Abstract
The future is too often constructed as a linear continuation of past and present, a trajectory that clearly leads from now to then, thus partially stripping it of its complex and unexpected nature. Tempting as it is to conceptualize the future as a neatly unfolding pattern, such a commitment to linearity narrows the range of plausible futures imagined and offers a false sense of certainty. Instead, we contend, what is needed are foresight tools that seek not to know futures, which is ontologically fraught, but to excavate the multiple temporalities packaged in narratives, expectations, and actions. There are multiple and wide-range temporalities and knowledges that come to bear in shaping the future and our ideas of it. These temporalities engage memories, imaginations, and promises that manifest in important yet hard to capture ways. Drawing from experimentation at Emerge, a public art, science, and technology festival at Arizona State University, a case is made that opening up nonlinear futures through the materiality and experiential basis of art and design serves to generate the conceptual space to explore multiple timescapes and better engage anticipatory capabilities. As a new mode of foresight, Emerge represents a shift to mediated futures (Selin 2015) that construct concrete and ideational spaces designed to explore potential futures and perform anticipation. Such work demonstrates the crucial and evolving role that foresight methods can play in fostering anticipatory capacities such as reflexivity, perspective-taking, and responsible decision-making.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Adam, B. (1998). Timescapes of modernity. The environment & invisible hazards. London/New York: Routledge.
Adam, B. (2004a). Briefing 1: In pursuit of the future. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/futures/briefing1.pdf.
Adam, B. (2004b). Memory of futures. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/futures/memoryofthefuture.pdf.
Adam, B. (2005). Briefing 8: In pursuit of the future. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/futures/briefing8.pdf.
Adam, B. (2007). Futures traversed. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/futures/wp_ba_futurestraversed130207.pdf.
Adam, B. (2008). Of timescapes, futurescapes and timeprints. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/futures/conf_ba_lueneberg170608.pdf.
Adam, B. (2010). Future matters: Challenge for social theory and social inquiry. Cultura e Comunicazione, 1, 47–55.
Adam, B., & Groves, C. (2007). Future matters action, knowledge, ethics (Supplements to the Study of Time, 3). Leiden ; Boston: Brill.
Akrich, M. (1992). The de-scription of technical objects. In W. E. Bijker & J. Law (Eds.), Shaping technology/building society: Studies in sociotechnical change (pp. 205–224). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Appadurai, A. (2013). The future as cultural fact. London: Verso.
Brown, N., Rappert, B., & Webster, A. (2000). Contested futures: A sociology of prospective techno-science. Aldershot/Burlington: Ashgate.
Davies, S., Selin, C., Rodegher, S., Allende, C., Burnam-Fink, M., DiVittorio, C., … Trinidad, B. (2015). Studying emerge: Findings from an event ethnography. Futures, 70, 75.
Emerge. (2017a). An experiment on a cloud in an air pump. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/an-experiment-on-a-cloud-in-an-airpump/.
Emerge. (2017b). Biodesign challenge. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/biodesign-challenge/.
Emerge. (2017c). Cloud Services. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/cloud-services/.
Emerge. (2017d). Democracy as a service. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/democracy-as-a-service/.
Emerge. (2017e). Documentary biotechnology. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/documentary-biotechnology/.
Emerge. (2017f). Edibleskin. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/edibleskin/.
Emerge. (2017g). Electric breath. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/electric-breath/.
Emerge. (2017h). Emerge: A festival of futures. http://emerge.asu.edu/about/.
Emerge. (2017i). Fly Blimps. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/fly-blimps/.
Emerge. (2017j). Frankenbucha. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/frankenbucha/.
Emerge. (2017k). Frankenstein for families. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/frankenstein-for-families/.
Emerge. (2017l). Neurocomic and beyond. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/neurocomic-and-beyond/.
Emerge. (2017m). Parlor of futures. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/parlor-of-futures/.
Emerge. (2017n). Radio Healer. http://emerge.asu.edu/2017/exhibits/radio-healer/.
Emerge. (2017o). ™ [Tomorrow’s Monster]. http://emerge.asu.edu/2016/exhibits/tomorrows-monster/.
Emerge. (2017p). Paradise lost: Transfix at the Salton Sea. http://emerge.asu.edu/2016/exhibits/paradise-lost-transfix-at-the-salton-sea/.
Ewenstein, B., & Whyte, J. (2007). Visual representations as ‘artefacts of knowing’. Building Research & Information, 35(1), 81–89.
Felt, U. (2013, January 25). Kollaterale Zukünfte: Zu den (An)Ordnungen von Morgen. Paper presented at the conference Zukunftsexpertise. Zur Generierung, Legitimierung, Verwendung und Anerkennung von Zukunftswissen, Bielefeld.
Felt, U. (2015). Innovations, knowledge ecologies and academic timescapes. In Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development (Ed.), Designing the future. Economic, societal and political dimensions of innovation (pp. 118–136). Wien: Echo Medienhaus.
Felt, U. (2016). The temporal choreographies of participation: Thinking innovation and society from a time-sensitive perspective. In J. Chilvers & M. Kearnes (Eds.), Remaking participation: Science, environment and emergent publics (pp. 178–198). London: Routledge.
