Future Justice
part of: Equality / EquityEach contribution offers a glimpse into a possible future and every contributor does so from their own perspective and artistic practice. We are bearing witness to the simultaneous unfolding of a climate crisis, a social crisis and a political crisis. All of these crises are in the now, are rooted in our past and signal specific futures.
Future Justice is a programme commissioned by ArtEZ studium generale it is carried out by the Professorship Aesthetics & Cultures of Technology in cooperation with the Honours Programme.
Forecasting Futures: From Crisis to Justice
Editorial by Nishant Shah for the Future Justice series
The idea of a crisis has been naturalised in our collective imagination of the present and future. Crises, which are supposed to be extraordinary events, have become the de facto framing tools for addressing the state of things. However, this naturalised state of constant crisis engenders very specific kinds of responses: it declares a suspension of normal protections, safeguards and entitlements, which immediately makes the most vulnerable more precarious.
Ying-Ting Shen: Resilient construction in a changing climate
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
Future Justice is a programme that invites young artists, researchers and educators to help unpack the idea of a future that is based on justice. Out of deep concern for the world, which is marked by a climate crisis as well as a social and political crisis, ArtEZ Studium Generale commissioned the publication series Future Justice. The first publication is about resilient construction in a changing climate. We see and hear Ying-Ting Shen who followed a Master Interior Architecture in Zwolle.
Ai Nakatsuka shows how music can carry a revolution
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
In the second video essay for Future Justice, Ai Nakatsuka shows how music can carry the revolution in a country plagued by conflict and poverty. While pursuing her master’s in Music Therapy at ArtEZ, Ai was involved in the Khartoum Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Project in Sudan. These Sudanese musicians have been fighting for freedom, justice, peace, democracy, and civil rights. Listen to Ai telling their story, and listen to the music of the Khartoum Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Project. A truly remarkable story about music, hope, and courage, against the backdrop of violence, conflict, and poverty.
Anushka Nair: Where is
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
Where is ‘we’? is a reflective and prospective audio-visual essay in the Future Justice series that critiques the current state of society and offers a lens, through the metaphor of rice, to imagine a future co-vernment ecology built on collectivity, care and agency.
Laila Saber Rodriguez: A Good Tale Begins With A Walk
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
Laila Saber Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist, and her artistic research practice is based on the exploration of movement. In her video for the Future Justice series Laila takes the viewer on a walk in the compound in Cairo where she grew up in. While walking, she is contemplating the concept of justice, and stitching together ideas of time, space, memory, care and touch. Do you walk along?
Richard L. Kramar: Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
[ ] is the title of the fifth essay in our Future Justice series. Richard L. Kramar invites you to follow him inside. He gently uncovers the contours of a forthcoming body. It is an invitation to seek pleasure. Like a dance. A flirt. A laugh. A fanciful call for light-heartedness against all odds. Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?
Karla Isidorou: Did / do / will we shout out loud enough?
Did / do / will we shout out loud enough?, is the probing question that Karla Isidorou poses in this poetic desktop essay for our Future Justice series. Karla has started researching political speeches and the power of language. Her research resulted in a toolbox of the past, a time machine that crosses the present, past and the future, and a language machine that cuts up, spits out and collides tools and thoughts on justice.
K&A: How to reshape, reimagine, reconstruct true justice?
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
1 soundscape, 2 voices, pondering over the concept of future justice… not an individual decision… rather a collective answer… past, present and future are interconnected… but how to reshape, reimagine, reconstruct true justice...? Watch the video essay of artist duo K&A for the Future Justice series.
Alkis Barbas: Cultivating Empathy for Future Justice
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
Alkis Barbas invites you to sit down and take a deep breath… Cultivating Empathy for Future Justice is a meditation, a constructed meeting in a shared space. It’s a reflection about the role of practicing empathic skill in relationships with the self and others. To stress the importance of the embodied experience which always accompanies – or maybe even precedes – cognitive communication. Empathy as a prerequisite for justice.
Lina Bravo Mora: Paths for the creative construction of Peace cultures
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
For Lina Bravo Mora, art is a practice of care and a means of knowledge construction. Her main interest is to find paths for the creative construction of Peace cultures. In her essay for the Future Justice series, she discusses some aspects of her research with clay – which she perceives of as a non-human educator – and pedagogy. She shows different of her artistic and educational projects. This beautiful juxtaposition builds around Lina’s vision of future justice.
Teresa Borasino: The way we understand the crisis
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
Teresa Borasino is a visual artist and activist, whose practice centers on the struggle for climate justice. In her video essay for the Future Justice series she departs from the premise that ‘the way we understand the crisis is part of the crisis’. She presents a beautiful meditation in which she unwraps a mini story about the Quechua cosmologies.
Zehra Kahvegioclu: "Using one material to create a welcoming space”
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
Zehra Kahvecioğlu, alumna Interior Architecture, has been investigating the need to feel welcome, and – by extension – what makes a physical space inviting. Building on her own experiences and drawing inspiration from nature, she worked on building a true welcoming space – as a prerequisite for future justice. As a material Zehra chose sheets of ultrathin paper, and she noticed how the sheets reacted to her physical presence: “Like a tree with hanging branches and randomly placed leaves, waving and saluting me. Welcoming and inviting me.” Watch the video essay she made for the Future Justice series.
Andrea Chehade: Notes for a Future Justice
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
In her video essay for the Future Justice series, Andrea Chehade questions the very existence of justice, and therefore her proposition is to invent justice. Against the backdrop of the recent massive protests in Chile against corruption and equality, she sketches a poetic route for a future justice. Connecting the future to the past. As an example of subversion and hope.
Isa Zoetbrood: It’s just war
Video essay Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
In this video essay for the Future Justice series, Isa analyses the justness of the contemporary mode of warfare. Both for her, as a citizen of the Netherlands, as for the people getting caught in the crossfire. Through a collection of images originating from all corners of the internet (see the reference booklet here), Isa discovers the different sides of the story – and possible ways to improve.
Malika Soudani's investigation into discrimination
Zine Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
Creative writer Malika Soudani wrote a collection of poems for the Future Justice series, and asked Anivia Beylard for the graphic design. A Future Justice Zine is an artistic response to a personal investigation into discrimination and more specifically racism. A personal sound why things should be different. A call to everyone to explore their position in the world, not just the people who 'deviate' from the norm.
Dialogues: A Musical Approach on US Election Day 2020
Video and podcast Future Justice: an inquiry into the way things are/were/should be
A Musical piece, born out of a desire between its three performers to better understand the current political landscape and the impacts of it: That is what Dialogues, performed by MA students Classical Music and Jazz&Pop in Zwolle, is.
