First then, to set the scene […] There is a room, stripped back, bare. Maybe the
lights are dimmed. Illumination comes from a chain of naked light bulbs — of
different colours perhaps — strung up somewhat haphazardly … and from the gleam
of a spotlight, which picks out two figures from the surrounding dark. Two
figures – let’s say a man and a woman. They pause … then begin to speak. It would
be improper to steal the thunder of their very first line, so … imagine an
ellipsis … the dot-dot-dot of passing time. Two figures exchanging visions of
the future, swapping narratives of optimism and despair, utopian and dystopian
imaginings. A man and a woman, illuminated, mid-flow in the to-and-fro of
exchange: “… in the future, everyone will have brown eyes; or ... in the future
there’ll be no word for weekend; or ... in the future small will be beautiful; or... in the future no-one will care about algebra or trigonometry or sequence
patterns or anything mathematical because computers will do it all, no problem;
or ... people will grow an extra thumb for quicker texting; or, people will learn to
walk on water; or, everyone will speak all the languages of the world; or ... no-one
will remember the seventies … or buses … or takeaways or… dirty weekends”. The
two continue to imagine what the future might be like through an unfolding
litany of prediction, projection, prospection and prophecy: “in the future; or
… in the future; or … in the future … or … or … or ” and so on.
My full paper, What now, What Next - Kairotic Imagination and the Unfolding Future Seized, can be read below. The paper was presented as a key-note at In Imagination: The Future Reflected in Art and Argument, at University of Sheffield, 4 Oct 2013.