(Im)possible Futures

The pro­ject (Im)possible Futures takes its star­ting point in the analysis of the con­tem­po­rary soci­al envi­ron­ment, seeking to raise awa­re­ness of the near futu­re by ret­hin­king it thro­ugh new artis­tic prac­ti­ces and spe­cu­la­ti­ve design as a tool for cri­ti­cal thin­king. The resul­ts are mul­ti­me­dia gal­lery envi­ron­ments that syn­t­he­si­ze three dis­tin­ct con­cep­tu­al appro­ac­hes to the the­me. Possible futu­res thus mate­ri­ali­ze befo­re us thro­ugh the con­cep­ts of a modu­lar dome, the ren­tal of per­so­na­lity, and a mul­ti­fun­c­ti­onal suit. These pro­po­sals fun­c­ti­on as symp­toms of a sys­tem in which spa­ce, the body, and iden­tity are redu­ced to flu­id, opti­mi­zed, and mar­ket-exc­han­ge­able units. The modu­lar dome beco­mes a metap­hor for tem­po­rary housing and per­ma­nent pre­ca­ri­ous­ness; the ren­tal of per­so­na­lity points to the ulti­ma­te eco­no­mi­za­ti­on of subjec­ti­vity; whi­le the mul­ti­fun­c­ti­onal suit sug­ges­ts a body adap­ted to the logic of cons­tant effi­ci­en­cy. In the­se sce­na­ri­os, design ceases to be a neutral pro­blem-sol­ving dis­ci­pli­ne, whi­le art adop­ts analyti­cal stra­te­gi­es and logic. Together, they assu­me the role of a cri­ti­cal medi­um that expo­ses the mec­ha­ni­sms of con­trol, nor­ma­li­za­ti­on, and self-regu­la­ti­on wit­hin the tec­h­no­lo­gi­cal­ly medi­ated soci­ety of the futu­re. The exhi­bi­ted wor­ks do not pre­dict the futu­re; rat­her, they deli­be­ra­tely des­ta­bi­li­ze it. They offer neit­her answers nor com­for­ting visi­ons, but leave open a fun­da­men­tal ques­ti­on: to what extent are the­se spe­cu­la­ted futu­res a radi­cal bre­ak from the pre­sent, and to what extent are they merely its logi­cal continuation.

a: Linda Kliman, Karlo Hofman, Sanda Letonja-Marjanović, Leticija Škare, Martina Šeb, Iris Lakota, Ema Kuna, Maria Elena Škare, Ivan Brekalo

The pro­jec­ts pre­sen­ted in the exhi­bi­ti­on are the work of first-year gra­du­ate stu­dents of Design and Audiovisual Communications at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, cre­ated wit­hin the Visual Communications Planning Project cour­se under the men­tor­ship of Denis Sardoz and Alen Floričić.