The future will be...
In the last days of a restless decade, we can lean back and enjoy again, with cautious relief, a modicum of optimism. It seems as if the future has a future again.
As we’re nearing the end of a year and the end of a decade, it’s time to look back and ahead. With at least three formative events in this young 21st century (9/11, the Tsunami, and the Great Recession) providing some sort of apocalyptic arch and instilling a profound sense of anxiety, it is no wonder that former visionaries are gathering at conferences asking “Where did the future go?” But, at the end of the day, the end of all days didn’t occur, and as the New York Magazine points out in its comprehensive review of the “Aughts”: “The Times is still published every day. There are more bicyclists on the streets than sanity would dictate.” Plus, we got Barack Obama, "Mad Men," the iPhone, Twitter, and Foursquare…. and and and....
In the last days of a restless decade, we can lean back and enjoy again, with cautious relief, a modicum of optimism. When even the newsletter of management consultancy Arthur D. Little--not necessarily known for being conducive to enthusiasm--arrives in your in-box with the bold subject line “The Future of the Future,” it indeed seems to indicate that, yes, the future has a future again.
Therefore it feels appropriate to end this year, this decade, with a super-list on the future curated by super-curator Hans Ulrich Obrist (and first presented in his lecture at the "Where do we go from here?" symposium at the Louisiana Museum during the UN climate conference in Copenhagen):
"The future will be....
(List compiled by Hans Ulrich Obrist; via @Andrian Kreye/sueddeutsche.de)
The future will be chrome. Rirkrit Tiravanija
The future will be curved. Olafur Eliasson
The future will be in the name of the future. Anri Sala
The future will be so subjective. Tino Sehgal
The future will be bouclette. Douglas Gordon
The future will be curious. Nico Dockx
The future will be obsolete. Tacita Dean
The future will be asymmetric. Pedro Reyes
The future will be a slap in the face. Cao Fei
The future will be delayed. Loris Greaud
The future does not exist but in snapshots. Philippe Parreno
The future will be tropical. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Future? ...you must be mistaken Trisha Donnelly
The future will be overgrown and decayed. Simryn Gill
The future will be tense. John Baldessari
A future fuelled by human waste. Matthew Barney
The future is going nowhere without us. Paul Chan
The future is now--the future is it. Doug Aitken
The future is one night, just look up. Tomas Saraceno
The future will be a remake... Didier Fiuza Faustino
The future is what we construct from what we remember of the past - the present is the time of instantaneous revelation. Lawrence Weiner
The future is this place at a different time. Bruce Sterling
The future will be widely reproduced and distributed. Cory Doctorow
The future will be whatever we make it. Jacque Fresco
The future will involve splendour and poverty. Arto Lindsay
The future is uncertain because it will be what we make it. Immanuel Wallerstein
The future is waiting - the future will be self-organized. Raqs Media Collective
Dum Spero/ While I breathe, I hope. Nancy Spero
This is not the future. Jordan Wolfson
The future is a dog/ l'avenir c'est la femme. Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron
On its way; it was here yesterday. Hreinn Friðfinnsson
The future will be an armchair strategist, the future will be like no snow on the broken bridge. Yang Fudong
The future always flies under the radar. Martha Rosler
Suture that future. Peter Doig
'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow' (Shakespeare). Richard Hamilton
The future is overrated. Cerith Wyn Evans
futuro = $B!g(B Hector Zamorra The future is a large pharmacy with a memory deficit. David Askevold
The future will be bamboo. Tay Kheng Soon
The future will be ousss. Koo Jeong-A
The future will be...grains, particles & bits. The future will be...ripples, waves & flow. The future will be...mix, swarms, multitudes. The future will be...the future we deserve but with some surprises, if only some of us take notice. Vito Acconci
In the future...the earth as a weapon... Allora & Calzadilla
The future is our excuse. Joseph Grigely and Amy Vogel
The future will be repeated. Marlene Dumas
Ok, ok I’ll tell you about the future; but I am very busy right now; give me a couple of days more to finish some things and I’ll get back to you. Jimmie Durham
Future is instant. Yung Ho Chang
'The future is not.' Zaha Hadid
The future is private. Anton Vidokle
The future will be layered and inconsistent. Liam Gillick
The future is a piano wire in a pussy powering something important. Matthew Ronay
In the future perhaps there will be no past. Daniel Birnbaum
The future was. Julieta Aranda
The future is menace. Carolee Schneemann
The future is a forget-me-not. Molly Nesbit
The future is an knowing exchange of glances. Sarah Morris
The future: Scratching on things I could disavow. Walid Raad
The future is our own wishful thinking. Liu Ding
Le futur est un étoilement. Edouard Glissant
The future is now. Maurizio Cattelan
The future has a silver lining. Thomas Demand
The future is now and here. Yona Friedman
is a fax best to use as facsimile G&G FAX is: THE FUTURE? SEE YOU THERE! AS ARTISTS WE WANT TO HELP TO FORM OUR TOMORROWS. WE HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. ITS GOING TO BE MARVELLOUS. LONG LIVE THE FUTURE WITH LOTS OF LOVE ALWAYS AND ALWAYS. Gilbert & George
The future is without you. Damien Hirst
The future is a season. Pierre Huyghe
The future is a poster. M/M
We have repeated the future out of existence. Tom McCarthy
The future has two large beautiful eyes. Jonas Mekas
less, few tours in my future. Stefano Boeri
Future is what it is. Huang Yong Ping
The future is the very few years we have remaining before all time becomes one time. Grant Morrison
FUTURE MUST BE HERE TODAY. Jan Kaplicky
Future is more freedom. Jia Zhangke
My art is very free, I don’t know what to do in the future. But I am positive. Xu Zhen
The future is inside. Shumon Basar, Markus Miessen, Åbäke
NO FUTURE - PUNK IS NOT DEATH ! Thomas Hirschhorn
The future will be grim if we don't do something about it. Morgan Fisher
The future is reflexive and coming together. Olafur Eliasson
The future is listening. Shilpa Gupta
The future lies in the unknown. Ann Lislegaard
Nothing stinks, only thinking made it so. Sissel Tolaas
What the future is, you only know next morning. Die Zukunft kann man nur ueber Nacht definieren. Peter Sloterdijk
The future is a disease. Peter Weibel
[Photo: Gardard Eide Einarssons's installation on the Louisiana Museum photographed by Finn Broendum.]