Date and Time
- Thursday, Mar 19, 2026 6pm - 8pm
Location
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Details
Consider what may be a new age of the Demiurge. In this talk, Lizard People: Psyops, AI, Magick, Mind-Control, UFOs, the Secret of the Ark, and The New Demiurge, artist and author Trevor Paglen weaves a complex web of philosophy, truth, delusion, and hallucination to consider the precedents for exploitations of the human mind at play as we encounter increasingly pervasive artificial intelligences. Paglen’s practice has consistently revealed the mechanisms through which information systems — whether governmental, corporate, or algorithmic — operate beyond human perception yet fundamentally alter our understanding of the world. Drawing from figures across time and discipline from the CIA to magicians and technology innovators, this talk reveals patterns of manipulation that introduce timely reflections on why our supposedly rational minds remain so vulnerable to structured bypasses that access our most primal impulses.