Felt, U., Wynne, B., Callon, M., Gonçalves, M. E., Jasanoff, S., Jepsen, M., Joly, P.-B., Konopasek, Z., May, S., Neubauer, C., Rip, A., Siune, K., Stirling, A., & Tallacchini, M. (2007). Taking European Knowledge Society seriously. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hancock, T. & Bezold, C. (1994). Possible futures, preferable futures. Healthcare Forum Journal, 37(2), 23–29.
Hannah, D. (2017). Monstrous futures [Curatorial Statement]. Tempe, AZ: Emerge 2017.
Isserman, A. (1984). Projection, forecast, and plan on the future of population forecasting. Journal of the American Planning Association, 50(2), 208–221.
Kennedy, P. (2012, January 13). William Gibson’s future is now. The New York Times.
Kirksey, E., Hannah, D., Lotterman, C., & Moore, L. (2016). The Xenopus pregnancy test: A performative experiment. Environmental Humanities, 8(1), 37.
Konrad, K., Van Lent, H., Groves, C., & Selin, C. (2017). Performing and governing the future in science and technology. In U. Felt, C. A. Miller, & L. Smith-Doerr (Eds.), The handbook of science and technology studies (pp. 465–493). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Law, J. (2011). Collateral realities. In F. Dominguez Rubio & P. Baert (Eds.), The politics of knowledge (pp. 156–178). London: Routledge.
Löw, M. (2008). The constitution of space: The structuration of spaces through the simultaneity of effect and perception. European Journal of Social Theory, 11(1), 25–49.
Löw, M. (2016). The sociology of space. Materiality, social structures, and action. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Luck, R. (2007). Using artefacts to mediate understanding in design conversations. Building Research & Information, 35(1), 28–41.
Marx, L. (1987). Does improved technology mean progress? Technology Review (United States), 90(1), 32.
Mumford, L. (1934). Technics and civilization. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.
Pirtle, Z., Meyer, R., & Hamilton, A. (2010). What does it mean when climate models agree? A case for assessing independence among general circulation models. Environmental Science and Policy, 13(5), 351–361.
Polak, F. (1973). The image of the future (trans: Boulding, E.). Amsterdam/London/New York: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company.
Poli, R. (2017). Social time as a multidimensional category. World Futures Review, 9(1), 19–25.
Ramírez, R., & Selin, C. (2014). Plausibility and probability in scenario planning. Foresight, 16(1), 54–74.
Ramirez, R., Wilkinson, A. (2016). Strategic Reframing: The Oxford Scenario Planning Approach. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Rifkin, J. (1987). Time wars: The primary conflict in human history. New York: Henry Holt.
Rosa, H. (2013). Social acceleration: A new theory of modernity (trans: Trejo-Mathys, J.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Salter, C., Burri, R. V., & Dumi, J. (2017). Art, design, and performance. In U. Felt, C. A. Miller, & L. Smith-Doerr (Eds.), The handbook of science and technology studies (pp. 139–167). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Selin, C. (2006). Time matters: Temporal harmony and dissonance in nanotechnology networks. Time & Society, 15(1), 121–139.
Selin, C. (2007). Professional dreamers: The past in the future of scenario planning. In B. Sharpe & K. van der Heijden (Eds.), Scenarios for success: Turning insights into action (pp. 27–52). Chichester: Wiley.
Selin, C. (2008). The sociology of the future: Tracing stories of technology and time. Sociology Compass, 2(6), 1878–1895.
Selin, C. (2015). Merging art and design in foresight: Making sense of emerge. Futures, 70, 24–35.
Selin, C., & Boradkar, P. (2010). Prototyping nanotechnology: A transdisciplinary approach to responsible innovation. Journal of Nano Education, 2(1–2), 1–12.
Selin, C., & Pereira, A. (2013). Pursuing plausibility. International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, 9(2/3/4), 93–109.
Selin, C., Kimbell, L., Ramirez, R., & Bhatti, Y. (2015). Scenarios and design: Scoping the dialogue space. Futures, 74, 4.
Shelley, M., Guston, D. H., Finn, Ed., Robert, J. S., & Robinson, C. E. (2017). Frankenstein: Annotated for scientists, engineers, and creators of all kinds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Urry, J. (2016). What is the future? Cambridge/Malden: Polity.
van der Heijden, K. (n.d.). Scenarios, strategy, and the strategy process. Presearch: Provoking Strategic Conversation, 1(1), 1–32.
Voros, J. (2003). A generic foresight process framework. Foresight, 5(3), 10–21.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Selkirk, K., Selin, C., Felt, U. (2018). A Festival of Futures: Recognizing and Reckoning Temporal Complexity in Foresight. In: Poli, R. (eds) Handbook of Anticipation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_107-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_107-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31737-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31737-3
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
A Festival of Futures: Recognizing and Reckoning Temporal Complexity in Foresight- Published:
- 13 March 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_107-2
-
Original
A Festival of Futures: Recognizing and Reckoning Temporal Complexity in Foresight- Published:
- 23 January 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_107-1