About the series

The concept for New Memories of Past Futures draws from science-fiction aesthetics and visions of technological utopianism that were created in the late 20th/early 21st centuries to explore the possible realities that may emerge as humanity continues to fuse with technology. The installation aims to explore a hopeful future rather than science-fiction’s predominant narrative of danger, embracing a grounding in history, nature, and culture rather than pure escapism. The installation uses vintage film slide viewers to present a series of scenes of potential future Naarm/Melbourne. The scenes were collaged together using a combination of digital and analogue layers. The resulting digital files were then transferred onto positive transparency film using a film recorder, a stop-gap technology used in the transition from analogue to digital, and mounted into plastic slides. By using remnant technology and combining digital with analogue, the installation considers what we can learn from the past as new technology increasingly continues to change the way we live. Furthermore, by forcing the viewer to physically interact with the slide viewers to view the scenes, the installation hopes to make these visions of the future tangible and thus encourage the viewer to consider how such futures could be made a reality.