PAST FUTURE, PRESENT, FUTURE
Storefront, New York
Friday October 5, 2012 – Saturday January 12, 2013

Outside – 2170

In the last 200 years, two metropolises have been built. The first continued the structure of the 19th and 20th centuries. The other one grew on top of the first. Like a parasite, it brought new, peculiar places, the Survival Domes. In the Domes one could unwind the routine of daily life, and recharge in an oxygen-full environment.

The first Domes came about to support a healthier life, good rest, quality leisure. They were built high up, where there was more light, a better view. Upon a popular proposal, the city’s leaders, fronted by major Julian Assange, took initiative over the Domes’ building. The first Domes were built based on Doloris Holmes’ idea, with the aim to to radically improve the quality of life in the city. Gradually these places became the places of everyday life, while the original New York’s population dwindled. The old city became abandoned.

The city has moved in this organised web of Domes. The Domes are mini, self-sustainable villages of 300-500 people. Besides producing oxigen, they produce food for the Dome-dwellers, and they make sure the waste and air is re-used. They use nothing but the energy of the sun, and have zero emissions. The Domes’ complex technological systems bring the utopia of a  perfectly functioning, ecologically sustainable township into existence.

Their only connection with the city is that they are built on the top of existing skyscrapers, on top of the derelicted, unsustainable structures. The ones who remained in New York live in one of the survival bubbles. The Domes are not in contact with one another, although some of them have grown onto each other. Still, they form a strong alliance, just like the ancient greek city-states. They have become today’s official New York.

The Domes’ population’s main task is ensuring their sustenance. It takes up all their energy. There is no time for culture, art, philosophy, thinking. These are synthetically substituted by the system. It’s people have no possibility - and no yearning - for reflexion. The size of the population in the Dome is made consistent. Everything is green, everything is sustainable. The most sustainable one can imagine.

You can’t leave a Dome. There are guards at it’s gates, and if you pay the hefty price, you can leave for a while. The charges vary based on the time spent outside. A small visit to the old city’s megastructure, or a longer one to the natural environment to which the metropolis has changed. The visit is more than a romantic adventure for the Dome-dwellers, and it is strongly advised to stay away from it. That’s what they say at the gates. But the people who leave, and everyone knows this, don’t ever return.

It’s your choice. Do you want to return? You can still leave the Domes, but who knows, for how long. More and more people are leaving them. But what’s outside?


NEW YORK

Inhabitants:
1 972 526

Political System:
Democracy

Local Fact of Relevance:
The Major signs the draconian Oxigen Price Bill


WESTERN CULTURE
Literature
Simulated Folktales

Art
Artificial Paleo

Architecture
ecotech

Film
Ant Wars (background radiation)

Music
Computer generated twittering

Design
controled functional design, made by artificial inteligence

Technology
Cold fusion

Sience
Formula for the infinite

Medicine
Beauty products prolonging the human life by a hundred years

New terms/Neologisms
oxicism

Obsolote Terms
genetics

Random
Successful intelligent contact with the nearest planet

WORLD

Population
50 000 000 000

Global Fact of Relevance
First colonizers of Mars