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Catholicism and Science Fiction: Themes in Star Wars, Star Trek and Stargate
Most, if not all, have watched something of the Star Trek, Star Wars, or Stargate franchises. They are highly successful franchises that discuss important questions about humanity. They, to be broad, engage their products in themes about man, morality, and the nature of the cosmos. These themes derive conclusions from a handful of basic principles, namely, materialism, atheism, and evolution. This essay is an investigation of the themes and principles found in these franchises. Given the task and scope, this essay will be, in general, painting in broad strokes for the sake of space and time. Some comments are specific to one franchise or another but not necessarily to all three. I speak as someone who has watched, perhaps too much, of these series as a fan but also as a Catholic giving a hard analysis of what they have to offer. I have seen all 16 seasons of Stargate and its 3 movies, the 13 movies and 30 seasons of Star Trek, and 11 movies and 2 seasons of Star Wars. And hence, I write as one concerned about what these franchises have to offer society.
1. Themes on Religion
Each franchise in its own way presupposes atheism. God and religion are major components in each franchise's mythos, so in one respect, it seems strange to assert that these franchises profess atheism; and yet, it is so. Star Wars has presented essentially two religions, the orders of the Sith and the Jedi. They are described as ancient religions in Episode 4: A New Hope, each group uses the same elemental force of nature, the Force, for either good or evil. Religion here is described as an esoteric method for manipulating this force of nature. In Episode 1: The Phantom Menance, we learn that the Force is accessed through lifeforms living in blood, midichlorians. We can make three initial observations about religion in Star Wars.
First, there is no true conception of God or of any kind of divine being. Religion is based upon the magical manipulation of the Force. This manipulation is properly called magical since it appears counter or opposed to science, achieving results that border on the miraculous. The Force is described as a neutral, natural principle without any attributions of personhood. There is no room for a God the Father within the concept of the Force, for divine fatherhood is impossible for any natural principle. The Force is sometimes described as energy, but God properly speaking, is the kind of being that is radically different from any kind of explanation that originates from within the universe. The Force is something created, properly speaking, because it is a force of nature, whereas God is uncreated, for He is the Creator of everything within the universe.
Second, the introduction of midiclorians in Episode 1 is a demythologization of Star Wars. Chronologically speaking, Episodes IV, V, and VI presented the Force as something mysterious that only the initiated could wield its power. After Episode 1, this mysticism is explained away with the introduction of an alien species. The mystery has been eliminated, or shall we say, demythologized. Aliens are responsible for the Jedi's ability to perform their magical tricks.
Third, the two fundamental religious orders, the Jedi and the Sith, attempt to balance each other out galactically. One is yin, the other yang. The Jedi is essentially the principle of light, the Sith the principle of darkness. Each is opposed to the other and a balance is sought for universal harmony. It is easy to see here George Lucas' inspiration from eastern religions. Star Wars is an interesting blend of eastern religion with naturalism and science fiction that has captured audiences for decades.
Concerning Star Trek and Stargate, religion is presented as a foil against science. Religion is portrayed as irrational, and as such, it requires continuous debunking. Every religious explanation needs to be re-explained in terms of science and the laws of nature. The gods presented in these two franchises are aliens every time. Properly speaking, for these series there are no gods, only aliens of advanced technology and evolution. And, in general, these are not good aliens, but petty, immature, narcissistic aliens such as Q and the Continuum from Star Trek: The Next Generation, or aliens that are deceptive and manipulative, or worst, the representation of evil such as the Goa'uld or Ori in Stargate. Every religion in these series has some alien being as the object of religious worship.
None of these franchises present a true conception of God and who He is. "God", or more generally, the divine, is almost always the source of trouble for humanity and civilization, and as such, is something that must be dealt with using the combined arms of science, technology, and human ingenuity. The fifth Star Trek movie presents God as the master and man as the slave. Man as slaves owes God obedience because he is an advanced alien being who says he is a god and not because he is Good, the author of our existence, and a being worthy of worship. This alien god is instead depicted as a tyrant who is power-hungry. Man is given the choice of living as a slave serving evil beings or becoming a rebel, the hero who rebelled against God. Stargate and Star Trek require of the human spirit rebellion against the divine in defense of human liberty and flourishing. God must therefore be destroyed because he is a threat, whether it is with a Klingon warbird, c4, or Asgard battleship. The gods of these religions are, strictly speaking, beings that must be killed or the human race itself may perish. Kill or be killed.
We can observe that these franchises presuppose the concept of God, that he is a being to whom one owes obedience. The parody comes when this being is described as quite literally an evil monster most of the time. God or the gods are evil monsters to be destroyed. What room is there left for a God who is Good? Besides a single episode of Stargate which approached but never explicitly state, none whatsoever. These series are correct in asserting that an idol is not worthy of being worshipped, but instead of a God the Father we are given science to admire instead.
The common denominator is that these franchises lack a God who is Love and desires the salvation and true good of humanity. There is no God who is properly Father. There is no God who is Being itself or the Creator of the universe. In each franchise, the divine is presented as simply another data point of creation, a part of creation. As such, each franchise immaturely attempts to grapple with the most fundamental questions of humanity. God is unjustly belittled and calumniated as being a slave master, tyrant, and genocidal maniac. He is confused with creation, and understood as part of it. There is no clear distinction between the natural and the supernatural. There is a twofold failure of not acknowledging the sharp distinction between created and uncreated being while also being prejudiced against God. Is it anything else than bias and prejudice to wage such a vociferous campaign against God and religion?
