DAY’S AGENDA
1. Workshop Description
2. Clarification of Seminar Minimum UdK Requirements:
regular attendance (minimum 80% = 12 sessions) and active contribution to the final collaborative sonic performance are expected.
3. Listening Session
4. Reflection on the Idea of Futurity
– Discussion of the text
– Form Groups
– Speculative Writing Exercise: Radical Sonic Futurities
– Feedback
– Short Stories: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of UdK-2040 (Focus: Public Education in Danger)
FUTURITIES
Benjamin, W. (1999). The arcades project. Harvard University Press.
Walter Benjamin and the myths of modernity and capitalism
–The linear paradigm of history
–Fetishism of technology
–The notion of progress
Futurism vs. Futurity
Futurism is an avant-garde art movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. Futurist artists sought to break with traditional artistic styles and conventions, and instead focused on capturing the dynamism of the modern world. Futurist paintings, sculptures, and other works often depict fast-paced, urban scenes full of movement and technology. Futurism was a response to the rapidly changing technological landscape of the time and an expression of the excitement and optimism that characterized the early 20th century.
On the other hand, futurity refers to the quality or state of being in the future. It is a concept that is central to many fields, including philosophy, sociology, and political science, and is often used to describe how people think about and plan for the future. In this context, futurity refers to the idea that the future is an open and uncertain space, and that human actions and decisions can shape what happens in the future
Muñoz, J. E. (2009). Cruising utopia: The then and there of queer futurity (10th anniversary ed.; J. Chambers-Letson, T. Nyong’o, & A. Pellegrini, Foreword). New York University Press.
—Chambers-Letson, Nyong’o & Pellegrini, p. xiii
“Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality for another world.” The popularity and circulation of this sentiment — which pits futurity against the present — is reflective of the general reception of Cruising Utopia since its publication, which draws upon and emphasizes the text’s positive elaborations on queerness, hope, and futurity by positioning them against the (negating) poverty of the present. As Muñoz insists throughout the book, “The present is not enough. It is impoverished and toxic for queers and other people who do not feel the privilege of majoritarian belonging, normative tastes, and ‘rational’ expectations.” But along these very lines, an overemphasis on futurity, a flat rejection of the present, and an over-romanticization of the past risk eliding Muñoz’s nuanced insistence on the political (if not revolutionary) dimension of a queer utopian imaginary as a negative dialectic.
Muñoz warned us against disappearing wholly into futurity, since “one cannot afford to simply turn away from the present.” The present demands our ethical consideration, and the task at hand is not to refuse the present altogether, but rather to maneuver from the present’s vantage point at the crossroads of life that is lived after catastrophe (as may be the case with queer, Black, and Brown life) and simultaneously before it.
—Muñoz, p. 16
The queer utopianism I am espousing would even look back on Heidegger’s notion of futurity in Being and Time and attach itself to aspects of that theory of temporality. In Heidegger’s version of historicity, historical existence in the past allowed for subjects to act with a mind toward “future possibilities.” Thus, futurity becomes history’s dominant principle. In a similar fashion, I think of queerness as a temporal arrangement in which the past is a field of possibility in which subjects can act in the present in the service of a new futurity.
SPECULATIVE WRITING EXERCISE: RADICAL SONIC FUTURITIES
– Discussion in groups what are radical sonic futurities.
– Reflect on how sound, storytelling, and activism might shape alternative futures or challenge fixed narratives.
– Identify one or two key elements that define your group’s vision of a radical sonic futurity.
– Write a short speculative text that expresses this vision. It can take any form: a short story, a poetic fragment, a fictional scene, a description of a soundscape, or even a dialogue from the future.
– Prepare to read your brief text aloud to the group and share how it embodies your understanding of radical sonic futurity.