What would it take to reimagine the artefactual Cybersyn for our hyper-financialised day and age? How real is the virtuality of cybernetic visions?
Cybersyn was an experiment in instituting a socialist networked economy embraced by the short-lived Salvador Allende government of Chile (1970– 1973) and developed together with the British cybernetician Stafford Beer. For the past decade, Project Cybersyn has been a recurrent reference—a best practice from the past—in discussions around the repurposing of hegemonic technological infrastructures and their redirection towards more equitable economic and social practices. The iconic image of Project Cybersyn’s control room—with its sci-fi appearance—represents a technical and aesthetic object that alludes to negotiation, democratic decision making, and stability. To this end, the control room image itself becomes a platform for alien mutations, philosophical speculations, and social commitment.
