Sunshinism by Arjuna Neuman

Arjuna Neuman was born on an airplane, which explains why he holds two passports. Neuman is a filmmaker, writer, and artist. He has presented his work at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, the 56th Venice Biennale with e-flux and the SuperCommunity, Haus Der Kulturen der Welt, Ashkal Alwan, the Beirut Art Center, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, La Gaîté Lyrique, Verge Gallery Sydney University, Moscow Museum, Torrance Art Museum, Machine Projects, and Human Resources, among others. Neuman has published texts with Relief Press, Into the Pines Press, The Journal for New Writing, VIA, Concord Press, Art Voices, Flaunt, and e-flux. Sunshinism hails from tomorrow. Like many religions before it – the sun is central to its beliefs. Although in this case it is a cyborg-sun, a thermo-nuclear-sun made with Science. And like the real sun, this religion shines everywhere.



In this lecture, Arjuna Neuman uncovers a religion from the future. He borrows modes of research from cultural anthropology, theology and history, as well as forms from yoga, the New Age and YouTube to describe the “heart of brightness,” our emergent techno-spiritual framework. The lecture traces the inception of this framework in the American West and the explosive-flash of the first atomic bomb, and tracks it forward through our collective implosion, our becoming-smiley. Image