed Keller, Aaron Koblin, Bogna Konior, Kei Kreutler, Xin Liu, Cecile Malaspina, Suhail Malik, Geoff Manaugh & Nicola Twilley, Matilde Marcolli, Achille Mbembe, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Kyle McDonald, Kenric McDowell, Lucy McRae, Lisa Messeri, Metahaven, Nicholas de Monchaux, Thomas Moynihan, Reza Negarastani, Jussi Parrika, Robert Gerard Pietrusko, Chen Qiufan, Venkatesh Rao, Martin Rauchbauer, Casey Reas, Patricia Reed, Tobias Rees, Jasmine Roberts, Justin Rosenstein, Mindy Seu, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal, Benedict Singleton & Marta Ferreira de Sá, Bing Song, Nick Srnicek. Sara Walker, Claire Webb. Eyal Weizman, Peter Wolfendale, Liam Young, and many more.

Antikythera is based at the Berggruen Institute, a think tank in Los Angeles. The studio program is supported by One Project, an operating non-profit and foundation. 

Applications to join the Studio are due November 11, 2022. For more information visit here and follow @antikythera_xyz.