AustLit

'The future isn’t what it used to be, that’s for sure. Eminent futurist Ziauddin Sardar summed up the situation under the banner of postnormal times. Here, in true Dickensian manner, he lays out the crisis for us:

'Welcome to postnormal times. It’s a time when little out there can be trusted or gives us confidence. The espiritu del tiempo, the spirit of our age, is characterised by uncertainty, rapid change, realignment of power, upheaval and chaotic behaviour. We live in an in-between period where old orthodoxies are dying, new ones have yet to be born, and very few things seem to make sense. Ours is a transitional age, a time without the confidence that we can return to any past we have known and with no confidence in any path to a desirable, attainable or sustainable future. It is a time when all choices seem perilous, likely to lead to ruin, if not entirely over the edge of the abyss. In our time it is possible to dream all dreams of visionary futures but almost impossible to believe we have the capability or commitment to make any of them a reality. We live in a state of flux beset by indecision: what is for the best, which is worse? We are disempowered by the risks, cowed into timidity by fear of the choices we might be inclined or persuaded to contemplate (2010 p. 435).'  (Introduction)

'Handwriting, as a means of personal expression, communication and creativity, is a fast diminishing skill and mode of expression. This dialogue between Paul Weston, a forensic expert in handwriting, and Gary Crew, a Professor of Creative Writing and established author, attempts to establish the necessity for the continued use of handwriting in all forms of human communication. ‘MS found: a meditation’ is a fictocritical short story alluding to R.L. Stevenson’s Essays in the Art of Handwriting (1905) and E.A. Poe’s ‘MS Found in a Bottle’ (1833). The story celebrates the longevity of handwriting and the handwritten document. It predicts the loss of elements of written creative expression if recording by hand, rather than computer or other IT mechanisms, becomes obsolete.' (Introduction)

'This provocation raises questions about the future of grief through digital vestiges that offer the animated presence of the biologically dead in the lives of the bereaved. The vast amount of digital data produced and shared with others accumulating on social media, on phones and computers, creates a substantial archive in which the dead continue to be and also not be with the living. The digital data that is left behind after biological death provides new ways in which to create replicas– holograms of the deceased as well as voice bots in which the bereaved might speak to those they miss and hear their voice answering back to questions much like Apple’s Siri. Bereavement is about living with ghosts (often about discovering that the dead ghost our own bodies) and the digital has ushered in new forms of ghostliness in which we find ways of staying connected to the loved and missed. Digital remains of the dead, while often lively with algorithms generating messages from accounts of the deceased, also, arguably, expose the corporeal, emotional and cognitive difference and limit between a living biological human presence and a digital human presence. The latter can never truly substitute for the former. This provocation suggests that holograms and voice bots can be just as much tools for grieving and acknowledging loss, as they might be tools in the service of denying death and prolonging grief.'  (Publication abstract)

'The future of work and jobs has become a critical policy area and a frequently heard rallying cry during election campaigns. Politicians and lay public commonly propose simple solutions to the problems of unemployment, underemployment, labour underutilization, mismatch between available skill-sets and job requirements and so on. Globalisation/outsourcing, globalism and foreign labour are increasingly targeted as the main cause of job shortages. Also targeted are international organizations and ‘lobbies’ as well as (allegedly) incompetent local politicians. There is, however, one significant variable frequently missing in these debates: Automation. This provocation looks at the implications of automation on the futures of work. It offers hints and clues as to the dilemmas ahead, it also takes a deliberately normative approach to questions of ‘jobs’, ‘employment’ and ‘work’ as a good provocation works best with clear and accepted categories.'  (Publication abstract)

'Up to now, simulations of dark matter resemble shapes seen in the vast cosmic web that scientists have drawn to depict the universe. That is, the gaseous knots, filaments, and voids which link galaxies betray the shapes of what dark matter is thought to look like. But this mimicry stutters when the centres of those knots, filaments, and voids are observed, and the precise nature of dark matter—particles which make up 80% of the known universe—remains elusive. The task is to find a way to describe the spaces inbetween, because in the heart of the web pattern hunting breaks down; knowledge peters out.

