Futurologies

13/01/2010

Artificial Moon by Wang Yuyang

Futurology, futurity, back to the future...with the Mayan calendar supposedly due to end in 2012 (and the UK arts budget in an Olympic-sized splash) the future is on everyone's mind in the first few days of a new decade. Transmediale 10, Berlin, is on the subject of 'Futurity' and I am moderating a panel on the nearest possibility for living off the planet, the Moon, in a Salon presentation. Destination Moon. Featuring Pavel Medvedev, whose 'On the Third Planet of the Sun' was blogged here by us, Wang Yuyang whose 'artificial moon' is featured above, curator Li Zenhua and Agnes Meyer Brandis featured here, who will also be showing her Cloud Core Scanner and a performance Making Clouds at Schering Stiftung in Berlin. The Futurity Long Conversation will also take place at Transmediale inspired by Jem Finer's longplayer and the Long Now Foundation. My colleague Nicola Triscott will take part along with a number of other luminaries and visionaries.

Featuring another proposed future, Star City - the Future under Communism at Nottingham Contemporary opens February 12 and I am speaking about the present day Star City at The Futurological Congress, inspired by Stanislaw Lem along with participating artists Aleksandra Mir (who will show the Arts Catalyst-commissioned Gravity), Pavel Althamer, The Otolith Group and others.

With the breakdown of Copenhagen, artistic strategies for intervention in radically re-thinking infrastructure become increasingly important. Taking place on March 10 at the Baltic, part of AV 2010 (theme - Energy) Newcastle and curated and organised by The Arts Catalyst and Intersections, Newcastle University, the apocalyptically-titled Planetary Breakdown- Automomous Infrastructures for a Sustainable Future explores the possibility of creating new autonomous infrastructures across energy, trade and transport, offering a space for everyone to contribute to an active dialogue about our futures. Confirmed speakers include: writer on Utopian Futures Malcolm Miles and international artists Lise Autogena, HeHe, Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson, Kate Rich, Ashok Sukumaran and Shaina Anand.  Following the symposium there will be a free lecture by artist Gustav Metzger, whom I understand will be talking about 'extinction'...

Curator, Rob La Frenais