The world is changing at an accelerating rate; in some fields, change is exponential. We face multiple existential threats, of which climate change, rising inequality and AI currently demand our everyday attention. How do these overlapping crises affect, compromise and threaten the continuity of our species, our non-human friends, our planet? How can we use these moments of disruption to open us up to progressive, just and fair change?

Led by The Keeper of Time, Alex Kelly, the Assembly is transported to 2029 to experience a powerful provocation before becoming future-makers themselves.

First Speaker Bhiamie Williamson, a Euahlayi man from north-west New South Wales with family ties to north-west Queensland, will map how we have faced the threats of climate change through Indigenous land justice and embedding caring-for-Country within the national psyche while drawing from Indigenous masculinities to reshape social attitudes more broadly.

This provocation will be responded to, in real time, by interdisciplinary artist and researcher, Erica Seccombe and creative technologist, Keir Winesmith.

After a short interval you will in turn become a Future Maker. In small groups stewarded by our ensemble of Artist-Moderators, you will play your part in the speculation of new worlds, applying your imagination to the creation of other, better, futures.

In the weeks after the Assembly, these futures will be explored in a series of Dispatches from the Future generated by our artist-moderators. Once published online you will receive an alert.

Artist-Moderators include:

• Roboticist Damith Herath
• Musician & Environmentalist Tim Hollo
• Dancer-Performance Maker Alison Plevey
• Multidisciplinary artist Anna Madeleine Raupach
• Barkindji artist and poet Barrina South
• Activist & Researcher Felicity Ruby
• Artist-Curator Nina Sellars
• Writer & Tsunami scientist Kaya Wilson

Accessibility:

The Superfloor at the Marie Reay Teaching Centre is a fully accessible venue, with lift access from the ground floor, accessible bathrooms and a hearing loop. The event will include Auslan interpretation and live captioning. It will be recorded and made available a week following the event with Auslan interpretation and closed captioning.

The Dispatches from the Future will be published online in a variety of formats (including poetry, graphic story, video, audio and essay) together with image descriptions, transcripts of audio content and plain-text versions of written content compatible with Screen Readers.

Presented by Not Yet it’s Difficult.

Assembly for the Future is a project of The Things We Did Next, a collaborative futuring practice curated by Alex Kelly and David Pledger, and produced by Sophia Marinos for Not Yet It’s Difficult.