Publication: Imagining new systems of exchange the forecast

October 2020 - February 2022

In early 2021, I invited a group of nine individuals to join me in thinking about systems of exchange, crisis, and how we might utilize the cracks and rifts that crisis exposes to help usher in new systems. Wanting to essentially create a (human) algorithm as a preparatory strategy for future crises, we came together on two occasions to imagine, speculate and forecast new paths to the future.

Screen-Shot-2021-11-02-at-1.34.16-PM-1434x800-1 — Image from notes provided to forecast participants.

Joining in the conversation were: Lanny DeVuono, Althea Balmes, Tao Fei, oualie frost, Jesse McKee, Rehab Nazzal, Becca Taylor, Nicole Kelly Westman, and Alize Zorlutuna.

Notes for the conversation are archived online, and the images below are a selection of those that were made in response to the prompt to: trace a path to the future: what is its shape?

Some notes to share about particular images:

Althea:

I drew a series of traces to find a path to our future with two caveats in mind: 1) the path gives room for us to make mistakes and encourages us to treat these mistakes with compassion and 2) the path captures the multitudes of way we must redirect, split or grow from our current path when it no longer nurtures us. I landed on this common pattern in nature and depending on the individual may see it as slime mold, or veins, or corals or tree branches or deer horns. They look similar but each one carries a different story or a reason for existing.

Alize:

These lines reference the rivers from my respective homelands – the Aras river and the Kobechenonk river. The Aras river crosses the border between present-day Türkiye and Armenia. The Kobechenonk river runs through Tkaronto. What if the path to the future were like a river.