​Avalon wants you to help us radically restructure the study of mankind. In order to do this, we’re uniting a variety of forms of humanistic study and human expression in one place. There will be lectures, performances, roundtables, seminars, debates, love affairs, and, God willing, you.

​The Avalon Exposition aims to gather the greatest concentration of perspectives, tools, and works which shed light on the human condition in the world today. We are working to assemble speakers, known and unknown, alongside music, theater, DNA sequencers, neural imaging machines, and every other scientific, intellectual and artistic tradition useful for understanding the human condition. Our venue supports many simultaneous sessions, allowing participants to attend and organize whatever will be of value to them.

​The Programme

​Philosophy & Religion

• ​On Enthusiasm in Philosophy · Brian Pines

• ​The City and Man · Stephanie Wakefield

• ​Introduction to Generative Anthropology · Zach Baker

• ​The Will to Power Reappraised · Jonathan Wallis

• ​The History, Theory, and Practice of Yoga Asana: A Hands-On Workshop · Ana Brooks

• ​Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart Sutra · Paula Arai

​History & Letters

• ​Pindar in the Modern World · Gwern Branwen

• ​Reaching for Consilience: Genomics and the Two Cultures · Razib Khan

• ​Desert Operations at El Alamein · Adam Jarvis

• ​The Origins of Modernity in the Dutch Republic · Jonathan Wallis

• ​Why Alexandria Was Steampunk · Samo Burja

• ​Ernst Jünger at 100: Post-History and the Return of Myth · Elliot Neaman

• ​Jezebel Agonistes: The Glass House and the Philosopher’s Stone · Michael Shindler

• ​Uncovering Napoleon’s Heart · Alex Oaten

​The Sciences

• ​Genetic Sequencing Lottery & Demo · Keoni Gandall

• ​Gathering Cognitive Ability Data from Medical Practices · Jordan Lasker

• ​The Training Instinct: Behaviorism and Countercontrol · Diana Fleischman

• ​How the Microbiome Is Redefining ‘Human’ · Stephen Skolnick

• ​Give Us Your Hand: A Demo of Electrical Muscle Stimulation · Abhishek Dev

• ​Sensitivity and the Nature of Outlier Cognition · Lauren Qin

​The Arts

• ​How Fast Should We Go · Zoe Curzi

• ​An Untitled Film from Hallsong Media · Michael Curzi

• ​Conjured from This Dust · Lola Guthrie

• ​What Human Hands Can Do: Language, Creativity, and Tradition in North Indian Classical Drumming · Nihal Singh

• ​Singing the Odyssey · Christopher Colby

​Institutions & Society

• ​Post-Apocalyptic Cybernetics · James Poulos

• ​Neoliberalism’s Shadow: Infrastructure and Process Creep · Adam Jarvis

• ​The Social Consequences of the Polygenic Revolution · Jonathan Anomaly

• ​The Future of Martian Society · Samo Burja

• ​Why the Best Scientists Are Mystics · Ben Landau-Taylor

• ​Taste in the Use of AI · Jacob Falkovich

• ​Building Affordability: New Zealand’s Reforms and the Path to Housing Abundance · Eric Crampton

​What does my ticket include? Three days, two lunches, three dinners. The Halloween Gala is included.

​Where do I stay? Rooms on and near the campus, from $126 a night.

​What if I need financial assistance to attend? A limited number of volunteer and discounted tickets are available. Please fill out the financial assistance form.

​What is your refund policy? Full refunds are available up to 7 days before the event. Contact wallis@avalon.institute.

​What is the Avalon Institute?

​The Avalon Institute is building infrastructure to help the life of the mind flourish outside of Academia. We have been building a home for cultural ambition in San Francisco through residencies, seminars, reading groups, staged ancient Greek plays, music and poetry nights and much more. We want to perfect the skills necessary to organize productive intellectual and artistic infrastructure at any scale and in any field. Beyond San Francisco, we are building an alliance of groups who want the fundamental logistical, financial, and narrative foundations of the life of the mind to change.