Hexen2.0 - by Suzanne Treister & Lars Bang Larsen (Paperback)

About the Book

"HEXEN2.0" is the sequel to "HEXEN 2039" which imagined new technologies for psychological warfare through investigating links between the occult and the military in relation to histories of witchcraft, the US film industry, British Intelligence agencies, Soviet brainwashing, behavior control experiments of the US Army's MKULTRA program and more recent practices of its Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (PSYOP), in light of contemporary neuro-scientific research.
"HEXEN2.0" delves deeper into the histories of scientific research behind government programs of mass control, in tandem with counter-cultural and grass roots movements, and creates a space for the imagining of alternative future scenarios. "HEXEN2.0" charts, within a framework of post-WWII US governmental and military imperatives, the coming together of diverse scientific and social sciences through the development of cybernetics, the history of the internet, the rise of Web 2.0 and mass intelligence gathering, and the implications for the future of new systems of societal manipulation towards a control society. Furthermore, "HEXEN2.0" investigates the participants of the seminal Macy Conferences1 (1943-1956) - whose primary goal was to set the foundations for a general science of the workings of the human mind - alongside specific critics of technological society such as Theodore Kaczynski/Unabomber, current profiles of Anarcho-Primitivists and Post Leftists, and traces the precursory ideas of Thoreau, Heidegger, Adorno and others in relation to fantasies of utopic/dystopic futures from science-fiction literature and film.
Through representing and re-examining these subjects and histories through the lens of occult belief systems and ideas of the supernatural "HEXEN2.0" takes us to a hypnotic, mesmerizing space of early technological fantasy and theory to hallucinate feedback from the past from where one may imagine and construct possible alternative futures. The information in "HEXEN2.0" is based on actual events, people and histories.

Book Synopsis

HEXEN2.0 is the sequel to HEXEN 2039 which imagined new technologies for psychological warfare through investigating links between the occult and the military in relation to histories of witchcraft, the US film industry, British Intelligence agencies, Soviet brainwashing, behavior control experiments of the US Army's MKULTRA program and more recent practices of its Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (PSYOP), in light of contemporary neuro-scientific research.

HEXEN2.0 delves deeper into the histories of scientific research behind government programs of mass control, in tandem with counter-cultural and grass roots movements, and creates a space for the imagining of alternative future scenarios. HEXEN2.0 charts, within a framework of post-WWII US governmental and military imperatives, the coming together of diverse scientific and social sciences through the development of cybernetics, the history of the internet, the rise of Web 2.0 and mass intelligence gathering, and the implications for the future of new systems of societal manipulation towards a control society. Furthermore, HEXEN2.0 investigates the participants of the seminal Macy Conferences1 (1943-1956) - whose primary goal was to set the foundations for a general science of the workings of the human mind - alongside specific critics of technological society such as Theodore Kaczynski/Unabomber, current profiles of Anarcho-Primitivists and Post Leftists, and traces the precursory ideas of Thoreau, Heidegger, Adorno and others in relation to fantasies of utopic/dystopic futures from science-fiction literature and film.

Through representing and re-examining these subjects and histories through the lens of occult belief systems and ideas of the supernatural HEXEN2.0 takes us to a hypnotic, mesmerizing space of early technological fantasy and theory to hallucinate feedback from the past from where one may imagine and construct possible alternative futures. The information in HEXEN2.0 is based on actual events, people and histories.

Review Quotes

"Suzanne Treister's HEXEN2.0 is a marvellously rich, suggestive, erudite and important work....The material outcome is a set of 78 HEXEN2.0 Tarot cards and a book, both of them beautiful and stylish, and both operating at two levels, images and text." Mute Magazine

"Utterly hypnotising...A new generation kind of art." Tea Time in Wonderland

"Treister's HEXEN 2.0 art book is truly spectacular...Suzanne Treister is probably my new hero..." Anna McKerrow Blogspot

"The works here are truly fascinating and will appeal to both art lovers and those interested in technology and its origins." The Londonist

"The HEXEN2.0 book would be a great delight on anyone's coffee table and the concepts and ideas presented through the medium of the Tarot could provide a wonderful talking point for years to come...In conclusion an amazing book and an amazing deck and a must for any serious Tarot collector." Paranormality Magazine

About the Author

Suzanne Treister studied at St Martin's School of Art and Chelsea School of Art and currently lives and works in London. She is the author of NATO: The Military Codification System for the Ordering of Everything in the World and Hexen 2039: New Military-Occult Technologies for Psychological Warfare, a Rosalind Brodsky Research Programme both published by Black Dog Publishing London UK.

Lars Bang Larsen is a theorist and curator who is based in Copenhagen. He is also an art historian at the University of Copenhagen.