Induced by the future
A re-publication of a text by Aggie Jurochnik, theatre director and culturala contributor, about futurist social fiction in theatre before her third play goes up in CPT in London.
eDrip. Drip. Drop. Three sleeping bags, an improvised kitchen, a jar of dried crickets. A number of leaks that exceeds the number of bowls to catch them in.
Adrian's life changes forever after an experience of a tragic flash flood. Now a climate refugee, he finds himself in an assigned living space in a city - a room shared with two strangers. There's only one bag of redbush left between them.
Introduction to “Scattered Dreams”, on view at Camden’s People’s Theatre, London daily today until Thursday at 7.15pm – get your ticket.
Dear friends,
Aggie has been a dear friend and contributor, so it is gladly that we share with you her notes from creating Scattered Dreams together with a wonderful team (we’ve met some of them, though not all, and can’t wait until the show tonight!!). Moreover, it’s on topic as By Proxy (their theatre company) works specifically with questions of the future – involving, more often than not, technology-driven inventions. In other words, digitalisation.
Without further ado, here’s Aggie’s notes, and see you tonight at the show! Rumour has it, the music will be made live, too….
a journey into tomorrow: notes from exploring social fiction in theatre
Social fiction plays a rather jarring game with us: on the crossroad of what we know, what might be and what we can imagine out of that. A whole multitude of scenarios for us to digest. Scenarios that scream to be explored and embodied artistically.
When I think about my journey into social fiction I can’t help thinking back to my university days. Specifically to the second year, when we were given an assignment on augmented humans and mixed reality. At the time, I was ready to jump into any next thing thrown at me. What actually happened was the start of a lifelong fascination of near-future speculation. By near-future I mean the next 10-50 years – stuff that realistically is likely to hit within our own lifetimes.
My first research point was a book called Make Way for the Superhuman by Michael Bess. Without diving too much into the text, what it offered to me was a realisation that the most immediate future will change much more dramatically and quickly than we are ready to realise or imagine. Or that we are psychologically prepared for.
The future is not one, tangible path, something we can or should try to foretell in a singular narrative. It’s a spectrum of interlinked possibilities. It carries a variety of options, every decision affecting the others, all of them rippling down to our day-to-day lives.
What even is our day-to-day life? How do we pin it down? Between every one of our lifestyle choices, set against our changing social setups. Places we interact with, dreams, people, feelings, conflicts and desires.
It became an intellectual and a creative challenge. A new mirror to society, and that’s what By Proxy great out of – just to become a research-based devised theatre company.
We create narratives together, as an ensemble - based on our own curiosities and reflections of the world.
Currently our practice is engaging in multiple, overlapping strands such as current socio-political narratives, socio-psychological theory, human enhancements and technology, AI (of course!), climate narratives
There are a lot of books, I suppose. Some films. Forums, mapping out potential timeframes and the meanings of those. We started developing social constellations which are basically early-day activities in which we imagine a group of different people within a similar set-up, experiencing one, sharp change altogether. Once we get the theory we try to anchor it as small and detailed as possible.
Our first public play (covid babies here!) was concerned with AI becoming a storytelling monopoly. We were told we were exaggerating. The narratives around AI at that stage were mainly about AI either being totally useless or taking over humanity. The idea of AI being creative was not something particularly out there.
Exactly 4 months after we performed the play, ChatGPT became a thing.
I think the importance of social fiction is to find the in-betweens, the one between nothing happens and the far-out dystopia. It’s a jarring thought game that puts in focus our direct, embodied relationship to social forces and conundrums lying ahead of us.
In Scattered Dreams, we aimed to identify our own realities: of migration, vulnerability to rationed resources and sudden changes in our social status. We then mixed those along with speculations around near-future climate narratives. The biggest question being, when things go bad – how do we respond? How do we try to adapt despite it all?
Hope to see you tonight!
With love,
Aggie and culturala
Catch Scattered Dreams at Camden’s People’s Theatre, 3-5 October 2023, 7.15pm. Tickets available. The play is…
…directed by Aggie Jurochnik
Written by Luke Ofield
Dramaturgy by Lucy Davidson
Performed by Sam Miles, Jasmine Silk, Beata Neciuk, Jorge Torres
Sound by Matt Farr
Research Advice from Aida Kowalska
Produced by By Proxy
Props & Costume: Charlie Guy
Props & Costume Assistant: Chloe Boston
Supported by St Kathrine's Foundation, The Steamship Project Space and Camden People’s Theatre