Dear colleagues,
we are very excited to announce the publication of On_Culture's 15th issue entitled “Present Futures.” Issue 15 delves into diverse conceptualizations of futures' impact on the present, and explores how cultural artifacts and practices shape understandings of the future within distinct cultural contexts in the past and in the present.
The issue’s Articles take a look into future-making practices in exhibition projects with a focus on the current musealization of migration in Germany (Asche), explore alternative imaginations of the future through an analysis of Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me and Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (Eich) and investigate the relationship between the present and the future in Louise Erdich’s novel Future Home of the Living God through the concept of epistolarity (Franzetti). Two other Articles shift the focus to the predictable present's future in ninth- and tenth-century southern Italy (Peters), and approach the concept of 'future' by using the concept of Utopia and a reading of Ivan Semesiuk’s satiric novel Farshrutka to critique the present (Bekhta).
The Essays contributions take us on a journey through different time lapses tracing how the concept of time developed from a natural rhythm that structured ordinary life to an epistemological category of thought (Gwozdz), reflect on the future of American society’s ethnic make-up by addressing the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence in 2026 (Yang), and explore what it might mean to live in a 'post-debt' condition in US academia (James).
One Perspective completes the issue by employing complex temporal constellations and alternative epistemologies for an understanding of contemporary material culture (Thamm).
Read the entire issue here: https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/
With best wishes, The Editorial Team
EditorialThe Editorial Team, “Present Futures.” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/editorial-presentfutures/
ArticlesFarina Asche, “Critical Traces of the Future in Exhibition Projects About Migration: The Case of the Project Meinwanderungsland.” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/meinwanderungsland/
Natalya Bekhta, “Thomas the Baboon and Utopia: Constructing a Realistic Future.” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/realistic-future/
Sandro Eich, “‘There Is No Alternative!’—The Case for a Co(n)temporary English Fiction: Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me and Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein.” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/there-is-no-alternative/
Sindija Franzetti, “‘This Notebook, Your Letter’: The Future Reader and the Pivotal Present in Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God.” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/this-notebook-your-letter/
Bart Peters, “Lombard Independent-Mindedness in the Face of Uncertainty: Coping with the Unpredictable Present Future in Lombard Southern Italian Narratives (9th–10th Centuries).” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/lombard-independent-mindedness/
EssaysPatricia Gwozdz, “Presences We Live By: Rethinking the Eternal Return and Time Lapses between Now and Then from Vico to Arendt.” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/presences-we-live-by/
Mark S. James, “Post-Debt: A Student Loan Retrospective.” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/post-debt/
Mimi Yang, “What Does the 250th Anniversary of the Independence Mean to a 'Browner' America?” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/issue-15/what-does-the-250th-anniversary-of-the-independence-mean-to-a-browner-america/
PerspectivesKiersten Thamm, “Misunderstanding Familiar Objects in an Imagined Future: A Critical Method for Discovery.” https://www.on-culture.org/journal/perspectives/misunderstanding-familiar-objects/