PHILOSOPHY PORTAL AND EVERYDAY ANALYSIS
This year at Wake, Cadell Last from Philosophy Portal and Alfie Bown from Everyday Analysis are both running a three day course in the mornings. See the images below for more details.
SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE
Alfie Bown is Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Culture and Technology in the Department of Digital Humanities. His research focuses on psychoanalysis, digital media and popular culture. His books include Dream Lovers (Pluto, 2022), an investigation into dating apps, sexbots and virtual relationships, Post-Comedy (Polity, 2024), Post-Memes (Punctum, 2019) and The Playstation Dreamworld (Polity, 2017), a psychoanalytic study of video games which is available in Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian, Slovak and many other languages. Currently, he is working on the relationship between psychoanalysis and cybernetics. He is also editor of Everyday Analysis, a pamphlet house and monthly talk series and is a writer/producer for The Magician's Niece.
Bill Breck is a rogue technologist on a mission of intellectual atonement. After fifty “sinful” years in Silicon Valley, he’s traded code for concepts, diving headfirst into the wild intersections of technology, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. A heretical reader of Lacan and Deleuze, he delights in dismantling dogmas and playing with radical ideas. His latest obsession? Reimagining romantic relationships through the lens of pyrotheology.
Kate Burgess is a doctor who has been working closely with me for the past few years. Ever since she did Atheism for Lent, Kate took a passionate interest in the work and world of pyrotheology and quickly consumed everything she could. Since then she has been leading studies and facilitating online groups.
Duke Special has released 17 albums and EPs, toured all over the world and has been involved in a diverse array of other projects, including writing the music for Deborah Warner’s critically acclaimed 2009 production of Mother Courage and Her Children at London’s National Theatre and being commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to write a series of original songs based on photographs for their exhibition of the photographers Stieglitz, Steichen and Strand.
Kevin Crouse is an emerging church practitioner, community creator, social entrepreneur and coffee professional. He continues to reach back into his fundamentalist origins and teaches at Grace Christian University a course now named, “Ministry After Postmodernity.” He is currently exploring what it might mean to lean into a Metamodern Christianity influenced by ideas of Pyrotheology.
Dimitri Crooijmans is a philosopher and artist from the Netherlands. Ever since the beginning of Philosophy Portal, he has been publishing articles, short stories and songs inspired by an array of themes spanning metaphysics, ethics, politics and aesthetics. His writings, video-essays and podcasts can be found on his platform Actual Spirit. He sings and raps under the name Objet lil a.
Paul Currie has carved himself a reputation since 2004 as an uncompromising alternative comedian. Fusing traditional stand up with the energy and crowd work of his street performing background. He has featured on BBC 3 TV comedy show “LIVE AT THE ELECTRIC”. His first solo show at Edinburgh fringe was in 2009, he then returned in 2011 as part of Avalon’s prestigious “COMEDY ZONE” a showcase that launched names like The Mighty Boosh, Stewart Lee, Lee Evans, Al Murray, Russell Howard. He won the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Comedians Choice award for BEST SHOW in 2018. Paul has performed at the Adelaide Fringe, the Melbourne Comedy Festival & Edinburgh Fringe Festivals with sell out performances and 5 star reviews.
Emily Garcés is an artist, poet, ex-missionary, all-round creative enthusiast, and author of the memoir, Hitchhiking with Drunken Nuns. She is also one half of the podcast 50 Words for Snow, alongside Maggie Rowe.
Thomas Hamelryck is a specialist in Bayesian modelling and probabilistic machine learning. Currently, his research is focused on probabilistic machine learning applied to protein structure prediction and protein evolution.
Ed Hicks is a highly respected muralist, illustrator and graffiti artist, whose works move between graphically expressive landscapes and a bit more obscure themes. His work is influenced by various philsophical themes that dovetail with the work of Pyrotheology.
JBR Project x PINSLEEP are combining forces for a Wake dance night. JBR Project is local DJ/multi-instrumentalist Jon McKinley who has an unhealthy appetite for all things reggae, especially Dub. This can be heard in his selections, ranging from King Tubby to the Skatilites, Barry Biggs to Peter Tosh and Eek A Mouse to Dreadzone. PINSLEEP is a solo, art-pop act by an acclaimed, Belfast-based violinist, singer and producer Aga Olek. Through the use of layered violin, guitar effects, voice and electronics Pinsleep creates soundscapes inspired by the sci fi literature and the inner cosmos. Bringing together her experience across different genres, Pinsleep is crossing the boundaries between pieces, songs and improvisation.
Cadell Last is a philosopher with a background in anthropology, history and complexity studies. He is the founder of Philosophy Portal and the author of Global Brain Singularity; Sex, Masculinity, God; and Enter the Alien.