Star Trek and Stargate in this respect do Satan's bidding, for given that God is represented as the evil archenemy of humanity, the logical solution is to rebel against him. This is the answer Satan gave to God, rebellion, immediately after his creation. Satan's answer to the God question, to the question of religion, is rebellion. God is a tyrant, so kill him off. These shows presents rebellion as the only solution to the God question. Satan's answer to God becomes the reason of humanity's survival in the chaos of the universe. As such, these shows in reality are a disservice to humanity for they confuse what is good with evil, presenting good as evil and evil as good.
Religion is a part of the virtue of justice. Justice is a proper response owed to the being, giving what is due to it. In this case, religion is the proper response owed to the divine, God Himself. In Star Trek and Stargate, the proposed proper religious attitude is rebellion. Rebellion is what makes one virtuous whereas worship makes one a slave. And these shows are correct, for the worship of idols is slavery. The issue is that a false dichotomy is presented, either there is a God and he is an evil alien one must destroy, or there is no God. The Christian answer is that there is a God who is Goodness itself and the source of all good things. To this Being alone the proper religious attitude is worship. It is an injustice to not give worship to this Being and an even greater injustice to rebel against Him. These media presentations, on the other hand, present religion as either a vice or as something to simply be avoided.
The gods in these shows end up becoming images of man, becoming in every way the embodiment of man's vices. Like the descriptions of the pantheons of the various ancient mythologies, the show writers personify these gods by their vices. The gods are jealous, thirst for power, and lustful. As such, I am reminded of Euripides when he wrote:
But I must admonish Phoebus. What ails him? He ravishes girls and betrays them! Begets children by stealth and callously leaves them to die! Not you, Phoebus, surely! You are mighty; pursue virtue! When men are wicked, the gods punish them. How then can it be just for you yourselves to flout the laws you have laid down for men? If the day ever comes of course the supposition is absurd when you have to make amends to men for your rapings and whorings, you and Poseidon, and Zeus the King of Heaven, you will bankrupt your temples to pay for your sins. You follow your whims without a second thought; that is wicked. One can no longer blame men for imitating the splendid conduct of the gods; blame those who set us the example.[1]
Because the object of worship in these religions are finite beings with the vices of man in exaggerated form, religion itself is always presented as something to be respectful of, while at the same time, is an obstacle to society since it keeps man in the "dark ages" of fear and superstition. As such, religion is straw-manned into becoming an impediment to human progress. The degree to which religion can be eliminated is directly proportional to the ability of humanity to scientifically progress. In other words, science and religion are mutually opposed at both the metaphysical and ideological levels, while, on the other hand, when dealing with the human subject, one must be patient and understanding so as to bring the fanatic to enlightenment. Such is a egoistic paternalism. The scientist has to patiently await for the childish religious zealot to overcome his religiosity so that he can come to understand how reality actually is. Religious adherents are the poor rubes next door one must patiently convert to science and "true" knowledge of the cosmos.
Religious knowledge thereby becomes false knowledge. Religion does not give one an accurate understanding of the cosmos but instead serves to subjugate man and prevent him from coming to a true and scientific understanding of his world. The truths of reality are always found in scientific and technological knowledge bare of any religious connotations. Religious knowledge is hence false knowledge because it is always a mythical-fictitious account of the world and the ordering of the cosmos. Once science is introduced, these religious myths are debunked as the wind of science clears the world of religious fog.
2. Themes on Man
This depiction of religion naturally leads to a false view of man. Given what has been said about religion and God, man becomes the measure and arbiter of both. He determines the validity of both. Man rules over the gods through science and technology. Once man chooses to rebel against God, he has decided to make himself judge over matters of the divine and sets himself up as ruler. He rules the gods through science. Man is a scientific being, and as such, using science he can make himself equal to the gods or even superior, it only requires the right physics and technology to do so.
As we said at the beginning, these franchises are dominated by materialism, the belief that everything is made of matter and matter alone. Whatever is spiritual must be explained away in terms of matter. Spirit is often explained as energy in all three franchises. This includes interpreting the spiritual principle of man in such a manner. The soul is energy according to them. In reality, the soul is immaterial, not made of anything material or physical. The Church has dogmatized the teaching that the soul is the form and the body the matter; the soul animates the body.[2] Together, the body and soul form the one human person and together this unified whole informs human identity. The body has a real role to play in human identity since it expresses and manifests the human person within the visible world. It, in fact, informs us that we are sexual beings with a particular biological sex, and this sex informs us of our gender.
Once the view that the soul is energy is accepted, human identity becomes identified with it alone. The human body becomes an aggregate that is somehow attached to human identity but is not an element of his identity. Anthropological dualism is introduced as the accepted metaphysical interpretation of man. The body is a vessel for the person to inhabit and once it is worn out, technology can transfer human identity to another body, whether human or alien, even to a machine or computer. Human identity is equated with consciousness, and this is understood to be material because the soul is made of energy.
