Table of Contents

Futuring

A futurecrafting experiment conducted in November 2017. We started from the current conditions and environmental challenges in the region. We asked, “What are the (environmental) critical uncertainties in the American Southwest?” and used the Causal Layered Analysis to probe this question. The result was a backstory of “Shadow Belmont”, a speculative urban centre in Arizona in a parallel present or possible future.

Pero a nosotros no nos dan miedo las ruinas, porque llevamos un mundo nuevo en nuestros corazones. Ese mundo está creciendo en este instante.  Buenaventura Durruti

Layered uncertainties

The three critical uncertainties identified by the participants were heat, water and tech industry. The tables below summarise the causes underlying each of the uncertainties, as well as possible alternatives specific to Shadow Belmont.

Heat

Current Alt
Litany Impact, duration & intensity of heat-waves Seeking shade & shadows; Daily & yearly rhythms attuned to desert cycles (Saguaro time)
Causes Climate change; Lifestyle & cities not adapted to desert conditions Shade-based architecture and transport; Situated learning; Government is the medium; Monastic entities for rethinking time
Worldviews Man has dominion over Earth; Right to property and prosperity Long, durational desert abiding (qualitative time); Redesign of the body attuned to the event (alignment, emergence)
Myths Phoenix; Prometheus; Wild West, Desert is a void (purity of wilderness); Noble Savage Desert Attunement; American Gods; Evolutionary architecture; Long temporality of nothingness followed by abrupt change, return to nothingness
desertscape


Water

Current Alt
Litany Distribution, pricing and quality of water Governance and sharing of a variable water supply as a commons
Causes Weak public infrastructure and political inaction; growing population; economic valuation; water rights and food sovereignty Variable abundance & commons management (stewarding, minding); Feasts & festivals (train social commitment)
Worldviews Individual self-reliance and DIY; libertarian ethos, free market Sociality of a coven/dionisian feast; Social responsibility, commitment and obligation; A spirit/transformational field
Myths Easy Rider, Godless (Guns & God); sufficiency and hubris Carnivàle, Dionisian world, time marked by feasts & silences; blooming, flowing, absorption, ecstasy
traces of water


Tech industry

Current Alt
Litany Impact of the tech industry Impact of Antennae-centric tech industry; Smart-grid & solar; Ambient & responsive; Rise of new attunement instruments
Causes Economic incentives; Risk tolerance; Job creation; “Innovation Valley of the Sun” Collective incentives; Government supports trans-species chanelling, Tech-supported complementary currencies; ecological resource management; Non-representational media and occult/alchemical technologies
Worldviews Faith in technological progress; American pragmatism; Distrust of educated elites; Protestant work ethic; Importance of tangible, visible and measurable contribution to society; Immortality Serial monotasking (commitment to the act); Bringing together heterogeneous systems where medium is the catalyst (biomimicry); Attunement to differentials
Myths (Cowboy) Missionaries, John Ford films, Pioneers, Atomism of the isolated subject; Idleness is the devil's playground; Existential quests and transcendence in the desert City & the city, The Laundry Files, The New Renaissance, dissolving, trance, enthusiasm
The skies above...


Shadow Belmont

… backstory of the shadow belmont world (…)

When we are frightened it can feel like we are trapped under water, under ice. The mythic directive in such a moment is unusual. It says this: go deeper. Attend to the Goddess underneath the unfolding. There’s no restoration without courtship. Don’t smash your knuckles raw on the ice, but dive down further — seemingly the opposite of what everyone on the surface wants you to do. But of course, the diver swims down not just with their terror, but with their stories, their artfulness, their skill. Most importantly, most wonderfully, their love. Ironically, only by diving deeper can the ice melt. Martin Shaw

Saguaro Times

Headlines from “Saguaro Times”, daily newspaper in “Shadow Belmont”

Commons news
Daily attunement
Our living environment
Time Out in Phoenix
Tech Review
True Crime
Saguaro humor

We no longer have roots, we have aerials. We no longer have origins, we have terminals. McKenzie Wark


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Further notes on: resonances | experiments | fieldtrip_2