Speculating Futures in an Age of Nostalgia

Smyth, Michael

Abstract

This paper will present an exploration of the relationship between the past and the present and how that interaction influences design thinking when speculating about possible futures. It will argue that the growing influence of nostalgia, supported by the exponential growth of data creation and consumption, together with the democratisation of sophisticated tools, has the potential to introduce the unintended effect of flattening the very creativity that is central to design. The key argument is that design is influenced by visions of futures from the past, either intentionally or unintentionally.
The concept of Hauntology will be introduced as a way of framing how visions of possible futures are continually bound up with the concerns of the present which are, in turn, connected to the past through the “spectres of lost futures”. More recently, critics have discussed Hauntology in the context of describing contemporary culture’s persistent re-cycling of retro aesthetics and the subsequent inability to escape old social forms.
In the time that it takes to attempt to recall the name of a TV programme from our past, it is now possible to view original footage on a myriad of different platforms and services. These tools have the effect of making time plastic and stretchable, where the past has never been more accessible. The paper will argue that slowly and imperceptibly we have become beguiled by the increasing capacity to store, organise, access, and share vast amounts of cultural data and that this could lead to a dampening of creativity.

Citation

Smyth, M. (2023). Speculating Futures in an Age of Nostalgia. In Connectivity and Creativity in times of Conflict: Cumulus Conference Proceedings Antwerp 2023

• Conference Name: Cumulus conference: Connectivity and Creativity in times of Conflict
• Conference Location: University of Antwerp, Belguim
• Start Date: Apr 12, 2023
• End Date: Apr 15, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Feb 28, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Apr 12, 2023
• Publication Date: Apr 12, 2023
• Deposit Date: Apr 20, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 20, 2023
• Series Title: Cumulus Conference Proceedings Series
• Series Number: 9
• Book Title: Connectivity and Creativity in times of Conflict: Cumulus Conference Proceedings Antwerp 2023
• ISBN: 978-94-0149-676XX
• Keywords: Speculation; Future; Hauntology; Nostalgia; Data
• Publisher URL: https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/266051/d55f3ce4-c6f2-4f08-af82-99f1a72650f0.pdf
• Related Public URLs: https://www.cumulusassociation.org/