This materialism leads to another consequence, the teleportation of man through technology. In Star Trek, this is the transporter technology, and in Stargate, both the stargate and ring technologies. Man through these technologies is disintegrated and reassembled at another location. The human person is entirely destroyed and recreated each time. Like in The Prestige, the original is destroyed and a copy made each time the machine is used. The soul, as the form of the body, animates the body; it is the principle by which the body has life. Death is hence by definition the separation of the body from the soul. The disintegration of man is precisely such an occurrence for there is now no body to animate since it has been reduced to subatomic particles. These technologies are consistent with materialist philosophy since one is merely manipulating and reassembling matter; but when we consider the truth of the matter, these machines are killing people and presumably replicating them.
Another piece of technology that presupposes materialism is the Goa'uld sarcophagus, a device with which man can be resurrected from the dead repeatedly, even a thousand times. The resurrection can be accomplished now with only the right technology! When man is treated like a lump of coal that can be reassembled at whim, the miraculous nature of the resurrection can become dimmed and obscured given that now technology instead of God's power has this role. One is also reminded of the alien race wraith from Stargate Atlantis which can literally suck the life out of victims. Life itself is a physical commodity to be manipulated. While acknowledging the physicality of man, it must be also acknowledged that the principle of life itself within man cannot be so directly manipulated. This principle is by definition the soul, which is again immaterial. This means that one's life cannot be so directly manipulated but only through the body.
3. Some Observations on the Nature of the Universe
These franchises in presupposing materialism lead to two further conclusions concerning the nature of the universe. The first is time travel. Both Star Trek and Stargate raise paradoxes and use time travel as a plot device. We have already written elsewhere on the subject of time travel, so we refer the reader to that essay. What we can point out is that as soon as time travel is introduced, no matter the movie or episode, the creativity of the product diminishes. On the one hand, these stories serve a purpose in demonstrating the irrationality of this concept; while, on the other hand, are tedious and uninteresting to watch.
The second conclusion is the multiverse theory. Both time travel and the theory of the multiverse are constructions of the human mind meant to eliminate God and His Providence as a plausible explanation for the universe. God is the Creator who wisely orders creation toward its good. Man can know through creation that God is both Creator and Good who cares about humanity. Time travel eliminates Divine Providence by subjecting it to the controlling whims of rational creatures and natural causes. Multiverse theory eliminates God's Providence by replacing it with chance and every iteration of possible human choice. In universe A I choose to marry my wife, but in universe B I do not, etc. Each set of choices and possible outcomes is assigned its own universe. Each universe is described as its own reality. But if there are multiple realities, then how can we talk about all of them in the first place? Such ability to do so indicates that there is one reality even if there exists infinitely many universes. At the very least, it is self-contradictory to assert several realities and then begin to talk about them in these manners. If there exists alternate realities, then they must be entirely separate from our own, or they would otherwise be part of this reality and not be a separate reality. We will save our remarks as to the fundamental issues of the multiverse to a separate article. We can see that the concept leads to false conclusions and appears self-contradictory already at face value.
4. Themes on Morality
With this said and done, there is one subject matter to which we must probe, morality. Star Wars presents a more objective morality though it is at heart deficient because it lacks a true understanding of good and evil. There is the Force, a morally neutral force of nature. How men use it is either good or evil depending on whether one is a Jedi or Sith. If Star Wars did not present moral choices between the two as those who commit genocide versus those who abhor it, then we would be at a loss as to which is good or bad. In other words, the moral issues in Star Wars largely revolve around whether one is a power-hungry murderous maniac or not. Such makes for easy, feel-good entertainment and for us to identify with the "good guys". The standard for measuring goodness is how one uses the Force, but this requires an outside measurement other than the Force in order to morally judge human actions.
In Star Trek morality is described in terms of utilitarianism. Goodness in this ethical system is defined in terms of what is useful. To Stargate's credit, there are several episodes that explore utilitarianism, but also pushback to some extent against it, but the reason for this pushback is never clarified or explained. Without reference to natural law, morality is unintelligible and all three franchises demonstrate this. Without reference to the Absolute Good moral theory and praxis fails.
Politically, all three franchises are liberal. Socialism and communism are often themes. Star Wars explicitly defends a communist critique of capitalism in its movies such as in Solo and Episode 8. In general, one will find many criticisms of government corruption, tyranny, and the evils of capitalism and exploitation of workers, but good governments and conservatism are rarely described in general. The truth of the matter is that the perfect society is neither liberal nor conservative, but is just enough of both elements to make both the liberal and conservative equally squeamish, as C.S. Lewis rightly noted.[3]
Bracketing aside the question of evolution as a valid scientific hypothesis, evolution also serves as a moral principle for intercultural exchanges. Star Trek has its concept of the Prime Directive, which means that the Federation cannot interfere with the organic development of cultures and civilizations. Stargate has embraced the same idea without such an explicit rule being stated. Both treat such an idea as a high moral standard and dedicate several episodes to investigating it. As a made-up rule, these episodes highlight how silly, superficial, and hypocritical the rule really is. What it means is that if one society does not have the medicine needed to stop a plague, you cannot interfere by providing an antidote, for that is interfering with that society's evolution. We see many statements such as "I am personally opposed but… Prime Directive" used as an excuse to ignore the plight of those in need, people who have human dignity and basic rights based on this dignity that are trampled upon. Such statements ignore societies that enslave their people and mistreat them. Both franchises attempt to balance between this ideal of a Prime Directive and gross violations of human rights. Either slavery is a moral scourge upon society, any society, or it is not. This concept of the Prime Directive enshrines cultural relativism, for this ethical theory says that slavery is a scourge for one culture but not another. For another culture, slavery can be not only allowed but even accepted as necessary. This doublespeak is enshrined in this evolutionism of civilization. The Prime Directive has relativism embedded within its very conception. You are not a morally good person if you say "I am personally opposed to slavery but for this society over here it is okay because that is their civilization and I cannot interfere with its evolution". This is cowardice before evil. There is nothing heroic because the person who says and thinks thus is not taking a moral stand for what is truly good and just in the face of evil. It is a kind of surrendering while attempting to save face.
