In lecture performance The Last Expert, Alban Karsten elaborates on how he once joined UFO hotline and conspiracy platform Niburu, and how he became a chemtrail authority there before long, by introducing himself as an expert in the field.
“Chemtrails are the white traces left in the sky when a plane flies over. Those trails are actually clouds of chemicals – they contain microparticles of aluminum and barium – used by shadow regimes for a whole range of unpleasant reasons, such as weather modification, psychological manipulation, human population control, biological or chemical warfare, and so on. Unlike ordinary condensation trails, chemtrails linger in the air much longer and eventually end up in our food and drinking water, making us sick or defenseless, probably both.”
The Last Expert is an exercise in case-building. Through charts, it shows how a conspiracy or an unveiled cover-up can cause collective outrage; outrage which functions as a ritual, as a means to enter into higher consciousness, into enlightenment. It reveals that the total number of people who believe in chemtrails is smaller than the number of Catholics in the world. And above all, it clarifies what an expert is and how to become one. The Last Expert contains several witness accounts in the form of drawings.
“Anton hired me as a chemtrail expert shortly after our conversation, based on the facts, knowledge and insights I presented to him, but which I had taken from his own website. It began to worry me somewhat that the people who wrote and published so much about conspiracies were so easily persuaded. Had I made them believe in my story by blinding them with their own words? Or did they trust my words so firmly because they wanted them to be true?”
Shown at: Down the Rabbit Hole, Beuningen, NL and UNFAIR, Amsterdam, NL
Made possible with the kind support of: AFK and Koen van Bommel.
Outfit by: Jackie Forro
Drawings by the pupils of: De Havenrakkers (Broek in Waterland, year 2 and 3), OBS De Boog (Rotterdam, year 8) and Johannesschool (Amsterdam, year 8)
Performance advice by: Kitty Maria
Pictures by: Ellis Kat, Marc Oosting and Almicheal Fraay