Nimrod Astarhan’s engagement at BADS_Lab 2024 was an inquiry into the speculative edges of ancestry, technology, and materiality. Their practice reimagined computation as a fragile and earthly phenomenon, challenging the abstraction and ubiquity of contemporary techno-science. Drawing inspiration from a self-identified connection to the Khazar kingdom—a multi-confessional Jewish society where Abrahamic religions coexisted—Nimrod framed their work as a critique of rigid boundaries, whether of lineage, technological progress, or cultural identity.
Nimrod’s inquiry began with a lament for the loss of cultural lineages severed by colonial modernity’s extractive and erasing logics. Reflecting on their “chosen ancestry” with the Khazar kingdom, they acknowledged the speculative nature of tracing heritage across millennia. Rather than seeking an unbroken bloodline, Nimrod embraced the Khazars as a symbolic lineage—a utopian model for imagining ancestry as fluid and plural. This lament critiqued the colonial frameworks that demand fixed narratives of identity and heritage, exposing their violence in reducing histories to what can be controlled or commodified. The Khazar kingdom, a nomadic tribe of Eurasia, is considered barbaric and outside of civilization. Still, its decentralized ways of governance defined modernity no less than the Greek city-state. , Withwith its coexistence and multiplicity, it became a counterpoint to such frameworks of control and commodification, embodying alternative ways to think about lineage: as relational, porous, and deeply speculative.
Nimrod’s appeal phase shifted from loss to creation, imagining computation not as a transcendent, all-encompassing system but as a fragile and grounded practice. They traced Khazar Tengri Shamanism, a belief system based on the titular sky god and the eternal blue sky, to its relationship with the elements. Their prototype redefined digital systems by embedding them in ecological rhythms, especially heliocentric ones, emphasizing the material constraints and interdependencies that sustain computation. Key features of the apparatus included:
In the (en)counter phase, Nimrod’s work confronted the forces that disrupt connection and continuity. It reframed the urge for immediacy and universality in computational digital media within Tengri blue-sky worship, a place, time, and culture-specific practice. Based on this cultural anchor, a solar-powered imaging device that does not require a constant connection to the electrical grid emerged as a refusal to abstract computation from its ecological and cultural contexts. By embedding their apparatus in natural cycles and invoking cultural symbols, they resisted the placeless, extractive logics of modern computation. The evil eye emoji symbolized not just a cultural anchor but a refusal to abstract computation from its ecological and cultural contexts. The system would keep displaying the last image it computed until a new one was requested and drawn in a lengthy process, way beyond what is commonly expected in modern technology. Through these Nimrod’s design choices, Nimrod also engaged the entanglement of past and present. “What if we had chosen this kind of computation?” they asked, inviting participants to imagine a world where technological development aligned with environmental rhythms and cultural specificity rather than speed and universality. Through this lens, the Khazar kingdom became more than an ancestral touchstone—it was a speculative framework for rethinking what technology could have been and might still become.
The speculative dimensions of Nimrod’s work came to the fore as they explored the cultural implications of their prototype. The apparatus suggested an alternate computational culture, one that embraced slowness, dependency, and collective patience. In this speculative society, accessing computational systems would require engaging with sunlight, specific locations, or natural energy flows—transforming interaction into an intentional act of connection. A central metaphor emerged in this phase: the Wizard of Oz, with its gesture of “faking power” to create meaningful engagements. Nimrod likened their prototype to this theatrical act of functionality, using the apparatus to reveal truths that conventional systems obscure. Like Dorothy’s journey, the act of engaging with these systems was not about reaching an external resolution but discovering that the tools for meaningful interaction already existed—though they defy traditional expectations.
The crisis phase of Nimrod’s practice surfaced the tensions inherent in their approach. Could such a slow, fragile system resonate in a world driven by immediacy and extraction? Was the prototype a universal model, or was its resonance specific to the Khazar-inspired framework? These questions underscored the speculative and provisional nature of their work, where the act of questioning itself became a form of resistance. By anchoring computation in the fragile and earthly while drawing inspiration from Khazar practices, Nimrod opened a pathway for rethinking not only technology but the values embedded in its creation and use. Their work resisted the compulsion to provide definitive answers, instead inviting participants to dwell in uncertainty and possibility.
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