The Post Futurist Artist does not celebrate speed, mechanised warfare, technology for its own sake or built in obsolescence.
Dynamism is replaced by stoic determination, ‘Alexa’ can go and play “…Hang the DJ, by The Smiths…” and then follow suit; voice activated lifts, lights, garage doors and fridges are invited to short circuit themselves.
Virtue should be the new social currency; a deep virtue grounded in right thought, right word, right action, in a quest to face up to the ugliness of the human soul (or psyche) with dignity and authenticity. The mechanical must evolve into the organic; the forest must be indivisible from the city. Work must evolve into a joyful, meaningful experience. The artist must work towards the manifestation of this vision by exploring the frontiers of cultural possibilities without prejudice or succumbing to fear, in order to bring back what may propel us forward. ‘Forward’ will cease to mean ahead in linear time or space, instead it will mean better, stronger, more authentic.
Artists may no longer find refuge in the ghettos of victimhood and self-pity; what is dark is dark and will be represented without trying to turn right against left, man against woman, generation against generation, nation against nation. The sins of the fathers and mothers will be examined in the cold light of history and then will be forgiven once and for all. The artist will examine what is pathological in humanity without indulging in the luxury of self-aggrandisement, via the blind alleys of blame and shame. Paradoxically, an ‘era’ of atemporality will be ushered in; all time and history will exist simultaneously through networks of exploding-bespoke-nebulous-non-linear-curiosity-driven realities. Neural networks will mirror virtual networks, perception will change, language and thought will evolve into a state where spiritual and intellectual time travel is not only possible, but commonplace. Free access to the internet will be the norm so that even the poorest in society will participate. Fail-safed artificial Intelligence and robotics will cease to be meaningless toys, usurpers and spies, and instead will free workers from the mind numbing drudgery still lingering from centuries of brutal industrialisation and consumerist propaganda. Cyber-currencies will free us from the tyranny of state and banks; ‘to be’ will become the new ‘to have’ and so poverty will become an anachronism.
The artist will encourage the reintegration of the ‘waldgeist’ into man-made spaces; there will be too many foxes, too many trees, too many whales and this will be a step ‘forward’. As in life, so in art / as in art, so in life; complexity for its own sake will become the height of ignorance, complexity rendered into its simplest form before meaning is lost, the height of enlightenment and sophistication. The aim of the art maker will not be to baffle the art consumer, but rather to connect intellectually and spiritually and to offer the fruits of their exploration of the darkest caves and highest mountain tops of the human experience. Art will be open to everyone, art institutions will be free to enter and experience and study in; they will be maintained by the collective effort of society. They will be the new cathedrals but there will be no priests nor gods, or rather, everyone will become their own bespoke divinity through the conduit of an anti-hierarchical and atemporal concept of the human experience as a boundless historia* in many voices.