“As the future is not prescribed, and the succession of now and tomorrow is not monolithic or determined,
our task consists in distinguishing the layers of futurability that lie in the texture of the present reality and in the
present consciousness. (…)
The present depression (both psychological and economic) obscures the consciousness that no
determinist projection of the future is true. We feel trapped in the tangle of techno-linguistic automatisms: finance,
global competition, military escalation. But the body of the general intellect (the social and erotic bodies of a million
cognitarians) is richer than the connective Brain. And the present reality is richer than the format imposed on it, as
the multifold possibilities inscribed in the present have not been wholly cancelled, even if they may seem presently
inert.”
Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi – Futurability –
The Age of Impotence and the Horizon of Possibility (2017)
Here comes the 5th talk of the next_now series. We expect it to be as
unconventional as the way the speakers are introducing themselves.
Uli Berthold
Coder and visual artist, crypto ninja punk umeboshi brainfuck totalverweigerung.
Simon “Distortion” Carter
A certified lunatic , the youngest on the board of universal auditors , sponsored
by the uniqueness disposal clinic . And he’s done a few records
Friday 22th March 2019 h 20:00
Wühlischstr. 42 Berlin – Friedrichshain
next_now
Strategies to resample the future #4
“As the future is not prescribed, and the succession of now and tomorrow is not monolithic or determined, our task consists in distinguishing the layers of futurability that lie in the texture of the present reality and in the present consciousness. (…)
The present depression (both psychological and economic) obscures the consciousness that no determinist projection of the future is true. We feel trapped in the tangle of techno-linguistic automatisms: finance, global competition, military escalation. But the body of the general intellect (the social and erotic bodies of a million cognitarians) is richer than the connective Brain. And the present reality is richer than the format imposed on it, as the multifold possibilities inscribed in the present have not been wholly cancelled, even if they may seem presently inert.”
Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi – Futurability – The Age of Impotence and the Horizon of Possibility (2017)
For this new episode of our journey through the intersections between possibilities and potency we will be supported by these explorers: [Read more →]
Illustration by Joke Lanz for Datacide 18 (coming soon)
The second in a new series of talk and discussion events hosted by Datacide and next:now at Vétomat Berlin.
Datacide presents Talk, performance, discussion With Joke Lanz and Christoph Fringeli
17-12-2018
At Vétomat, Wühlischstr. 42, 10245 Berlin
Doors open 7pm
8pm Christoph Fringeli: The Situationist International as World Cultural Heritage? A critique of the historicisation of a revolutionary group.
9pm Joke Lanz: Spoken Word Performance
+ public discussion.
JOKE LANZ (*1965 Basel)
Joke Lanz has worked as a garbageman, factory worker, sales assistant, caretaker, housekeeper, carpet dealer, chicken farmer, record shop owner, night watch, sauna assistant, roadie, secretary, cleaner, nude model, part-time single father, chocolate producer, bike messenger…
Just to name a few! [Read more →]
„Once upon a time, pop‘s metabolism buzzed with dynamic energy, creating the surging-in-to-the-future feel of periods like the psychedelic sixties, the post-punk seventies, the hip-hop eighties and the rave nineties. The 2000s felt different. (…) Instead of being the threshold to the future, the first ten years of the twenty-first century turned out to be the ‚Re‘ Decade (…): revivals, reissues, remakes, re-enactments. Endless retrospection. (…)“
Atari emulators, electro-swing, Polaroid replicas, or Hieronimus Bosch’s triptychs in Virtual Reality: everything nostalgia related sells better than ever, and we’re not just talking about pop and mainstream. Every obscure fraction of a subculture had also its 15 minutes of …revival in the past 18 years.
An obsessive (therefore unhealthy) attention to the past is influencing all aspects of cultural production in these days. This is certainly a “Sign o’ the times”ii.
Times of “Liquid fear””iii, that tangible feeling of anxiety that has only vague contours but is present everywhere. Dangers can strike anytime, everywhere: no matter what’s your job, tomorrow you can be fired, like those guys at Leeman Bros carrying their stuff out in cardboard boxes; you can be shot while you sip your cappuccino, in the name of god or the N.R.A.: or you can be killed by some multi resistant bacteria, and you have the same chance to get infected on a safari looking for the big 5 or in your local hospital having a proctology check up. To quote Bauman’s favorite metaphor:
“We’re walking on a mine field, we are aware that all is full of explosives, but we don’t know where there will be an explosion and when. There are no solid structures to rely on, nothing in which we can invest our hope and expectations.”iv
Or, using the words of Comité Invisible:
“From whatever angle you approach it, the present offers no way out. This is not the least of its virtues. From those who seek hope above all, it tears away every firm ground. Those who claim to have solutions are contradicted almost immediately. Everyone agrees that things can only get worse. “The future has no future” is the wisdom of an age that, for all its appearance of perfect normalcy, has reached the level of consciousness of the first punks.”v
In this context the past can be seen as a cozy and warm nest, a perfect world that we can control as it is shaped by our selective memory, a safe place. And so, as thinks are like that, instead of struggling to build up an uncertain future (to go for an Utopia), a very common choice is to aspire to return to a golden past, to go for a “Retrotopia”vi. The spreading of this approach is another “Sign o’ the times”, but one with very scary implications.[Read more →]
We’re happy to announce the start of a new series of talk and discussion events hosted by Datacide and next:now at Vétomat Berlin.
The first event is hosted by next:now as part of their Strategies to Resample the Future series on Friday December 7. The second will be hosted by Datacide on Monday December 17.
Strategies to Resample the Future #3
“As the future is not prescribed, and the succession of now and tomorrow is not monolithic or determined, our task consists in distinguishing the layers of futurability that lie in the texture of the present reality and in the present consciousness. (…)
The present depression (both psychological and economic) obscures the consciousness that no determinist projection of the future is true. We feel trapped in the tangle of techno-linguistic automatisms: finance, global competition, military escalation. But the body of the general intellect (the social and erotic bodies of a million cognitarians) is richer than the connective Brain. And the present reality is richer than the format imposed on it, as the multifold possibilities inscribed in the present have not been wholly cancelled, even if they may seem presently inert.” Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi – Futurability – The Age of Impotence and the Horizon of Possibility (2017)
In this third episode of our exploration of the intersections between possibilities and potency, we will be in the hands of two skippers that really cannot fit in the ordinary: both musicians, both visual artists and both synesthetes.
