GUIDE TO OTHER FUTURES 4 INTRODUCTION 10 PROGRAMME 26 TIMETABLE 46 CREATING OTHER FUTURES 48 OTHER FUTURES ACADEMY 51 OTHER FUTURES OVERVIEW 52 TICKET INFORMATION 53 FESTIVAL PLAN 54 COLOPHON February 2-4, 2018 in Melkweg and Sugarfactory. Preceding the festival, the Other Futures Academy OTHER will bring together storytellers from different fields to examine an urgent topic through the lens of science fiction. The subject in 2018 is New FUTURES Narratives for Climate Action and it will take place Exploring New Perspectives on February 1 at VondelCS. through Science Fiction We will develop the international online platform for the research and presentation of science fiction together with our partners, participants and the public. In the future this will result in activities all Other Futures is an online and offline platform for over the world in collaboration with local partners. thinkers and builders of other futures. For the first time in the history of science fiction, makers and MACHO HEROES? thinkers from different disciplines and different In these changing and challenging times, parts of the world will explore the potentialities of science fiction – often considered a poor cousin of the genre together with the public. The first edition highbrow literature and arthouse films – enables of the Other Futures festival will focus on non- us to imagine possible futures. But in countries Western science fiction. where continuous change is the status quo Other Futures will kick off with the exhibition (war and conflict zones, countries with unstable Creating Other Futures from January 14 – February governments), thinkers and creators discovered 11 and a three-day festival in Amsterdam from the potential of the genre much earlier. Ten years OTHER 2 FUTURES OTHER 3 FUTURES ago, while travelling through the Middle East and emancipation, diversity, queer futures, postcolonial Africa, I noticed an unexpected amount of science theories and practices. fiction. People were writing, drawing and filming alternative futures as a way of criticising existing CRITIQUE AND HUMOUR power structures and avoiding censorship. Many artists use science fiction to criticize This surprised me. After all, wasn’t science fiction, and ridicule Western society and the historical that Western genre par excellence, primarily about consequences of the colonial and capitalist views macho heroes? White men with high-tech of the West. As Nalo Hopkinson, the Caribbean- weaponry who defended the earth against alien American science fiction writer and editor invasions or conquered planets on the wild of anthologies like So Long Been Dreaming: frontiers of the universe? Postcolonial Science Fiction from 2004, has said: Nothing could be further from the truth. A steady “Writers of postcolonial science fiction flow of inspiring films, books, plays, music and appropriate the meme of colonizing the natives art is being produced by non-Western artists and and, from the experience of the colonizee, critique thinkers. Their science fiction offers a different it, pervert it, fuck with it, with irony, with anger, approach to the future, one that is humane and with humor, and also, with love and respect for the open to contact with others, whether they be genre of science fiction that makes it possible to people, transhumans, aliens or spirits. Often, these think about new ways of doing things.” makers do not see time as linear – a straight line We hope to show that this kind of science to the future – but as cyclical: the past is part of fiction is a lively, exciting and often witty art form the present, and so is the future. The themes are which is not a confirmation but a critique of our urgent: our relation with the planet and the ‘Other’, nearly bankrupt modernistic project, and which OTHER 4 FUTURES OTHER 5 FUTURES offers new panoramas. We will do this with the KINDRED SPIRITS works of art and their makers, and with works by It took a few years to research the terrain, form academics who are often from the fields of cultural the team of cultural freelancers, who for the most anthropology, political science and philosophy. Or part worked without a fee, select the participating with lectures and workshops by writers of science makers and thinkers and find the funding, and we fiction themselves, who have taken on theory for are incredibly proud that we have succeeded in the want of attention from literary, cinema and art realizing the first edition of Other Futures. critics. Our aim is to explore the potentialities of We have only been able to do this because this genre together with makers and thinkers from we found kindred spirits, who believe with us that different disciplines and the public. In this rapidly now is the time to change the world into a place changing world, science fiction offers instruments where everyone is welcome. We all belong to the of empowerment and change. same family and have but