Remember the Future!
The environmentalists of this time are like the Augurs of Ancient Greece, interpreting the signs in the clouds, the ocean, and the sun to tell us what we will face in the seasons to come. We know exactly where the flood waters of melting ice caps will reach on the island of Manhattan and what might happen to our subways during a hurricane in the Northeast. This is an era of forecasts and mathematical models. We are studying the future to protect the present. Yet, something is missing in these imaginings: Quality. What will it actually look like, what will we eat, and what art will we seek out? These are questions that our three visions of the future attempt to address in this edition of the Moon. While the models and forecasts may be important to guard our present infrastructure from future disasters, the literature of the future does more than that. It seizes the future - "Carpe futurum!" - as the title of one of our essays proclaims. It is a necessarily radical gesture - a sympathy that ignores what era you are from, a commitment to change, and a willingness to imagine things differently. As always, we will publish your re-imaginings of the world. Send them to newyorkmoon@gmail.com.
The Museum of the Centuries presents:
A Historical Walking Tour of Astor Placein the 21st Century
By Nick Calvero and Max Populous Argentine Ganoesh: Mary Jane Hillpot Music: "Ode to Afterwards," by Peter Kosiewicz
Please download the walking tour, load it onto a portable audio device and make your way to the entrance of the Museum of the Centuries, located inside the old Cooper Union building. The tour begins at the front entrance on the north side of the building.
This tour examines the historic Astor Plaza and some of the changes it has gone through in the last hundred years: the flood of '52, spiraling crime, and changes in the way life is lived in what was once known as the greatest city of the world. As this hub of Nau Glandia undergoes a period of revitalization, the museum is exploring the roots of our modern era. Please also enjoy this compilation of images recovered from a magnetic, digital storage reel recorded at the site a century ago. Though the reel's data was badly damaged, conservators have made every effort to restore the images to their original vibrancy.
This exhibit commemerates the 10-year anniversary of the Museum of the Centuries, founded in 2097 by Jaim Rosen with a donation from Fengton Industries. Thank you for listening.
Dining in the 22nd Century: Menu Samples
By Katie Kohn and Lindsey Nelson
Begin Culinary Tour >>
Essay
Carpe Futurum
By Katie Kohn
Our politics invests so much of its energy "celebrating" heritages, remembering trauma (domestic abuse, the Holocaust) and rediscovering the past (micro-histories, alternative historiographies), that it is actually fueling our political and scholarly future-amnesia by supporting a carpe diem culture riddled with its pockets of nostalgia and historical lip-service. More >>
Review
"An Overview of Cultural Expression: The Arts"
By David Daw
Most of you have probably never heard of the work I'm reviewing today. An Overview of Cultural Expression: The Arts is the formal title of a work supposed time traveler Michael Brune claims to have brought back with him from the 22nd century. Brune, like John Titor and Andrew Carlssin, provided several extraordinary claims about our future before disappearing altogether but unlike Titor or Carlssin, Brune did not claim to be the author of his texts. Instead he provides The Overview as an important academic work that was "widely read in the future." More >>
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