This noninterference with the evolution of civilization leads to views such as some societies are "too young" for certain technology. The fear is that if someone is given something too advanced, they will proverbially shoot their eye out. Such thinking is elitist and paternalistic. In some sense this is true, but, in general, this can never be raised to an absolute. Otherwise, one is restricted from giving proper medical help for example. The fear is that immature civilizations will annihilate themselves. The reality is that no naturalistic process of social evolution can wipe out the stain of Original Sin nor man's temptations to abuse technology. The problem of total planetary genocide can never be eliminated by technological maturation, but only by the conversion of heart to Christ. Christ is the only solution to the problem.
When evolutionism and the Prime Directive ideas are advanced, the real concern appears to be not so much helping fellow societies but avoiding their colonialization. Space exploration provides an excellent metaphor for the colonialization of the Americas and Africa. We get to see a liberal take on these issues in the franchise episodes and they often come across as morally childish. Such views become isolationist for the sake of appearing enlightened and learned. If societies are not supposed to help each other, teach each other concerning technology, then this leads to isolation. The problem of colonialization is now to ignore your neighbor. Think about this! If slavery is evil in the modern United States and this advanced country encountered 1700's Africa, then her citizens would be morally obligated to ignore the rampant enslavement of Africans by their own people and leave them in a technologically backwards state. The solution is to ignore them and let them eventually figure it out. This is not much different from today. We do this to several countries. There are many poor countries that could benefit from better education and medicine so that they can establish a better life for their citizens. In the United States, there are many poor areas, slums, and ghettos where people are ignored and abandoned, people we as a society have given up on. Two glaring examples of this are the education and drug crises in the United States, but I digress.
In opposition to such views is the Christian duty to evangelize, to preach to all nations, and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The duty to evangelize is eliminated by this worldly ideology since evangelization is antithetical to the application of evolutionism and anticolonialism as these shows described. Stargate even grossly parodies this evangelical duty with its Ori religion. The Gospel is the true benchmark for any given society's advance and we Catholics have the duty to bring it to all nations and build holy and just human societies. Prime Directive ideologies, in contrast, allow societies to persist living in moral squalor. They are the Jews in the parable of the Good Samaritan who ignore the wounded man on the side of the road.[4] Other societies are not my neighbor and so are refused help.
In the midst of this moral subterfuge, these franchises are consistent with another moral dilemma, namely, sexual morality. Fornication is always advocated for in opposition to traditional norms and marriage. Alien species inhabiting a human host allows these shows to explore LGBT issues with apparent impunity. As television executives imbue in the woke narcotic more and more, we see LGBT propaganda pushed more explicitly. Star Trek Discovery is one glaring example. Disney is not far behind with its new Star Wars products, though for now, they have only baited the LGBT community with queer undertones in their recent films. What must be kept in mind is that if the body is merely a container for human consciousness, bifurcating the unity of the human person such that his body is no longer understood as a constitutive element of his identity, then human identity becomes fluid. This anthropological dualism allows the divorce of the body from human identity, so the concepts of "man" and "woman" themselves become fluid and incapable of definition. This is LGBT propaganda treated as metaphysical truth. This is played out in both Star Trek and Stargate with their symbiotic aliens, whether it is the Tok'ra or the Trill. In Star Trek Deep Space Nine we see this fully manifested when the parasite within two humans are married but both hosts are female leading to an episode exploring lesbianism.
Science fiction allows man a certain kind of freedom to explore various thought experiments. Star Trek is famous in this regard with its several very philosophical episodes, such as those in Star Trek The Next Generation exploring Descartes's "I think therefore I am" and idealism. Science fiction allows man to see through audiovisual technology the contradictions and failures of various philosophies. The problem, in this case, is that these franchises are instead taking the philosophies of our society and defending them. Materialism and atheism always emerge victorious. The contradictions of these presupposed principles are not themselves questioned, and as such, can quite easily lead the unsuspecting viewer astray.
There is a question here to which we will briefly consider, and that is the question people will say about this essay: "why did you just spend several pages and a few hours of your time writing this when these shows are simply entertainment?" People object to such criticisms as mine because these shows are entertainment, and as entertainment, the producers, directors, and actors are given a free pass to do as they please. That is exactly the problem. These franchises introduce a moral malaise that sucks in people, lulling them into moral slumber so that they no longer recognize the danger. Star Trek is propaganda dressed up in alien costumes and special effects. The question is what is our response to this propaganda?