one planet. It’s as simple We will show works that deal with typical as that. science fiction tropes like alternate realities, In closing, I would like to thank from the bottom alternative histories and sciences, multiverses, of my heart our team and board who invested apocalypse, time travel and contact with the their knowledge, expertise and passion in creating Other from the perspective that abduction and Other Futures. I thank the participating artists suppression, conquest and annihilation is not and thinkers who travelled from all over the world fiction but was and still is a reality for many to Amsterdam to meet and share with us their people in the world. Certain themes recur in every dreams, projects, thoughts and plans. I thank our discipline: ecology, queer future, emancipation partners who from the beginning joined us in this and (post)colonial issues. exciting adventure with enthusiasm. OTHER 6 FUTURES OTHER 7 FUTURES #STORY- #SLIP- TELLING STREAM These are the times (Native) slipstream views that we must think; these are time as pasts, presents and the times of urgencies that futures that flow together like need stories. currents in a navigable stream. (Donna Haraway) (Grace Dillon) Other FUTURES 8 vidual crowdfunders who put initiator and artistic and director initiator OTHER Brigitte van der Sande, Other Futures Other would have remained a dream. We can remained a dream. We would have public funds and indi Futures fun! Have And last but not least, I thank the eight private and their trust in us. Without support, all your startnow building a wonderful future. #afrofuturism MUSIC NUBYA #afropunk GARCIA MUSIC #afrofuturism #jazz IBIBIO #refreshing SOUND Saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia (UK) is one of the MACHINE #disco glitch #afropunk leading forces of the resurgent Nubya Garcia London jazz scene. Raised in a #future funk musical Caribbean family, her Fronted by London-born Nigerian brand of Afro-tinged jazz has singer Eno Williams, Ibibio Sound made her a key component in a #afrobubblegum Kahiu (Kenya) is part of the Machine (UK) is a clash of African string of new and established FILM youngest generation of African and electronic elements inspired groups. storytellers. As one of the in equal measure by the golden WANURI founders of AFROBUBBLEGUM, With her first solo project, Nubya era of West-African funk and KAHIU she makes and celebrates African 5ive, she wants to explore disco and modern post-punk and art that is free of the continent’s the common ground between electro. #afrobubblegum #dystopia ` problems. progressive jazz and hip-hop. #climate action Folk stories, recounted to Eno in Pumzi is a short film by Wanuri Nubya Garcia & band draw from her mother’s Ibibio tongue, form “People ask if it’s difficult to blend Kahiu set in a future Kenya where hip-hop and backbeat influences the fabric from which the band’s science fiction and Africa. As far water has become a scarce item. as well as the futuristic sounds of unique musical tapestry is woven. as I know, science and Africa have The young scientist Asha goes iconic composers and musicians This evocative Nigerian poetic never been separate.” looking for the leftovers of a green Sun-Ra, Fela Kuti and Pharoah imagery is set against an edgy Storyteller and filmmaker Wanuri world outside the closed city. Sanders. Afro-electro soundscape. OTHER 10 FUTURES OTHER 11 FUTURES #anime FILM MAMORU OSHII #alternate histories #cyberpunk #anime The anime film Ghost in the Shell VISUAL ART by the Japanese director Mamoru Oshii from 1995 is based on LARISSA Ghost in the Shell by Mamoru Oshii the iconic cyberpunk manga by SANSOUR Masamune Shirow from 1989. AND This film is one of the first in #climate action SØREN LIND which traditional animation In 1982, Bollywood composer was combined with computer- Charanjit Singh recorded ancient FILM #speculative fiction generated images and tells about Indian ragas using Roland drum #alternate histories a cyborg who questions her own machines, sequencers, and VAHID In the Future they ate from the identity. synthesizers – all set to a disco VAKILIFAR finest Porcelain is an installation beat. The rediscovery of Singh’s Ghost in the Shell is mostly known #dystopia #urban fantasy about an underground resistance album Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, in the West as the American group that does not plant trees, released by the label Bombay #climate action remake, starring Scarlett but porcelain. Connection, caused a stir in the “If we lose our connection as Johansson. world of dance & electronic music human beings, is there any The artefacts are buried for five years ago. difference between us and other archaeologists, who in future #bollywood creatures?” can use the remains of a totally Singh passed away in 2015 and MUSIC fictitious civilization to prevent now, two years later, Bombay Taboor, titled after a mythological land grabs.