New Europeans

A Test Site For Everyday Life

Making Histories Playtime Feb17 2016, Amsterdam

Blackboard Prophesies #1

Welcome to the first Blackboard Prophesies feature on the website. Coverage will occur intermittently, as and when new things are written.

The blackboard at the site was recently wiped clean and in between event announcements we will be offering it up entirely to the public. Naturally they’ll appreciate that we need incisive contributions on the present state and future fate of European society and respond accordingly, so this series will be merely a comment on the brilliant insights of passers by.

I’ve tried to be helpful and made some variations…

And now to business…

We can safely assume that much of the work was done on Saturday, as our artists have helpfully written the date, 13-02-16.

The artists? Tomas, Nicolas, Julia and Lina of course! While other names feature, with a sign and date it’s safe to assume they directed operations, or at least began proceedings on the freshly wiped-clean board.

So what do we know about the future Europe that we didn’t know before?

Right in the middle of the board is a winged penis. What could it possibly mean? Is its flight from the scene supposed to point to a growing crisis of masculinity and the continued feminisation of work across the continent? Or perhaps its ascent into the heavens is meant as a veneration of the phallus and the pre-eminence of man is here to stay? I don’t know and I think I’ll leave it there, before I start misquoting Freud. And besides, the penis isn’t the only thing that has taken flight.

No, love is also in the air, just to the right of the winged penis. Valentine’s Day perhaps? Or maybe it’s a prediction of the emergence of a future society founded not on war and money but on love and mutual networks of care. Call it tender love and care (rather than tender loving care), TLC if you will. Floren and Xexi understand.

And in such a society nature and the pastoral will obviously make a steadfast return (à la William Morris). In the the bottom right corner we see birds and fluffy creatures aplenty and on the bottom left we see a smiling sun, home and hearth and a trees, not to mention kids enjoying the great outdoors… without an adult in sight… an eternal playground! Now we’re talking! If I didn’t know any better I would say these guys have been reading Chtcheglov: “[The future European society] must be sought in the magical locales of fairy tales and surrealist writings: castles, endless walls, little forgotten bars, mammoth caverns, casino mirrors.”

This might explain the princess at the bottom of the blackboard. Otherwise, why on earth is someone wearing a crown in the picture? The people’s prediction was starting to make sense before this. Because in this society you’d imagine there’d be no space for hierarchies. But yes, maybe it’s all part of the Situationist play. Monarchy is dead, but we keep the accoutrements as a playful reminder of a past that was much much worse.

And speaking of roleplay, I leave the most compelling prophecy til last:

Minecraft. Because that’s the real elephant in the room.

Away from keyboard for just a little while, Arjan and Jesper were here with Aron and Jools to prophesise that the future will be without borders, all online, and it will involve a lot of textured cubes.

What could be better than a society based on the structure of Minecraft whose processes are divided into a series of modes: survival mode, hardcore mode, spectator mode and my personal favourite… adventure mode. Of course, in this game there’s no “work mode”, no space for the daily grind, because who would want that?

The Blackboard has spoken. The future is bright and the future is easy-going, if a little all over the place.

Shout outs to Camille and Stephanie, whoever you are, I’m sure you helped.