We have to think about this in terms of eternity and spiritual warfare. The goal of the demons is man's enslavement and to drag him down to hell. One way of accomplishing this objective is by obscuring the truth itself. Their primary targets are Christian revelation, sexual morality, and the anthropological truths of man. The more demons can obscure these truths, the easier it is for them to lead man astray and to prevent them from being able to see what is indeed the truth about reality. These franchises serve the purposes of the demons because they introduce confusion and obscure the Light that has come into the world. That is why Stargate will create the Ori and a religion around it, for it makes Christianity look like an evil scourge upon society. That is why we see these issues on sexual morality and the LGBT community, to lead man away from what will make him truly free.
These shows are for entertainment, there is no dispute on this point, for if they were not entertaining we would not want to consume the products. They are not mere entertainment, however, for they are entertainment with a message to diffuse. This message is propaganda and the entertainment aspect is meant to put one to spiritual sleep so that they unconsciously accept its content. Entertainment is the vehicle for propagandizing the masses.
[1] Euripides, Ion, p143. Ten Plays of Euripides.
[2] Council of Vienne
[3] "If there were such a society in existence and you or I visited it, I think we should come away with a curious impression. We should feel that its economic life was very socialistic and, in that sense, 'advanced', but that its family life and its code of manners were rather old fashioned-perhaps even ceremonious and aristocratic. Each of us would like some bits of it, but I am afraid very few of us would like the whole thing. That is just what one would expect if Christianity is the total plan for the human machine. We have all departed from that total plan in different ways, and each of us wants to make out that his own modification of the original plan is the plan itself. You will find this again and again about anything that is really Christian: every one is attracted by bits of it and wants to pick out those bits and leave the rest. That is why we do not get much further: and that is why people who are fighting for quite opposite things can both say they are fighting for Christianity." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 84-85.
[4] This is not a statement condoning anti-Semitism or Nazism, but a reference to characters within the parable.
The Orion Nebula
Hubble Space Telescope, NASA


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Paulo Bruscky, a Legendary Brazilian Artist (in Portuguese)
April 24, 2019 May 4, 2019 | Yours truly
Interview by Luca Forcucci / 22 November 2018
Paulo Roberto Barbosa Bruscky (Recife, Pernambuco, 1949). Artista multimídia, poeta. Na década de 1960, inicia pesquisa no campo da arte conceitual, e a partir de 1970 desenvolve pesquisas em arte-xerox. Em 1973, atua no Movimento Internacional de Arte Postal, sendo um dos pioneiros no Brasil nessa arte, e no ano seguinte lança o Manifesto Nadaísta. Organiza duas exposições internacionais de arte postal no Recife nos anos de 1975 e 1976, sendo esta última fechada pelos militares brasileiros. Realiza 30 filmes de artistas e videoarte entre 1979 e 1982, e começa a produzir videoinstalações em 1983. Cria, em 1980, o xerox-filme com base em sequências xerográficas. Com a Bolsa Guggenheim de artes visuais recebida em 1981, reside por um ano em Nova York. Nesse ano, expõe na sala especial sobre arte postal montada na 16ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo. É editor de livros de artistas e mantém em seu ateliê no Recife importante coleção de livros e documentos sobre arte contemporânea, entre eles correspondência com integrantes dos grupos Fluxus e Gutai. Em 2004, seu ateliê é integralmente transferido do Recife para São Paulo, sendo remontado em uma das oito salas especiais da 26ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo.
b. 1949, Recife, Brazil | lives and works in Recife, Brazil
Paulo Bruscky's work reflects a simultaneous engagement with both the Brazilian artist's local framework of Recife and a global network, which he documents in artist's books, performative projects, and photographs. Associated with Fluxus, and a key participant in the international mail-art movement, he investigates meaning through action, collage, installation, film, and poetry. Produced during his first trip to New York as part of a Guggenheim Fellowship and in collaboration with Daniel Santiago, Air Art Proposal of Composition of Colored Clouds in the Sky of New York (1982) is one of a series of classified ads published in Brazilian and other newspapers that advocate absurd or impossible situations.
Interview by Luca Forcucci / 22 November 2018
Jorge Antunes (in Portuguese)
April 19, 2019 April 26, 2019 | Yours truly
Interview by Luca Forcucci / 20 November 2018 / Recife / Brazil
JORGE ANTUNES
Jorge Antunes formou-se em violino, composição e regência. Em 1961 se destacou como precursor da música eletrônica no Brasil. Realizou estudos pós-graduados na Argentina, na Holanda e na França. Foi Professor Titular na Universidade de Brasília de 1973 até 2011 quando se aposentou. Obteve vários prêmios nacionais e internacionais. É membro da Academia Brasileira de Música. Suas obras são publicadas por Salabert, Breitpkof&Hartell, Gerig, Ricordi, Sistrum, Billaudot e Suvini Zerboni.
Sua produção literária é vasta, embora pouco conhecida. A divulgação de seus poemas, crônicas e outros escritos tem se restringido à inclusão em algumas coletâneas, livros coletivos e jornais e revistas. Em 1998 a editora Hemisfério Sul, de Blumenau, publicou seu livro de literatura juvenil A Morte do Arco-Íris. Em 2001 ganhou o primeiro lugar no concurso de contos da Revista Poiésis. Em 2006 recebeu menção honrosa no Concurso de Contos Yage, em Salzburg, na Áustria.
