๐๐ป Hi! I'm Joel. My pronouns are he/him. I'm 41 and I live in London near Epping Forest with my fiancรฉe and cat. A huge thank you to Ceri Hand for inviting me to this session and an even bigger thanks for her practice in general.
We have 90 minutes together today. I'm going to start with a presentation which contains 10 thoughts for the future, which will be a jumping off point for a conversation between Ceri and I for 60 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A between all of us. If something chimes with you, please remember your question and save it up for the last 30 minutes. Thank you!
The ten thoughts for the future are:
๐น The future is about making skateboards.
๐ The future is about being like Dory.
๐ The future is not sustainable, it must be regenerative.
๐ The future is augmented.
โง The future is non binary.
๐ธ The future is more than human.
๐ฎ The future is atemporal.
โ๏ธ The future is short.
๐ง The future is layered.
๐&๐๐ปโโ๏ธ The future is playful and caring.
1. ๐น The future is about making skateboards. Henrick Kniberg on how to make a car. In other words, if you want to make a car, make a skateboard, then a scooter, then a bicycle, then a motorbike and THEN a car. I want to make lots of skateboards.
2. ๐ The future is about being like Dory. What does Dory do? This is the most important thing.
3. ๐ The future is not sustainable, it must be regenerative. I've been thinking alot about sustainable computing for my research project, EveryWhere. One of the big takeaways from the recent inaugural EveryWhere conference was that sustainability isn't going to cut it. We must be regenerative.
5. โง The future is non-binary. In all senses of the word! As in binaries don't exist, even inside computers. Also, thinking about my utopia, I've decided it's Iain M. Banks "Culture"/The Academy. Also mixing roles through the week - thanks to Douglas Bevans (in the photo above). Also see Karen Barad's work, particularly the paper: TransMaterialities: Trans*/Matter/Realities and Queer Political Imaginings".
7. ๐ฎ The future is atemporal. As William Gibson says: "Very creative people get atemporal early on. Are relatively unimpressed by the โnowโ factor, by latest things. Access the whole continuum. Less creative people believe in โoriginalityโ and โinnovationโ, two basically misleading but culturally very powerful concepts. "Your bleeding-edge Now is always someone elseโs past. Someone elseโs โ70s bellbottoms. Grasp that and start to attain atemporality." Image by Gonzo Bonzo.
8. โ๏ธ The future is short. You don't have much time. Why not do something interesting? You probably have time for four or five 10 year projects. What are they? Image and article by Wait But Why.
9. ๐ง The future is layered. It's our job to experiment wildly! We have to test the future. Then slower things can filter those tests. Image and article by Stewart Brand.
Thanks again to Ceri Hand and also to Laura Hickman. If you are nervous about asking questions, or you think up a question later, you can get in contact via my website, via my Instagram (@jgl) or ask Ceri.
