Michael Dudeck is an artist and cultural engineer who decodes dominant cultural mythologies and re-codes them into contemporary fictions. His work is divided into four streams: The Religion Virus [an invented queer religion and prehistory], Punc Arkæology [a pedagogical software system], Crytical Mythopoesis [crypto-fictional meta-mythologies] and The Museum of Artificial Histories [an imaginary institution housing artifacts and alternate information systems]. His practice involves the creation and dissemination of ritual/ceremonial performances, fictional languages, museological installations, the recording and live performance of invented psalms, PowerPoint sermons, scriptural texts and thus far the publication of three original artist monographs : Parthenogenesis (2009), Religion (2012) and The Genesis Complex (2014). He performs, exhibits, lectures, and publishes internationally.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: In the artist’s words
The Encyclopedia Messianica (Ecce Hominid)
“For the past eight years my work as an artist, writer and cultural engineer has focused almost exclusively on the creation and dissemination of a queer religious prehistory (The Religion Virus) through ritual, ceremonial, museological and scriptural faculties. Over the past eight years, this has developed into a vast, neo-biblical mythopoeic construction. With the generous support from the Manitoba Arts Council Major Arts Award, I will begin writing/coding/illustrating The Encyclopedia Messianica (Ecce Hominid), a 240 paged compendium illuminating a constructed historical timeline wherein several Simian-Messianic narratives intersect. It will be designed to hybridize both a standardized encyclopedia and an illuminated manuscript in a stylized ancient/futuristic aesthetic. The compendium focuses upon four key narrative themes within my mythos : The Hatha Uprising, The Hatha Exodus, The Occupation of Hoth and The Religious Re-Formation of Hoth. It will feature illustrations, maps, constructed scriptural facsimiles, and artifacts all encased within didactic descriptions, glossaries, and historical timelines. The publication also will function as a prelude, accompaniment and guide to an upcoming trilogy of illuminated manuscripts called The Meta Codex, which is an amalgamation of 9 gospels of primate messiahs, apostles, administrants and prophets. The publication will be produced by my fictional Museum of Artificial Histories, and will feature introductory essays and exegesis inserted and written by fictional museum staff. In addition, the publication will give birth to a lecture/performance series of the same name (Ecce Hominid) which when completed can be toured in galleries and museums to promote the publication and the upcoming trilogy of manuscripts.”