Artista Plástico
Participou dos Salões Nacionais de Belas Artes, do Salão de Abril no MAM e dos Salões Nacionais de Arte Moderna. Partindo do princípio de que "o grau de recepção de uma mensagem artística é proporcional ao número de sentidos usados na recepção", criou obras as quais denominou "arte integral", pelo apelo direto aos cinco sentidos, inclusive o paladar. Emprega assim os diferentes recursos audiovisuais e cinéticos, além de odores, elementos gustativos e possibilidades táteis.
was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1942. He completed his musical studies at the University of Brazil: violin, composition and conducting. From 1961 he stands out as a precursor of electroacoustic music in Brazil and begins research in the field of the correspondence between sounds and colors.
He took postgraduate courses in Buenos Aires, Paris and Utrecht, studying with Ginastera, Kröpfl, Gandini, Koenig, Bayle, Reibel and Schaeffer. From 1973 he is a full professor at the University of Brasilia, having retired in 2011. In 1976-1977, he completed his doctorate at the University of Paris VIII under supervision of Daniel Charles.
Antunes works with electroacoustic music and computer music, but his instrumental production is very great. Its scientific production is also vast, with articles published in several specialized journals and annals of congresses. He has published five books on techniques and theory of contemporary music.
Their scores are published by Suvini Zerboni, Billaudot, Breitkopf & Hartell, Durand and Sistrum. In 2002 he was appointed Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. In 2012 Antunes received the Ibermusicas prize. In 2013 he was a resident-composer at CMMAS, Mexico. In 2014 was done, in Brasilia, the world premiere of his new opera "A Cartomante". In March of 2017 was done the world premiere, in São Paulo, of his new opera "The Mirror".
Jorge Antunes interview by Luca Forcucci / 20 November 2018 / Recife / Brazil
Phill Niblock / Interview by Luca Forcucci – May 21st 2018 / Berlin
Phill Niblock (b. 1933, USA) is an artist whose fifty-year career spans minimalist and experimental music, film and photography. Since 1985, he has served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the foundation's record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, Niblock's signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective realised in partnership between Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne) and Musée de l'Elysée. The following year Niblock was honoured with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award.
Interview by Luca Forcucci / Berlin / Mai 21st 2018
Salvador de Bahia / 29.11.2018
November 22, 2018 April 19, 2019 | Yours truly
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French theatre theorist and writer Antonin Artaud was probably the first person to coin the term 'virtual', in The Theatre and Its Double (1938). He compared alchemy with theatre by declaring that both are visual arts, which don't convey their end. Both theatre and alchemy are fictional in the sense they are immaterial, but they always make allusions to the material. Alchemy is frequently mentioned by the historians and the philosophers when refering to the history of chemistry.
Laser Nomad Talk in Salvador proposes a dialogue exploring points of contagion between art and science, understood as fields of symbolic production, implied in worldviews and submitted to social, political and economic contexts.
If, on the one hand, science as a mode of production of hegemonic knowledge has served as a basis for legitimizing the most diverse epistemicides perpetrated by the colonial expansion project, art, on the other, has been consumed by an avid market ignoring ritual dimensions, where healing, care and aesthetics are indissociable aspects of the same whole.
How to think of models and interfaces, which reconsider the magical and mythical origins that are at the root of both of them? Which epistemologies and cosmovisions can we bring to this conversation?
CHAIRED BY: Luca Forcucci
Bárbara Carine Soares Pinheiro
Graduated in chemistry from Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) , Master and PhD mestrado e doutorado em teaching, philosophy and history of science UFBA/ UEFS. Currently Professor and vice director of the Institute of Chemistry UFBA.
Paola Barreto
is an audiovisual artist an researcher trained as a filmmaker. She has a BA in Film Studies, a MA in Aesthetics and Technology and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Poetics at the School of Visual Arts at Rio de Janeiro Federal University. Between 2014 and 2015 she was a visiting scholar at the Flusser Archiv at the Berlin University of the Arts. Her theoretical and practical production is based on analog and digital video circuits, media archeology and hybrid systems, unfolding in installations, interventions and science fiction. As a filmmaker she has received awards in Oberhausen and Buenos Aires and has exhibited her films at the Havana, It's All True and São Paulo festivals. Her video interventions and installations have been exhibited at Festivals such as Live Performers Meeting, Rom; Vorspiel/ Transmediale, Berlin and Eletronika BH, Belo Horizonte. She lives and works in Salvador as a Professor at UFBA, and has been designing video circuits for film, theatre, performance and exhibitions since 2002.
Recife / 19 November
November 9, 2018 April 19, 2019 | Yours truly
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Perception is a topic of increasing importance due to the evolution of artificial in intelligence, augmented and virtual reality. Does this mean that artificial intelligence lead to artificial perception ? These technologies will and are entering our life deeper everyday in many fields. The idea of patterns of perception is central indeed. However do artificial perception/intelligence have illusions ? Philip K. Dick already asked if Androids would dream of electric sheep. For the second edition of LASER Nomad, the project lands in Recife, Brazil. Laser Nomad will explore and tackle perception. The topic is broad indeed, and we will frame it through art, music, computer science, anthropology and museology by inviting two major figures of art from Brazil, and two scientists.
9am – 12pm Laser Nomad Talks
Paulo Bruscky
Paulo Bruscky was born in 1949 in Recife, and received his BA in journalism at the Universidade Católica de Pernambuco, Recife, in 1978. Bruscky's work reflects a simultaneous engagement with both the local artistic framework of Recife and a global network, which he documents in artist's books, performative projects, and photographs. A key participant in the international mail-art movement and associated with Fluxus, he investigates meaning through action, collage, installation, film, and poetry.
