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As the tick to the flesh, the digital device to the psyche device. The remedy is a matter of Truth.
JOHN MACK, 2021
THE CALL
ON THE LINE/
Our humanity is on the line. In the age of ever-increasing digital dependence, we find ourselves further and further divorced from ourselves, our community, and nature. We are currently deciding, rather unconsciously, as to whether we will carry our humanity with us into the future.
_mission
Preserving our humanity in the Digital Age.
CALLING THE SHOTS/
_the need for higher education
_vision
FOUNDER
John Mack is an author, artist and founder of the nonprofit, Life Calling, whose mission is to preserve our humanity in the Digital Age. Over the past decade John has expressed concern over the effects on our humanity in the wake of our increasing dependence on smart-devices. In September 2022 Mack debuted Life Calling’s signature program A Species Between Worlds: Our Nature, Our Screens in New York City, a public educational forum and immersive exhibition which serves as an invitation to contemplate our relationship to our devices and the surrounding world while inciting the introspection needed to prevent the loss of our humanity. A Species Between Worlds coincided with Mack’s publication of A Land Between Worlds: The Shifting Poetry of the Great American Landscape, a collection of poetry, and Notes to Selfie: Bits of Truth in a Phoney World, a volume of thoughts and aphorisms. Mack recently published Notes to Psyche: Mindful Thoughts for Thought-Filled Minds, part of the Handbook Series by Life Calling.
Mack was an honoree of The Explorer’s Club 50: Fifty people changing the world who the world needs to know about. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and universities on the subjects of technology, awareness and consciousness and has served as an adjunct lecturer for the Graduate program of Design at the University of Lisbon. Additionally, Mack serves as a board member of Fairplay, an organization that strives to create a world where kids can be kids, free from the false promises of marketers and the manipulations of Big Tech.
FOUR SIGNALS
A SPECIES BETWEEN WORLDS
A Species Between Worlds is a gamified meditation examining the intersection of humanity and technology. Sparked by the Pokémon Go® craze and a subsequent stampede in Taipei in 2016, Mack has sought to explore the often slippery intersection of virtuality and reality through a technology-forward narrative arc that centers the individual and aims to foster balance and awareness between our technology and ourselves. Featuring more than 65 artworks including imagery of more than 50 U.S. National Parks and the Seven Wonders of the Natural World, the exhibition features a customized app, which guides visitors through a gamified psychological exploration framed by the artifice of the Pokémon Go® interface, which gradually fades as reality is restored.
The A Species Between Worlds Forum combines thought-provoking artwork with an innovative program exploring the nexus of new technology and human behavior with a group of intersectional leaders from the fields of art, academia, technology, and business. Together, we seek to understand our relationship with technology through interactive panels, deep-dive conversations, town halls, partner events, performances, and more. The New York Forum featured programming partnerships with the David Lynch Foundation, the Center for Earth Ethics, Digital Fashion Week, Center for Humane Technology, Fairplay, New York Center for Living, The Explorer’s Club, and many others.
LECTURES
Podcast Episode sponsored by Grand Seiko
To inquire about booking speaking engagements please contact us.
BOOKS
A Land Between Worlds
The Shifting Poetry of the Great American Landscape
Covering nearly fifty of the most iconic U.S. National Parks, Mack uses poetry, landscape photography, and an interactive augmented reality app to invite us into a deep conversation about the encroaching digital landscape, our attachments to it, and the uncertain fate of our nature.
Bits of Truth in a Phoney World
A pocket-sized book of ideas, contemplations, and aphorisms, Notes to Psyche challenges the very limits of thought. Philosophical, witty, challenging, and mind-opening the observations and questions in Notes to Psyche are sparks to ignite higher consciousness. What introspection and awareness might such illumination open for your own inner navigation?
PRESS
Immersive Exhibit, A.I. VERSUS HUMANITY launches at and in partnership with London Design Biennale for A.I. thought-leadership Forum at Somerset House
Aesthetica Magazine
June 2023
Aesthetica Magazine
August 2022
“An immersive exhibition and forum examines the intersection of humanity and technology.
Debuting in September 2022, in New York City
The Work of Artist and Author John Mack, A Species Between Worlds is an Experience Grounded in Technology, Photography and Psychology. (…)”
2021 December
“The Life Calling Initiative was announced today in New York City.. It responds to our increasing reliance on technology in the Digital Age, and the various challenges this reliance presents to humanity. Our new technological tools may be moving us away from the experience of the natural world. The newly established Life Calling Initiative explores this nexus of new technology and human behavior. Its fundamental mission is to both raise awareness and to develop educational
strategies to best avert these dangers. (…)”
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