Altermodernism: The Age of Stupid.

Article by Ellie Harrison on furtherfield.org

Ellie Harrison highlights concerns for the future of humanity and the future of art, focusing on 2 central texts: Bourriaud's Altermodern Manifesto and a faux encyclopedia entry from the future which retrospectively defines 'the Age of Stupid' released as promotional material for Franny Armstrong's film.

"Set in the year 2055, The Age of Stupid focuses on a man living alone in a world which has all but been destroyed by climate change. In an attempt to understand exactly how such a tragedy could have befallen his species and the society and culture which they created over the course of several millennia, he begins to review a series of 'archive' documentary clips from 2008. His aim is to discover how his ancestors - the one generation of people who had the power to prevent the impending disaster - could have demonstrated such disregard or contempt for the future."

"What is most terrifying about Bourriaud's Manifesto therefore, is its absolute lack of acknowledgement of the real and dangerous future that we face. Rather than speaking out and demanding the dramatic changes that are necessary, it seems to support a continuation of the status quo of the last twenty years. In his video interview on the Tate website, Bourriaud describes the purpose of the altermodern as the "cultural answer to alterglobalisation" (Bourriaud 2009a). However, rather than questioning the carbon-heavy lifestyles that a globalised world promotes he seems to complicitly buy into them, insisting that "our daily lives consist of journeys in a chaotic and teeming universe".


Other Info:

We are on Twitter
http://twitter.com/furtherfield

Other reviews/articles/interviews
http://www.furtherfield.org/reviews.php

The Netbehaviour list
http://www.netbehaviour.org/