'One clue to the mapping and describing of dark matter might be in the shape and shaping of stellar halos. These ghostly remnants of interactions between galaxies surround observable galaxies as faint halos of starlight. As with the moon and tides, galaxies push and pull each other, their great gravities shaping the fabric of their neighbours and viceversa: galaxies are cannibals, and the larger ones strip the thinning edges of smaller, star-massed bodies. These surrounding edges—made up of stars and gasses escaping the rims of the galaxies in which they were born—build up stellar halos. Within this cloud must be, somewhere, dark matter: that is the only current explanation for the terrific mass which is measurable and impactful within and without stellar halos, but which remains unseen. Chris’s research attempts to understand the differences latent in the maps we make of the universe, with the aim of producing a phenomenological model that matches observed data with theoretical models. The big question is something like this: Using models of what we can already observe in the universe, can measurements be made to pin down what dark matter is? Perhaps, this questions suggests, by drawing maps, something impossible to describe can be sensed.

'Daniel, as a creative writer, is inspired by a differing interpretation of phenomenology: he is looking for clues to aid both his descriptions of the past, and his understanding of how the past is formed in consciousness. Thus, this dialogue on the shape and form of matter will dwell on how constructions of the past are shaped; it will linger on vastness which cannot yet be described—the 80% of the universe which is dark matter, and the mysterious shapes of the past behind us. The gravitational pull of dark matter moves galaxies, forces them to touch and kiss and burst; the dark shapes of the past push and pull the present, and make patterns yet to be understood.' (Publication abstract)

'Global biodiversity faces unprecedented challenges in the 21st century and beyond. Anthropogenic agitations now threaten to irreversibly destabilise the natural world. Despite precautionary urgings by the scientific community, the polarised moiety of environment adherents and dissidents prevails. The endurance or extirpation of species relies on both adaptability and intervention. This essay considers these pressing concerns by focusing on the role of fungi within wider ecosystems. The Kingdom Fungi is one group of sentient biota which understatedly drives ecosystem dynamics and the subsistence of larger organisms, yet whose members remain largely foreign to us. The essay explores the longstanding physical, cultural and historical inter-relationships between humans and fungi and their enduring role in human survival and development. Research indicates that fungi possess qualities which may well serve to ameliorate our errors of judgment and resulting ecological impacts yet paradoxically, the future of fungi could be imperiled by such human impacts. Two future scenarios are proposed and it is argued that if these diminutive organisms are as susceptible to environmental degradation and restructuring as flora and fauna, what prospects for perpetuity do our habitats face?'  (Publication abstract)

'There is no singular future out there waiting for us. The future is a contested and creative space in which individuals, communities and even civilisations explore the creative possibilities available to them in their traditions, their imaginaries and their choices. This provocation outlines some key drivers in the area of climate change, marginalisation and vulnerability. It does not seek to offer a coherent ‘narrative’ but rather to challenge the reader to think about the current global conditions under the banner of the new term ‘anthropocene’ and consider where resilience is to be found in our complex and uncertain world.'  (Publication abstract)

'a) The researched topic Climate change poses massive and varied challenges to the ways in which people live throughout the Asia-Pacific region. And despite the earnest requests of many of its most vulnerable peoples, emissions of greenhouse gases over the past few decades have made many climate-change impacts unavoidable, whatever action the world now takes to reduce these emissions. Emissions reductions and the clean energy initiatives that underpin them are still desirable since they will affect the world our descendants inherit in fifty or sixty years’ time but within that period – at least – we have no choice but to adapt to the changes we have brought upon ourselves.

'b) Creative response A ficto-critical piece that seeks to represent the scientific ‘reality’ of ‘drowning islands’ / ‘global warming’ in narrative form through the eyes of a narrator and a Torres-Strait islander whose people fled the drowning island of Saibai in the 1940s. This piece includes song lyrics, Biblical verses, post-apocalyptic images of drowning islands, literary motifs, and a narrative scenario which serves as a microcosm of this impending crisis.' (Publication abstract)