Future Movement (Future Studies Program)

Main ideas & lessons conveyed

• We are entering a future defined by radical change in experience, where traditional boundaries no longer hold. This demands a new philosophy and new methodology for thinking about movement.
• Old analysis is insufficient: we can’t just study past/elapsed events. We need techniques for projecting thought forward into the unknown—treating speculation as a disciplined practice (likened to archers, gamblers, and martial artists who anticipate patterns and time their actions accordingly).
• The presentation frames “futuristic movement” through intersections with three themes:
  • Time
  • Space
  • Identity

Methodology / approach described (as an instructional framework)

• Project thought forward

  • Stop relying on retrospective analysis.
  • Develop “precise techniques” for forecasting and imagining future possibilities.
  • Use speculation and intuition as trained skills.

• Anticipate unfolding patterns

  • Like an archer, shoot ahead of a moving target (act with foresight).
  • Observe rhythms, signs, and patterns as they develop.
  • Strike according to dynamic conditions rather than fixed expectations.

• Interpret futuristic phenomena via conceptual “molecular” categories

  • Break down time/space concepts into smaller descriptive components (more granular than broad historical narratives).
  • Use these categories to compare past paradigms and future paradigms of movement.

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Part 1: Futuristic movement and Time

Core claims

• A futuristic orientation does not erase the past; instead, the future can be understood as a whirlwind that “summons back” all conceivable times.
• Modern films frequently reuse older eras (ancient/medieval) inside futuristic imaginations—raising the recurring suspicion: what old ideas are being resurrected and repurposed?
• To study this, the talk proposes tracking time through granular states that shape movement.

Time-related “molecular” concepts listed

• speed, slowness, stillness
• spontaneity, waiting
• cyclicality, disappearance, return
• hunting, origin, eventuality
• doom, duration, dread
• memory, forgetting, erasure
• nocturnality

Examples illustrating time + movement parallels

• Tianjin cutting-edge library (2017, China)

  • Over 1.2 million books arranged like continual movement—not solid blocks but “liquid/airy” wave-like arcs.
  • Visually compared to a whirlpool/tornado, and linked to a 13th-century Alhambra (Alhambra Palace, Granada) ceiling.
  • Shared principle: simulate infinity/labyrinthine cosmos and an “illuminated movement” halo effect (artificial light vs natural light).

• Hangzhou futuristic bookstore (recently opened, China)

  • Visitors move through optical illusion spaces: circular rooms and spiral shelves (feels like a ferris wheel/merry-go-round).
  • Hidden inspiration: a medieval Persian “hall of mirrors” tradition using light/reflection to make visitors feel levitating or drifting.

Futurism as rehearsal of history (art example)

• “Metachaos” by Alessandro Bavari (Italian artist)
  • Futuristic motion is described as a distorted echo of older choreography.
  • Those older techniques are associated with ancient tribal warriors, mystics, and martial artists.

Ancient archetypes of movement

The talk claims early civilizations organized movement into four major types, yielding four mythic figures:

• Nomadism
  • survival heroism tied to journey discovery tied to adventure exploration and conquest
• Heroic journey
  • implied by “heroism tied to the journey”
• Discovery / adventure / exploration
  • implied by “discovery tied to adventure”
• Afterlife
  • movement of the eternal

Resulting archetypal characters:

• wanderer
• hero
• explorer
• dead

Each archetype is tied to specific destinations/destinies and illustrates how movement structures identity and meaning across time.

Additional ancient examples of time + movement

• Petra (Jordan): oasis monument where traders and desert Bedouins gathered.
• Medieval banners: figures leaving home to seek glory and face dragons/demons.
• Ancient Mediterranean maps: invent uncharted lands and place magical sea creatures as obstacles.
• Space/sea psychological parallel: modern outer-space films mirror the terror of early sailors imagining an edge of earth and monsters below.
• Temple of Dendera (Egypt): astrological imagery of dead pharaohs crossing star rivers in sky boats guided by beings described as animal/alien-like.

Guiding questions posed

• Do we need new theories of passenger, vehicle, and drift?
• Does moving at light speed change meanings of wander, struggle, explore, and die?
• Can extreme velocities blur distinctions like emergence/vanishing and arrival/departure?
• Are we moving through fragmented time like an hourglass shattered into capsules?

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Part 2: Futuristic movement and Space

Core claims

• Technological progress allows movement at scales from molecular to cosmological, so the talk proposes refined conceptual binding of movement and space.
• Futuristic space is described as paradoxical, where imagination merges opposites.

