the future?

assuming it means contemporary knowledge and practice, the future discussed and lived and previewded during victorian circus 4 hosted at brakke grond this last week might look like this:

don’t do it yourself. an expert collaborative workshop organized by marcel van der drift and arnoud van den heuvel. the idea was to shortcut learning processes that are project-work related by connecting with experts of the required area. from permafrost to dreams, graphic work and programming.. the most interesting aspect was the variety of interests and curiosities all participants shared, as well as really helping each other outside and beyond the workshop scope.

as junior for okno in its presentation stressed, in an ever complex expert world ‘collaboration’ is key. specially since the technological artist is interested in such a variety of fields and angles, that really only through sharing results can be achieved.

moreover, and emphasized in frank they’s exceptional documentary ‘technocalyps‘.. with the speed of knowledge innovation doubling exponentially, interdisciplinary is key.

one such collaboration was among douglas repetto and angelo vermeulen (who might not have seen the film) and despite knowing little of each other, developed a work from scratch during these days.. ‘everyone wins’ is a mobile for watering plants alternatively by insects, humans and robots (this last part remained conceptual).

a kind of submotto to the festival was ’saving the world by digital means’, and here the dasarts masterclass, for instance, presented a fascinating introduction into the ‘tale (or tail?) of the comet’ - the first act of an upcoming opera somehow located around halley’s return in 2061.

2061 lies beyond the singularity proclaimed by vernor vinge, kurzweil and others for 2035; meaning the ‘converge’ of the acceleration of technological progress.. a progress that will be instantaneous replaced by itself (fuelled by moore’s law, intelligent artificial intelligences, super-networks and interface science applied) - a transhuman era.

2061 lies beyond the end of the world (as we know it) proclaimed by many to occur around 2012/13, most famously the hopi’s, in some ways replacing this world by the (a) next one.

looking back to look forward, we think of 1961 as a huge improvement to 1861, but futurology is a funny science, often shortcoming often far beyond rarely accurate. a kind of prophecy for a time where prophets are replaced by science fiction writers.

[for the advanced, i recommend thinking around the chronovisor project]

i browsed a book that places a quantum explosion sometime around 2061, opening the thin membrane between worlds, where humans start coexisting with elves, elementals and the like while ‘magic’ is the most feared technology. i wonder where the next 40 years take us - from a world where kids grow up with wizardry such as harry potter - who through personal strength and knowing the ‘words’ can alter matter, and the promises of nanotechnology coupled with god-like creation’dom.

‘if we think about it, we see that in asking the question: what is man? we want to ask: what can man become? which means: can he master his own destiny, can he make himself, can he give form to his own life? let us say then that man is process, and precisely, the process of his own acts’ (gramsci quoted by john berger in correspondence with subcomandante marcos)