In the Future Something Will Have Happened
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE! (everything is going to be alright).
(2022 - 2024, performance) In The Future Something Will Have Happened is a performance for an audience of one. The hour-long performance asks the question, "If you could fast forward time and skip ahead into the future—a month, a year, or a decade—which would you choose?" The probable and the possible are explored in relation to themes of algorithmic control and human capacity to imagine different possibilities beyond the tyranny of the probable.
The performance begins with a casual conversation, discussions of the nature of algorithms, and card “reading.” This is followed by a silent walk through the neighborhood of the hosting venue.
Without relying on digital technology, and using direct observation, the walking guide and audience member document their journey using direct observation. At the conclusion of the walk, the audience member discovers they have arrived at the future they previously selected. An interview is conducted, Blue Skies is sung, and months later (in the future) the audience member receives a summary "report" in the mail.
In The Future Something Will Have Happened has been performed at Roman Susan Gallery Chicago, South House, Faversham UK, and 7a*11d Festival of Performance Art in Toronto.
Created and performed by: Ian Hatcher, Heather Lindahl, Michael Thomas, and Kevin Kaempf.
“Every algorithm is a prediction machine based on the past. It's an artifact of history and data as it was recorded. It takes history, projects it into the future, and traces lines around it. This shape is the shape of The Probable.
On the other hand, The Possible is a set that contains everything. It even contains The Probable, but doesn't label it as such. The Possible includes every event that could conceivably, or even inconceivably, take place. Within The Possible is an unknowable number of radically unprecedented events we don't know how to imagine. “
One month from today - something will have happened.
Here’s what we know so far
Words will have been exchanged.
Mistakes made will have necessitated apologies.
Some will have moved on.
Others will have stayed right here.
Updates will have been installed.
Upgrades will have been offered.
Apology tours will have been postponed.
Things will have continued to be things in the world. Something of those things will have been pencils, wood, grammar, blue birds, fossils, bacteria, sleeping pills, couples counseling, spreadsheets, walking shoes, starfish, blood draws, Pennsylvania, hammers, Heidegger, the Spanish Civil War, samba, Costco, finance, squirrels and ducks and pigs, Irving Berlin, heart disease, and envelopes
Your companion will have said “let’s run the numbers on that.”
Your companion will have said “let’s just play it by ear.”
Mirrors will have been covered.
Slights will have been registered.
Dogs will have had their day.
Goats will have been gotten.
Worms will have turned.
Belgium will have continued, also Brazil, and Cape Town, and Martinsville West Virginia, and Libya, and the Susquehanna River, and Schiphol Airport, and back yards, and night terrors and parking lots.
Populations will have picked up and moved on.
Applicants will have been shuffled from line to line.
Tents will have been erected at borders.
Identification documents will have been rejected.
A woman in an airport bar will have approached you and said “do we know each other?”
You will have answered “do we?”
She will have answered. “Yes. I think so. What was your name again?”
Leaves will have rustled.
