Rezaire was selected as part of the European Media Arts Residency Exchange (EMARE 2016), a collaborative project with Werkleitz Gesellschaft (Halle, Germany), Bandits-Mages (Bourges, France), FACT (Liverpool, UK) and IMPAKT. For the residency Rezaire will work on the project PREMIUM CONNECT. It shares the same agenda of her previous works: to decolonize our knowledge and understanding of technology for political and healing purposes. This work continues her investigation into the history of technology on the African continent.

Embracing the idea that technology acts as a mirror of the organic world, capable of healing or poisoning depending on its usage and users, PREMIUM CONNECT investigates the cybernetics space where the organic, technologic and spiritual worlds connect. How can we use biological or esoteric systems to fuel technological process of information, control and governance? This work explores the origins of information and communication technologies (ICTs), drawing on wisdoms from the fungi underworld, ancestors communication, numerology, African divination systems, sacred geometry, Dogon astrology, and the earth’s energetic grid among other spiritual technologies. The history of colonial domination and the erasure of indigenous knowledge systems are closely related to the history of our ‘modern’ technologies. PREMIUM CONNECT digs into ancient cosmologies in search of technological authenticity, which do not rely on exploitation, exclusion, empiric rationality and profit. This study of dynamic networks from artificial and biologic environments digs into the politics of possibilities, where a mystico-techno-consciousness could nurture a mind-body-spirit-technology symbiosis.

The European Media Arts Residency Exchange (EMARE 2014-2016), a collaborative project with Werkleitz Gesellschaft (Halle, Germany), Bandits-Mages (Bourges, France), FACT (Liverpool, UK) and IMPAKT, is generously supported by the EU Culture Programme. Check out the activities of EMAN/EMARE here.