The word “visionary” gets bandied about the Bay Area more than in most places, but Michael Gosney—or “Goz,” as he was affectionately known to his friends—was a huge part of the city’s proud history of true visionaries.
– Lawrence Axil Comras, The San Francisco Standard
Michael Gosney was a thought leader in the fields of conscious technology, deep ecology, biomimicry, sustainability, and green economy. His work as a multimedia publisher, festival and event producer, artist, deejay, and psychedelic visionary is organized into the following categories:
Digital Art
Goz was an early pioneer in digital art with his Macintosh Verbum exhibit in 1985, leading to collaborations with Apple, the creation of the Imagine Exhibit of Personal Computer Art, and the establishment of the Verbum Gallery, promoting the artistic potential of digital tools with a focus on humanistic creativity.
Publishing
Goz founded Avant Books in 1980, publishing influential works on ecology and spirituality, and later pioneered digital publishing with Verbum and Verbum Interactive, leading to collaborations with major tech companies on multimedia and tech guidebooks.
Regenerative Culture
As an early advocate of deep ecology, Goz co-founded the Green Century Institute, organized sustainability events, and worked with cities, UN programs, and the eco-community Arcosanti to promote regenerative culture and green cities.
Cannabis/Psychedelics
As a pioneer in the cannabis and psychedelics space, Goz organized influential events like the Digital Be-In and Deep Green Conferences, highlighting the connection between entheogens and digital culture, and collaborated with key cannabis figures to reshape public perception of cannabis in the digital era.
Events
Goz’s Digital Be-Ins, launched in 1989, celebrated the intersection of 60s counterculture and 90s cyberculture, featuring icons like Timothy Leary and Wavy Gravy alongside musicians and activists, while also co-producing CyberArts International conferences to explore multimedia art and interactivity.
Music
Throughout the 90s, Goz produced influential Bay Area music events like the Ambient Groove Temple and Burning Man’s Church of WOW, later launching the digital radio program Radio-V and founding Cyberset, a record label focused on world, ambient, and electronic music.
Philosophy
Goz’s philosophy, influenced by thinkers like Teilhard de Chardin, Buckminster Fuller, and Paolo Soleri, integrated humanistic and ecological perspectives on technology, advocating for a “control panel for Spaceship Earth” to foster humanity’s role as stewards of the planet.
Family & Fun
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About Michael Gosney
Michael William Gosney (Born July 11, 1953), known affectionately as “Goz,” was an American writer and editor; book, music, and multimedia publisher; festival and event producer; and thought leader in the fields of technology, consciousness, and environmentalism. He was an early digital media pioneer, publishing Verbum magazine, distinguished as one of the first desktop published magazines and producer of the first multimedia CD-ROM and fully interactive book/CD-ROM packages.
Goz produced and co-produced festivals, conferences, and exhibits in the digital art, technology, environmentalism, and cannabis and psychedelic spheres, including the Imagine Exhibit of Personal Computer Art in San Diego, Boston, and Tokyo; the Earthdance multi-location global peace festival, held annually since 1997; the Human Be-In 50th Anniversary festival held in San Francisco on January 14, 2017; the San Francisco Bay Area Deep Green Conferences in 2011-12, featuring panels on cannabis legislation and cultivation techniques; and the Digital Be-In, a semi-annual San Francisco-based celebration and technology showcase described by Soledad O’Brien on MSNBC as, “where 60’s counterculture meets 90’s cyberculture;”
Through the 90s, Goz produced and co-produced many community dance parties and thematic events in the Bay Area, including the Ambient Groove Temple, Green Century Salon series, the Green Spirit Dance (in conjunction with Green Festival), Green Alley at the How Weird Street Faire, Ambiotica lectures and presentations at Anon-Salon; and the legendary Community Dance and Church of WOW at Burning Man.
From 1998 to 2001, in collaboration with eMusic, Goz produced Radio-V.com, a weekly radio program on U.S. public and college stations and electronic music sites offering digital downloads. In 2001, he partnered with Matt Marshall, founder of Higher Octave Music, to form Cyberset, a San Francisco-based record label showcasing world, ambient, dance, vocal, and urban music.
An early proponent of deep ecology and green cities, Goz worked with UNDESA on international programs for sustainable consumption and production, and the ecological architecture model community Arcosanti, where he produced the Paradox Conferences in 1997, 1999 and 2001, bringing together leaders in cyberculture and sustainable community development.
In 2002, Goz co-founded the Green Century Institute in San Francisco, a non-profit dedicated to the development of sustainable communities. At the time of his passing, he was Managing Director of the Techné Verde ICT research project with the Buckminster Fuller Institute developing social and collaboration networks for transformative culture; and Director of Strategic Planning for Synergetic Press, a publisher of books and journals on psychedelic research, biospheric science, and regenerative design.
Gosney has produced many influential books and events on the shift to sustainability, and has served on the board of architect Paolo Soleri’s ecocity research project Arcosanti through the '90s.
In a 1995 interview with Mark Katzman for Artzar (later published in Zavtone magazine), Timothy Leary described Goz as “one of the few great pioneer humanists in the digital world.”
Artzar: Timothy Leary interviewed by Mark Katzman
Perspective: Remembering Michael Gosney, a Futurist, Eco-Pioneer, and San Franciscan Par Excellence
Written by Lawrence Axil Comras
The San Francisco Standard
Published May 3, 2022 at 2:45pm
