Responding to the rise of conspiracy theories in the 21st Century, Parallax is an expansive exploration of the complex relationships between (un) truth, vision, and technology. Through a curated series of texts and visual works, Ellie Wyatt investigates how conspiracy theories are facilitated by urgent technological advances, the legacies of detailed modes of sight, and the circle as a magical and scientific tool.

By drawing links across science, visual culture, art history, popular culture and occult practices, Wyatt hopes to situate conspiracy theories not as isolated products of the current moment, but as deeply rooted cultural phenomena that are becoming increasingly difficult to dismantle or disentangle from reality. In the wider contemporary context of massive inequalities and extreme polarity, Parallax asks what truth is, what it was, and if we can still seek it.

Parallax includes a range of new text pieces, contributions and extracts: IS EVERYTHING CONNECTED?: CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND THE INTERNET by Clare Birchall and Peter Knight, IN THE HAZE AND TURMOIL: RESPONDING TO CHERRYPICKER by Stan Portus, DETAIL – FREDERIC CHURCH: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF DETAIL (EXCERPT) by Jennifer Raab, DETAIL AS PARASITE by Ellie Wyatt, MARLOWE’S THE TRAGEDY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS – GOETHE’S FAUST I by Eugene Thacker, THE ALEPH (EXCERPT) by Jorge Luis Borge, THE SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE: COMPLICATIONS IN ROBERT HOOKE’S MICROSCOPE by Ellie Wyatt, and three new visual essays by Ellie Wyatt, edited by Daniel Fletcher.