Steve Reinke

Human Events

My subconscious has melted away and seems to have been replaced by the muted, jangled chorus of my microbiome. I’m not sure if this condition is rare or widespread. I expect it is widespread and that our microbiomes are battling with our subconsciouses for supremacy. There is no battle in me, though. My subconscious is gone. Human Events is a series of works reflecting on this condition. It proceeds through a chain of associations. Atheists Need Theology, Too, the first of seven videos, begins with a poem by Emily Dickinson, ‘To fill a Gap’. All of Human Events, then, could be read as a gloss on the poem. Or, one could choose — or be compelled by their dwindling subconsciouses and roiling microbiomes to choose — any other link in this chain of associations and use that as the starting point.​​