Pursuing the Quantum Imaginary: Esoteric Knowledge Production and the Future of Telecommunications – Nadia Armstrong
Through an artist-ethnographic and cyborg feminist lens, Nadia Armstrong’s practice-based PhD research examines the systems of knowledge that underpin quantum communication technologies.
This masterclass will
- take you through Armstrong’s practice-based research methodologies, and
- endeavour to explore how the field of quantum communications is understood through broader histories of science, technology, belief systems and culture - tracing the entanglements of bodies, machines, and knowledge systems to create what Armstrong calls the Quantum Imaginary.
Through this research and practice framework, Armstrong parafictions a techno-feminist horizon, using digital processes to conjure imagined phenomena that might help us resist technocracy and emerging forms of techno-feudalism.
This masterclass is part of a series run by the Centre for Creative Technologies at University of Galway. Further information about the series can be found at: https://universityofgalway.ie/creative-tech/training/masterclasses/
About Nadia
Nadia J. Armstrong is a visual artist and practice-based PhD fellow with NCAD and CONNECT, Research Ireland’s Centre for Future Networks and Communications. Her current artistic research harnesses the socio-technical imaginary to analyse systems of knowledge in the field of quantum communications. Armstrong’s installations act as interfaces to alternative realities, enveloping audiences in emancipatory parafictions that deconstruct appearances of “natural order.” She creates XR environments through which esoteric forms of knowledge become rituals for contemporary survival.
Armstrong’s newest work GIRLHERO (2025) was commissioned by the Luan Gallery, Athlone for their exhibition SYSTEM ARMING curated by Aoife Banks. The exhibition runs till November 16th. Armstrong’s full bio and more information about her work is available at: nadiajarmstrong.com
Join online
To join via Zoom, you can register at: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_shMhABsYSe2b9vFIQTgitA