Avant-garde composer Jorge Antunes is known as the man who pioneered electronic music in Brazil. During the '50s and '60s, he studied the violin, conducting, composition, and physics, and as a result of the latter wrote his "Cromoplastofonias" series. Starting in the late '60s, he worked in electronic studios in Buenos Aires (with Alberto Ginastera (link is external) and Umberto Eco, among others) and Paris, with Groupe de Recherches Musicales (with Pierre Schaeffer (link is external)). He served as a professor, studio director, and orchestra conductor at the University of Brasilia. Over the years, he founded the Chromo-Music Research Studio and the new music ensemble Group of Musical Experimentation. In his compositions, Antunes has explored the relationship between sound and colors, flavors and odors (in "Ambiente I"), and 'commented' on work by Claude Levi-Strauss with a percussive performance art piece. He has won several awards including the International Tribune of Composer's UNESCO prize twice in the '90s.
Alexandro Silva de Jesus
Adjunct Professor of the Department of Anthropology and Museology of the Federal University of Pernambuco and member of the Research Ethics Committee of the same institution. Holds a Bachelor's degree in History from the Olinda Higher Education Foundation (1999), a Master's in History from the Federal University of Pernambuco (2003) and a PhD in Sociology from the Federal University of Pernambuco (2010). Research interests encompass relationships between science and technology, politics of patrimonialization and museology in postcolonial spaces. His work problematizes, on the one hand, the policies for culture developed in spaces of decoloniality, and, on the other, the relations between scientific research and ethics.
Sofia Galvão
Sofia Galvão has a technical background in Electronics, a degree in Computer Engineering and a Master's Degree in Computer Science. In her work with technology, she developed an interactive object for the exhibition Silence of the Form, by the sculptor Corbiniano Lins, and guided works by Oi Kabum students! School of Art and Technology. Conducted several workshops in different contexts: Construction of Digital Musical Instruments (National Science and Technology Week), Musicality and Technology (Agreste Academic Center UFPE), Low Cost Technologies and Gambiarras for Interactive Applications (Recife Summer School) and Lab of Textile Electronics – Stitching Sounds (SESC Belenzinho). She is part of MusTIC – Research Group on Technology and Design of Products and Experiences for Education, Arts and Entertainment. Coordinated a collective exhibition of the results of a series of artistic residencies that took place during the past year in the context of the MOVEMENTES project, a research in art and technology.
Yuri Brusky
is a sound artist and researcher, doctoral student in sociology at the Federal University of Pernambuco/UFPE. Has a master's degree in communication from the UFPE. Develops artistic investigation exploring intersections between noise, language and everyday practices. Maintain since 2010 the label Estranhas Ocupações, through which releases records, publications and organizes concerts. Co-creator of the sound art and experimental music festival Rumor and the seminar and artistic residence program (Entre) Lugares Sonoros.
5 – 7pm Concerts
Ballade Dure, Electroacoustic piece (1995) 20'30"
Miró Escuchó Miró, for piano, electronic sounds and images (1998) 17'40"
Piano: Mariuga Antunes
Luca Forcucci
B(L)(E)(E)(N)DINGS, Live electronic and images (2018), 35'00"
Cape Town / 18-20 June / Bowed Electrons
Image | May 24, 2018 April 19, 2019 | Yours truly
Contemporary electroacoustic music formed from the sound of wind rushing through invasive alien trees on Western Cape farmland. A composition inspired by the humble pencil. The uhadi bow in the environment of live electronica. A musical consideration of HAL 9000, the sentient computer from Stanley Kubrik's 2001: A Space Odyssey. These are only some of the musical creations on show at the inaugural Bowed Electrons electroacoustic music festival, hosted by the South African College of Music at UCT.
The South African College of Music, in association with Leonardo Journal's Laser Nomad project, is pleased to host the inaugural Bowed Electrons electroacoustic music festival. This event will feature full performances and in-depth discussions of recent electroacoustic compositions by some of the leading figures of the South African contemporary music scene.
Bowed Electrons will feature performances of works by resident composers Neo Muyanga, Meryl van Noie, Cara Stacey, Mpho Molikeng, Cameron Harris, Dimitri Voudouris, Miles Warrington, Maxim Starcke, Pierre-Henri Wicomb, Brydon Bolton and Luca Forcucci. These composers will also present daytime sessions on their works and compositional techniques. Those sessions will be augmented by contributions from resident musicologists Prof. Efthymios Papatzikis, Dr Barry Ross, and William Fourie. Specialist performers include Prof. Mzikantu Plaatjies and Frank Mallows.

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Opera & The Ordinary: History & Interiority in Fellow Travelers
By Lucy Caplan
In a 2018 interview, composer Gregory Spears explained that he was drawn to the subject matter of Fellow Travelers because he "really wanted to write an opera about ordinary people," and he "liked that the central characters weren't historical figures." This seemingly simple juxtaposition—ordinary people versus historical figures—raises complex questions. Who gets to be an operatic subject? What kind of stories is the art form best equipped to tell? Can opera make the ordinary extraordinary?
