Can you think of the future without flinching?

Will and Charlotte is a conversations-based performance about the future. It was shown for the first time at the You Are Here festival in Canberra, March 2014. The performance gives participants a chance to voice their views about the future and to come into contact with other people’s views. In this sense, the conversations that the audience has together constitute the substance of the performance.

The title is derived from the most common names in Australia over the past year – William and Charlotte – and participants will explore multiple possible futures within the expected lifespan of these children.

In this project I am developing a creative practice that opens a space for a scientifically grounded conversation of the future that goes beyond the usual discursive pillars of future ‘continued progress’ or ‘collapse’.

When we think about The Future we don’t think of just one, but many, possibilities. Will our problems get bigger? Smaller? Morph into others? Will our solutions work? What is a solution anyway?

Photos by Adam Thomas from the You Are Here festival