Mark Gerard Murphy is a Lacanian Dialectical Psychotherapist, theologian and philosopher. He specialises in ethics, philosophy, mystical theology, and spirituality in relation to psychoanalysis. He is the author of The Direction of Desire: John of the Cross, Jacques Lacan, and the Contemporary Understanding of Spiritual Direction. In addition to his academic roles, he is also a spiritual director who utilises aspects of Lacanian analysis in his practice.
Thomas Prothero is a songwriter, and former worship leader. His work as a session musician has allowed him to play on some of the world’s biggest stages, and collaborate on songs featured on radio and TV. His debut solo album Unhappy To Be Here is a collection of songs contending with faith, contradiction, relationships, and the general apathy of existence.
Julie Reshe is a Ukrainian philosopher who has developed a theory and technology under the name of negative psychoanalysis. She is a professor at the School of Advanced Studies (SAS) at the University of Tyumen in Siberia, and director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis at the Global Center for Advanced Studies (GCAS).
Eliot Rosenstock is a psychotherapist with a theoretical focus on integrating Hegel, Zizek, Freud and Lacan into the theories of psychological and ethical egoism.
Kirsty Rosenstock is a self-portraiture artist interested in the stories we tell ourselves about who we think we are and who we think we are not. Her craft attempts to complicate and pluralize these stories of self.
Maggie Rowe is an LA based writer and performer who even started her own satirical religion called Pyrasphere. She has written screenplays for movies (Bright Day and Out West,) television shows (Flaked and Arrested Development) and stage productions (Hollywood Hell House, Hollywood Purity Ball, Lawyer Cop Doctors, and Pretty Good Show), as well as publishing a book of essays called Dirty Laundry and a memoir entitled Sin Bravely.
Helen Rollins is a writer, filmmaker and public intellectual who has worked on various award-winning projects. She lectures and writes across topics related to film and psychoanalysis. She has been a co-host on two philosophy podcasts and has a book on film theory (Psychocinema) with Polity.
Barry Taylor is writer, speaker and public intellectual as well as the chair of theology for GCAS .His work focuses on the intersections between religion, theology and culture, with a particular emphasis on the impact and interplay of contemporary digital life on religion and belief (particularly Western Christianity).
VenusRollerGirl is a DJ who started the Milliez Rehab all female collective, & was a member of Gypsy Tribe & Force10 Crew (Rathlin/Dome). Depending on the gig Venus spins a mash-up of Electronic world music, Jungle, DNB, Electro Breakz, Dubstep, House,Techno, Downtempo.
Dylan Voisard is a Texas artisan, gfx designer/video editor and worker with earbuds who discovered theory through the cultural clash of new atheism and religion and through the contradictions of corporate media production. He is a full time father/husband and part time alien who believes in the sacred and awesome power of a good question.
Rob Zahn is a professor and pastor interested in Theological Semiotics. Zahn interprets the “signs of the times” and theorizes what that might mean for the future of the Christian church.
WAKE | Program
SUNDAY 27TH APRIL
7:00PM | REGISTRATION | THE FOUNDRY
Wake used to start on the Monday, but people would infomrally congregate on the Sunday evening, so we eventually incorporated that into the official program and made it into our registration event. Now people informally hangout on the Saturday night, which we will eventually incorporate. By around 2050 Wake will be about 3 months long.
MONDAY 28TH APRIL
10:3 | COFFEE AND/OR MEDITATION | TOMAS WALCH | THE BARGE
For those who like an early start, there will be coffee upstrais and mediation downstairs. If you want your fancy coffee’s you might want to grab one from a local spot (like Est or Native).
11 | INTRODUCTIONS | THE BARGE
We will all meet up for some basic introductions and orientation. This is a chance to hear about what’s happening, learn about the area and ask burning (practical) questions… there will be plenty of time for those annoyingly difficult theoretical questions later on.
12 | PYROTHEOLOGY AND TRANSFORMANCE ART | PETER IN CONVERSATION WITH CADELL LAST | THE BARGE
While many of you are very familiar with the work of Pyrotheology, we also have quite a few new people, so this session will provide a bit of orientation regarding the central ideas and how they play out in the work of The Church of the Contradiction. It will be a conversation and there will be plenty of time for questions.
13:3 | LUNCH
For lunch there are a lot of great local spots, or you can grab something and eat it back at The Barge.
15:3 | THE HYSTERICAL GØD | PETER ROLLINS | THE BARGE
In this talk I’ll be exploring how Pyrotheology leads to a practice in which the congregation is confronted with an hysterical God. Here I want to get to the very heart of what I believe the next iteration of institutional faith might look like.