There is no shortage in opera of powerful kings, queens, pharaohs, and emperors, both real and imagined. But the genre's capacious range also encompasses plenty of apparently unremarkable figures. They tend to show up in realist works: think of the apartment dwelling artists in La Bohème, or the factory workers in Carmen. These are the types of people who, broadly speaking, might otherwise be lost to history. But by elevating them to a place of prominence, the genre offers a different—and potentially transformative—historical narrative. Through opera's combination of dramatic narrative and musical complexity, ordinary people might be heard and remembered, singing their way into our ears, our consciousness, and our collective memory.
Hawkins "Hawk" Fuller and Timothy Laughlin are the two regular men at the heart of Fellow Travelers, which is based on Thomas Mallon's novel of the same name. A State Department bureaucrat and a young aspiring politician, respectively, they are caught up in a love affair after meeting in a Washington, D.C. park. All normal enough—yet the times in which they live insist otherwise. Forces beyond their control interfere: namely the Lavender Scare, the mass purging of gay people from U.S. government jobs during the panic-ridden McCarthy era.
Many gay people had lived openly during earlier moments in U.S. history, especially in urban areas like New York City and Washington, D.C., but around the middle of the century they were pushed into the closet. The Lavender Scare put the force of state power behind this cultural shift, allowing the government to intervene in citizens' private and professional lives, and drive them out of the federal workforce. It was interwoven with the anticommunist Red Scare of the same era. Communism and homosexuality were often conflated in popular discourse as similarly subversive, threatening, godless and antithetical to national values.
Under these circumstances, Hawk and Timothy cannot be ordinary men pursuing an ordinary relationship; instead, they are marked baselessly as a national threat. The men are forced underground, hiding their affair under a quilt of codes, subtexts, and denials. Their relationship unfolds in a bifurcated array of locations: a public landscape of parks, offices, and interrogation rooms, as well as a private realm of apartments, kitchens and homes. Timothy, especially anguished, seeks solace in other institutional spaces, from the cavernous sanctuary of a Catholic church to the regimented confines of the U.S. Army. Hawk decides marriage and a house in the suburbs is the preferable option. But neither is willing to abandon the relationship entirely.
As the story unfolds, audience members necessarily find themselves in an odd position. The line between surveillance and spectatorship blurs as we become privy to the men's—especially Timothy's—innermost thoughts and hidden moments, able to witness precisely what they are trying to hide.
The music of Fellow Travelers keeps this paradox at the forefront of the opera. Spears' music is more intimate than grand, seeking to entice rather than merely to impress. Quasi-Baroque ornamentation and minimalistic repetition toward the beginning of the opera foster a sense of familiarity, inviting listeners to search for details. Reinforcing this sense of normalcy, the libretto relies upon plainspoken language that unfolds in speech-like patterns (although there are a few plaintive, lyrical exceptions).
At the same time, the opera's music is never simple. Multiple musical ideas appear at once, resulting in stylistic collisions: a cool ostinato, for example, thrumming below a vibrantly romantic melody. This musical evocation of text and subtext might be interpreted in several ways. In one sense, it is a reminder that people's lives are often more complex than they initially appear— a charged notion in a context of persecution, where the wrong word or behavior might render one a victim. In another, this musical interplay allows the opera to represent its characters' interiority and psychology more powerfully. Spears has explained, "I try to avoid writing music that tells a listener what to feel or music that directly represents or underlines a character's feelings from moment to moment." Instead, indirection becomes the predominant musical strategy. As textures and tensions accumulate in the score, the traditional boundary between action and emotion collapses in favor of a multilayered, ambiguous sound.
Ultimately, the opera raises the question of what it means to be a "historical figure," to return to Spears' term. Some accounts of the past refer to ordinary people, specially marginalized people, as "voiceless," due to their relative absence from records of public and civic life. But others have critiqued that formulation: these people were never without a voice; they were willfully unheard or silenced. Fellow Travelers makes that fact plain. Even as gay people were silenced within the context of public life, men like Hawk and Timothy defiantly continued to speak, sing, and express their thoughts. Yet their ability to do so does not mean that they emerge from the Lavender Scare unscathed. Instead, the opera reveals the harmful consequences that Hawk and Timothy ultimately face. As they struggle to navigate a landscape of persecution and danger, their relationship falters, fractures, and falls apart.
It bears remembering, though, that in the not-so-long-ago era in which Fellow Travelers takes place, an opera about gay life would have been a virtual impossibility. That is no longer the case. An abundant array of recent works—Terence Blanchard's Champion (2013), about gay black boxer Emile Griffith; Peter Eötvös' adaptation of Tony Kushner's play about the AIDS crisis, Angels in America (2012); and Iain Bell's Stonewall (2019), about the monumental uprising that catalyzed the gay rights movement— creates a panoramic historical landscape. Like Fellow Travelers, these operas exemplify one element of opera's enduring power: its ability to engage in historical storytelling, to illuminate even the most ordinary facets of the past in extraordinary ways.
In the frame:
Gregory Spears, composer of Fellow Travelers.
Tim and Hawk meet at Dupont Circle. Photo by: Liza Voll
Tim speaks to God after his first night with Hawk Photo by: Liza Voll
Hawk and Tim sit in bed together. Photo by: Liza Voll
Topics: Religion, LGBT, #FTBLO, Fellow Travelers


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