Keynote: Richard Barbrook - Imaginary Futures
Richard Barbrook will give his keynote lecture Imaginary Futures just before the Futurity Long Conversation on Friday, 5 February. The following text is an abstract of his 2007-book Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village, and equally serves to frame what he will be speaking about at transmediale.10:
Richard Barbrook traces the early days of the Internet, beginning from a pivotal moment at the 1964 World’s Fair, in what critics are saying is the most wellresearched and original account of cybertechnology among contemporary works. He demonstrates how business and ideological leaders put forth a carefully orchestrated vision of an imaginary future, where robots would do the washing up, go to the office and think for us. With America at the forefront of these promises, Barbrook shows how ideological forces joined to develop new information technologies during the Cold War era and how what they created historically has shaped the modern Internet, with intended political consequences. Crucially, he argues that had the past been different, our technological and political present would not be what it is today. Barbrook puts forward conclusions that challenge new generations to take the power of the Internet into their own hands, resist status quo politics and use the world’s most powerful political tool to shape their own, better, destiny. His message: if we don’t want the future to be what it used to be, we must invent our own, improved and truly revolutionary future.