16:3 | BREAK
17 | VISUALISING THE VOID | BARRY TAYLOR IN CONVERSATION WITH ED HICKS | THE BARGE (UPPER LEVEL)
This years artist in residence is London based mural painter Ed Hicks who will be bringing some of his own work to Wake as well as painting in the following weekends festival ‘Hit the North’. In this session Barry Taylor sits down with Hicks to discuss some of the recent themes within his work and probe the liminal zones of street art and graffiti through the analytic lens.. What happens when we approach a disposable populist folk art with the intensity of Romanticism? And if we squint a bit, is it possible, as Philip K Dick says, that ‘The symbols of the divine show up in our world initially at the trash stratum’ ?
OR
17 | THE NEGATIVE PRACTICE OF KEENING | JULIE RESHE | THE BARGE (LOWER LEVEL)
The Negative Practice of Keening, explores keening—a traditional form of vocal lament for the dead found in the Gaelic Celtic tradition—not merely as an object of analysis but as something to be tentatively practiced. Keening does not seek redemption, resolution, or healing. It is not a spiritual exercise aimed at transcendence, but a raw, uncontained expression of grief that does not pretend to offer comfort. Julie compares it to the Ukrainian ritualistic pre-Christian funeral rite (голосіння)—a mourning practice that likewise does not promise salvation or closure. Both are treated here as forms of what she calls negative practice: practices that do not aim to improve, to soothe, or to save, but instead remain with the impasses and voids of existence. They do not cover the wound but let it appear. They make space for that which cannot be metabolized, cannot be narrated away.
18 | DINNER
20 | FEEL THE FORCE, JESUS! | MAGGIE ROWE | THE BARGE
Maggie’s deeply personal tale of the great lengths her fear of hell drove her to, from proving to Jesus she was not ashamed of Him by committing progressively embarrassing acts (like wearing a t-shirt with the decals “Feel the Force” and “Jesus!”) to admitting herself to an Evangelical psychiatric facility (The slogan? “Psychology Where The Bible Comes First”) to sinning bravely in a lavish display of sin (examples saved for performance.)
21:3 | PROFANE PSALMS | DUKE SPECIAL | THE BARGE
Duke Special is one of the countries greatest musical treasures. He is someone who I’ve worked with closely many times, as his music provides the perfect soundscape to the ideas of Pyrotheology. This will be an intimiate, low lit, meditiative musical experience that will embody that mystical experience known as the Dark Night of the Soul.
TUESDAY 29TH APRIL
9:3 | COFFEE AND/OR MEDITATION | TOMAS WALCH | THE BARGE
Like cocaine and ketamine, you can speed yourself up with some coffee and then do some mediation to slow you down. The perfect cocktail.
10 | RADICAL THEOLOGY | PHILOSOPHY PORTAL | THE BLACK BOX
Philosophy Portal at Wake will be hosting a series for discussions designed to lead into collective questioning and break out groups. These discussions are informed by Philosophy Portal’s work on the concept of Christian Atheism as well as its relation to the Church of Contradiction, and designed to help facilitate a deeper understanding of our current cultural moment as it relates to religion, theology, society and politics, as well as how we may become more active participants in these processes.
OR
10 | RESPONDING TO LACK | EVERYDAY ANALYSIS | BULLITT (THE GOOD ROOM)
As infants we were the same as each other, or at least we were unaware of our differences. Later in life, everything looks radically different, and everyone looks - and is - radically different to ourselves. It even seems that we originated from different places, times and people and that this anchors or explains our uniqueness. The big question of psychoanalysis would be about this change that we undergo. It would ask: what happens when little biological beings drinking their milk become humans in the world who are so different from each other and who experience such different realities? This course will be an exploration into this question. It asks, what do we share, and how can we share it, even after our socialisation into the unique disparate people that we are?
12 | BREAK
12:3 | BREAKOUT GROUPS | BULLITT, BLACK BOX, THE FOUNDRY
13:3 | LUNCH
15 | THE BLACKOUT SESSION | THOM PROTHERO | THE BARGE
In the darkness of The Barge we will kick the afternoon off with a little musical experience of wounded hymns.
15:3 | GOD OR THE DEVIL | JULIE RESHE AND PETER ROLLINS | THE BARGE
16:3 | BREAK
17 | NOTHING SPEAKS AND NOTHING CONNECTS | KATE BURGESS AND BILL BRECK | THE BARGE (UPPER LEVEL)
OR
17 | PROFANE ILLUMINATIONS AT THE TRANSCENDENTAL LAUNDROMAT | BARRY TAYLOR | THE BARGE (LOWER LEVEL)
Barry will be presenting pictures words and ideas all jumbled up in a post-pop, post-punk, post-modern pot-pourri of possible impossibilities.
