RAGE PEACE CAMPFIRE SONGS
Taraka has spent over fifteen years exploring post-apocalyptic visions and music as a vehicle for utopia. On April 2nd, inspired by J.G. Ballard’s notion of a ‘science fiction of the next five minutes,’ Rage Peace Campfire Songs unfolds in an alternate world-line where a dystopian, technocratic AI governance system has banned non-AI concerts, forcing music to survive as clandestine ritual. For this rare solo performance, Taraka explores ‘campfire songs’ as a microcosmic invitation to imagine what forms of togetherness and collective healing are still possible.
—Issue Project Room
“The year is 0010110, and after a series of irreparable government scandals, artificial intelligence was ushered into control as an antidote to human failure, making it mandatory for all citizens to merge their neurophysiology with a central intelligence system. A few rogue humans manage to escape and form a secret underground movement known as ‘Rage Peace.’
Disillusioned with society and unable to use technology for fear of being found, they practice telepathy and organize secret worship services in abandoned buildings called “campfire songs,” a primitive ritual and last vestige of the Old World used to reconnect with their humanity.
Led by Rage Peace Agent Taraka, participants sit in a circle around a simulated campfire as she plays banned songs on a stolen guitar. All are invited to chime in using random found objects to create improvised sonic textures inspired by John Cage’s vision of a Taoist anarchist society.”
Courtesy of Issue Project Room. Photography by Cameron Kelly Mcleod.