Distant Memories of the Near Future
If the past is another country then the future is an undiscovered country, something imagined rather than remembered where the hope is that things will be better but the fear is that everything will be worse, but the truth is that it while some of it may be very different much of it will be the same, the ambitions and disappointments of existing tomorrow magnified by the technologies which promised to bring the world together but only emphasise division.
Told under shifting lights which sparkle, twinkle and dazzle against an ethereal soundscape which confirms that this is indeed that promised world of tomorrow, or at least a possible vision of it, Distant Memories of the Near Future is a science fiction monologue with multimedia interludes which remind of the important work of the Department of Productivity and a variety of desirable applications, services and products, among them Q-Pid and Baebotics.
The latter bringing the promise of artificial intimacy – who would want intelligence when you can have that? – and the former an algorithm which can solve the question of love, what happens to the lonely in search of companionship when the answer returned is zero because there is no perfect match in the whole of the world and beyond, not that offworld labourers have much time for love, scavenging for diamonds on distant asteroids while forced to subsist on a blend of fungi and insects.
Told across five stories linked by a themes and shared technologies, Distant Memories of the Near Future is directed by Laura Killeen but it is writer and performer David Head who is the star in this strange yet familiar universe, eloquently rendering emotional complexities and contradictions into prose and gently recounting each encounter between humanity and software with resignation, somehow remaining optimistic in the face of cumulative frustrations and tragedy, bringing warmth to the infinite cold of space.
Distant Memories of the Near Future runs at Summerhall until Sunday 27th August