Space-related “molecular” concepts listed

• confinement, openness
• abandonment
• entrance, exit
• escape, invasion, flight
• immensity, ruin
• distance, closeness
• atmosphere
• interiority, exteriority
• navigation, desolation
• softness/flatness, jaggedness
• depth and surface

Three key spatial paradoxes (and how they’re illustrated)

1. Infinitesimal ↔ Universal

   • Example: Tomas Sarceno exhibition of spider webs preserved in glass.
   • Claim: spiderweb networks mirror both:
     • star/planet constellations, and
     • neural receptor/signal systems in the brain.
   • Implication: web-thread logic inspires algorithms and designs that generate new futuristic space topographies from mobile strands/strings.

2. Fluidity ↔ Fragmentation

   • Example: Shibuya Crossing (Tokyo)
     • People move in synchronicity yet remain socially alienated (together but not connected).
   • Parallel social example: mass migrations / refugee camps
     • Example: photographer Richard Moss using heat-sensing “heat maps” to visualize refugee movement patterns.
   • Claim: the same tension of togetherness-with-separation appears in city life and refugee displacement.

3. Structure ↔ Boundlessness

   • Example: The Analemma Tower (planned Dubai project)
     • Designed to be suspended “from space” attached to an orbiting asteroid-like structure.
     • Anticipated effects:
       • perpetual slow spinning,
       • parachute descent to earth for residents.
   • Claim: the tower embodies structure while producing boundless spatial experience.

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Part 3: Futuristic movement and Identity

Core claims

• Futuristic movement is said to reshape identity boundaries: human/animal/vegetal/elemental/virus/object/machine traits become intertwined.
• The talk argues fear and “monstrosity” often track how entities move:
  • unpredictability, non-linear paths
  • swarming/multiplicity
  • disappearance into hidden spaces (untraceable movement)
• Definitions of monster and danger are therefore linked to movement patterns.

Examples illustrating identity transformed through movement

• Fernand Deligny (French psychologist, 1930s–1960s)

  • Worked with severely autistic children; parents wanted speech.
  • Deligny observed patients becoming frustrated and then later expressing themselves through movement rather than language.
  • He produced a book of drawings/diagrams to trace their steps and motions, aiming to understand and treat them better.
  • Central theme: studying their movement reveals their humanity and inner world.

• Theo Jessen (Dutch artist)

  • Creates kinetic sculptures called “strand beasts” on Scandinavian beaches.
  • Sculptures modeled after animal/insect movement patterns.
  • They react to environment:
    • some sense transition from sand to ocean water and return,
    • others anchor or behave differently when storms approach.

• Non-solas (Hungarian dance duet)

  • A new form of movement combining two identities who usually don’t collaborate:
    • a classically trained dancer and
    • a circus acrobat.
  • Result: a ballet performed vertically in mid-air.

• Deer Moon project (Usaku Maezawa / Japanese billionaire)

  • Plans to send a SpaceX Starship to circle the moon.
  • The mission will include artists across fields (painter, sculptor, composer, novelist, architect, filmmaker, photographer, chef, fashion designer).
  • Expected outcome: artists will return changed—identity will be transformed by unforeseeable experiences of travel beyond familiar frontiers.

Closing lesson

• Moving differently through worlds inevitably transforms what it means to exist.
• The talk ends by portraying being itself as “haunted” by a persistent question: how movement through worlds reshapes identity and reality.

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Speakers / sources featured (as named in the subtitles)

• Music (no performer named; used as background)
• Tomas Sarceno (Argentinian contemporary artist)
• Richard Moss (photographer)
• Clouds Architecture Office (mentioned as designing Analemma Tower)
• Alessandro Bavari (Italian artist; “metachaos”)
• Fernand Deligny (French psychologist)
• Theo Jessen (Dutch artist)
• Usaku Maezawa (Japanese billionaire; Deer Moon project)
• Non-solas (Hungarian dance duet; group name)
• SpaceX (Starship reference; company name used, no individual)

Historical / cultural references (sources/examples)

• Alhambra Palace of Granada (Alhambra; architectural inspiration)
• Hall of mirrors (medieval Persian design; inspiration)
• Petra (Jordan)
• Ancient Mediterranean maps
• Egyptian Temple of Dendera
• Shibuya district / Shibuya Crossing (Tokyo)
• Analemma Tower (planned Dubai project)
• SpaceX Starship mission (Deer Moon)