18 | DINNER
20 | THE CHORUS OF GHOSTS LIVING IN MY SKULL KEEP TELLING ME TO TAKE A SHIT IN THE FRUIT SALAD (PART 3) | PAUL CURRIE | OH YEAH
Paul Currie is impossible to describe. A one-man madhouse whose absurdist work is destabilising in all the best possible ways. An absolute genus in the art of the surreal.
21:3 | THE JBR PROJECT x PINSLEEP | THE BARGE
JBR Project and Pinsleep join forces for a unique live collaboration. Expect a genre-defying journey as JBR Project takes total command of his electric and acoustic arsenal—blending dub reggae rhythms, colossal bass drops, sixties soundtrack chaos, Miles Davis-style horn lines, Morricone melodica, and sleek lounge textures that dissolve into driving techno. He’s joined by Pinsleep, the solo art-pop venture of acclaimed Belfast-based violinist, singer and producer Aga Olek. With layered violins, guitar effects, voice and electronics, she crafts immersive, otherworldly soundscapes inspired by sci-fi and the vastness of the inner cosmos—fusing genre-bending pieces, songs, and free-flowing improvisation. Come aboard. Step outside time.
WEDNESDAY 30TH APRIL
10 | RADICAL THEOLOGY | PHILOSOPHY PORTAL | THE BLACK BOX
Day 2 of the Philosophy Portal course.
OR
10 | RESPONDING TO LACK | EVERYDAY ANALYSIS | BULLITT (THE GOOD ROOM)
Day 2 of the Everyday Analysis course.
12 | BREAK
12:3 | BREAKOUT GROUPS | BULLITT, BLACK BOX, THE FOUNDRY
13:3 | LUNCH
15:3 | WHISKEY TASTING | FRIEND AT HAND
OR
STREET ART TOUR | THE BLACK BOX
OR
LAGAN TOUR | OUTSIDE THE AC MARRIOTT
17 | PIZZA NIGHT | THE BARGE
This dinner is on us, as long as you like pizza. Otherwise, you’re on your own!
20 | 50 WORDS FOR SNOW | MAGGIE ROWE AND EMILY GARCÉS | THE ULSTER SPORTS TAP ROOM
Maggie Rowe and Emily Garcés host the podcast 50 Words For Snow, where they hunt the globe for words without an English equivalent. They met virtually through Pete Rollins six years ago, started working on the podcast shortly after and have now released thirty episodes. Maggie and Emily have not met in person. Until now. At Wake. Find out whether poronkusema is the length of time a reindeer can go without urinating or the practice of drinking alcohol without your shirt on. Prizes!
21 | HOCUS POCUS | THE ULSTER SPORTS TAP ROOM
A central metaphor in the work of Radical Theology is that of the disappearing act, so we thought we’d finish the night with some close up magic from some of the city’s finest magicians.
THURSDAY 1ST MAY
9:3 | COFFEE AND/OR MEDITATION | TOMAS WALCH | THE BARGE
10 | RADICAL THEOLOGY | PHILOSOPHY PORTAL | THE BARGE
Final day of the Philosophy Portal course.
OR
10 | RESPONDING TO LACK | EVERYDAY ANALYSIS | BULLITT (THE GOOD ROOM)
Final day 3 of the Everyday Analysis course.
12 | BREAK
12:3 | BREAKOUT GROUPS | BULLITT, BLACK BOX, THE FOUNDRY
13:3 | LUNCH
15:3 | BARRY TAYLOR IN CONVERSATION WITH PETER ROLLINS | THE BARGE
16:3 | BREAK
17 | ROUND TABLE | FRIENDLY FIRE: CRITIQUES OF PYROTHEOLOGY | THE BARGE
I’ll be asking the various speakers at Wake to grill me on some of their concerns and critiques concerning the project of CCon. All with the aim of helping to develop the project and help us see what work needs to be done next.
18 | DINNER
20:00 | RETRO ROOM PARTY X VENUSROLLERGIRL | THE NORTHERN LIGHTS (MEET AT ST. ANNE’S CATHEDRAL)
An evening of retro arcades from BASE and retro tunes from DJ VenusRollerGirl.
21:3 | PUB CRAWL | PAVILION, EMPIRE, CROWN, KELLY’S, SUNFLOWER… AND WHEREVER YOU DEGENERATES END UP AFTER
Wake always ends with a pub crawl around some of the best pubs in the city.
FRIDAY 2ND MAY - BOLT-ON
11 | SUPER EXCLUSIVE, EXTRA FANCY, VIP BREAKFAST
For those who were kind enough to purchase the bolt-on, we’ll be having a home cooked Ulster Fry together, along with glazed donuts, fresh orange juice, espresso drinks, Mimosas and some small thank you gifts.