The year 2000 and Y2K images of the future

I gave a series of talks in the high desert examining bleeding-edge ideas and techniques across eras.

For There Goes Another Millennium, I traced the image and aesthetics of "the future" in popular culture against the backdrop of the Year 2000 Problem. Society and our systems were supposed to collapse in anticipation of a computer-induced apocalypse triggered by the way we counted time.

The future felt increasingly pressing and present. I shared fashion from my time working in Italy in the late 1990s. Designers had already begun experimenting with tech-enabled accessories and clothing years before such things became commonplace. We examined present-day doomers and preppers, asking what drives this persistent anticipation of collapse.

I contrasted nostalgic futures with obsolete high technology, making the case that the future exists primarily as a psychological landscape.

Connected projects: This presentation was part of a high desert art talk series I produced examining bleeding-edge ideas across eras. View more at The Present Age, Fantastic Border, Truly Human Technology.

Themes: Future as psychological landscape, tech apocalypticism, fashion as technological harbinger