Memories of the Future

The further into the future you look, the further back in time you seem to get.

Friday 2 May - Saturday 3 May 2014

From our current ‘after the future’ position, where utopias have been crushed under the awareness that ‘the myth of the future is rooted in modern capitalism’ (Bifo), our imagination persistently draws on an extensive repository of symbols, forms and technologies rooted in history, imagination and memory.

Yet, utopian visions of the future loomed large in the modern age, often fuelled by spectacular advancements in technology, applied arts and industries.

Even though sequential temporalities and cyclical views of the past have become forcefully questioned by new technologies, the past is still a reservoir, repository and treasure-trove of cultural and symbolic signification which continues to be revisited and reconstructed imaginatively by individuals and communities.

The Memories of the Future conference addresses questions such as:

• Is memory scrambled, reversed, reconstituted?
• Is the future a thing of the past?
• Is no future the new future?
• How do ancient myths and narratives construct future scenarios?
• How are myths and histories re-worked in contemporary artistic practices of the future present?

Keynote speakers

• Prof. Alberto Abruzzese
• Dr. Malcolm Quinn

Download

Memories of the Future conference - abstracts and speaker bios [PDF, 560 KB]

Organised by University of the Arts London and Institute of Modern Languages Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

The organisers acknowledge the generosity of University College London (UCL) Faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social and Historical Sciences and the Italian Cultural Institute.‌