ARE we headed towards a bright tomorrow or hurtling towards eternal perdition? The festivals and exhibitions so far announced for 2018 cannot make up their minds.
Will the future be kind? This is the question looming over , a festival at the London School of Economics that will consider what is in store for William Beveridge’s 75-year-old vision of the welfare state (19 to 24 February). There is fascinating scientific insight to be had from talks examining the evolution and likely future of work, ageing and altruism.
Those of a more visionary bent should head to Trondheim in Norway between 8 March and 6 May. Here the art and technology festival will consider the “beautiful accident” that is the human species, “seated in economy class, sipping on Piña Coladas, listening to the Beach Boys while blissfully sailing into the ultimate sunset”.
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Opening on 21 April is the exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. This promises 300 beautiful, intriguing and unsettling objects that highlight fashion’s dependence on the natural world.
Happily, there is more to the future than resource depletion, and three weeks later, on 12 May, the V&A launches , which will explore the power of design in shaping the world of tomorrow.
Finally, two future-facing stalwarts return to London in 2018. , a two-day celebration of impending possibilities, returns to Tobacco Dock on 6 and 7 July, while the (4 to 23 September) explores how design affects every aspect of our emotional lives.
Will the future be kind? This may be the year we find out.
This article appeared in print under the headline “It’s shaping up for an eventful year”
