Save the Date: Anthrofuture FilmFest June 13-14 2025

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Save the Date: Anthrofuture FilmFest June 13-14 2025 🞶🞶🞶

Spinning magenta ring

Anthrofuture

The Anthropology of the Future: An Art World Perspective

We aim to generate a new and decolonised anthropology of the future through multimodal ethnographic research on Global South physical-digital art worlds.

The project is based at the University of Vienna

Funded by the European Research Council

(Grant agreement No. 101097302)

The Project

The Future as Time Zone

We study the acceleration of the future into the present induced by the pandemic and other crises through research on physical-digital art worlds in the Global South and beyond.

The Art World as Research Site

The art world is driven by the production of symbolic value, financial investment in the future via speculative markets, and a bold imagination of the future.

Vision

We aim to generate a novel concept of the future framed by the interaction between human and non-human, the digital and physical, as well as global south concerns.

Physical-Digital Research Sites

Regional Focus

Our regional focus is on South Asia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as various types of digital spaces.

Digital Art World Infrastructure

We investigate art fairs to understand market digital solutions and their future-oriented dimensions.

Art Schools

We carry out research at art schools to explore how students and teachers in these institutions envision the future.

Digital Media Platforms

We research the use of social media by artists as spaces for performance, aesthetics and future-oriented practices.

Multimodal Methods

Open Science

We are committed to share our research insights with as many diverse audiences as possible.

Innovative Approach

We use an unprecedented combination of several methodologies.

In-person, Digital and Visual Ethnography

We use participant observation to immerse ourselves in both physical and digital art worlds.

Independent Anthropological Critique & Collaboration with Art World professionals

We bring together critical ethnography with participatory and collaborative research approaches.

Social Media Data Harvesting

We explore the digital platforms that artists use to display their work, their performances and aesthetics.

Artist Subprojects

We commission artist subprojects that creatively engage with the future and we showcase the resulting artworks in physical and digital exhibitions.

Project Outputs

Academic and Other Publications

Exhibitions

Ethnographic Film