Advisor / tutor: Jorinde Seijdel

Independent reviewer: Willem van Weelden

Arnhem, June 2013

Abstract

The future manifests itself as a hope and as a fatal result for our past and present days. The future is also manifested in cultural forms, including science fiction, but how can we look beyond the present without resorting to established
genres? To what extent is futurology affected by our understanding of the present "then" or "when"? Is the notion of the future a specific cultural phenomenon, inherently Western in its perspective and guidance? And finally, what happens when we don't have clues and handles with which to imagine the future? Is the end of the future the same as it used to be? Where are we now in relation to the future? What would happen if it was possible to stop projecting the future as we have been and start again, with a new future as our goal?
Disputing the organization of knowledge and authority around the concept of the future is the core of this thesis; a project which invites doubt and speculation on this notion, and that provides unspecified results.