Future Living

After the Korean War, when my father returned to us and I was eight, my parents moved to Colorado Springs to live in a housing project called Stratton Meadows, a name that signified that the land there was once beautiful.

— Linda Hogan

My project takes inspiration from annie ross’ art series Happy Birthday Super Cheaper as well as from Stephen J. Jackson’s “Rethinking Repair.” It is a small project that brings together some of my own interests including, in very broad terms, architectural design; the feeling-ness of space; Indigenous sovereignty; expressions of anti-capitalism; dioramas; futurisms; relationships of responsibility; and ethics of care.

These interests do not all “sit” easily with one another—some actually present contradictions. But, in bringing them together in the construction of this small future-dwelling and in the staging of future worlds, some questions arise. How does one think about architecture and design in ways that respond to what has already been produced? How does one think about sleek future worlds while being responsible for and to the present? Perhaps a better way to phrase that question would be to ask, how do futurisms respond to, inherit, or ignore systems of knowledge already established? And, how might one begin to account for the many relations engendered through daily decisions?

View project at reubenjentink.com/future

What Kind of Sugar is This?

The demand for sugar produced the plantation, an enterprise motivated by its proprietor’s desire for profit and placed at the service of the international market Europe was organizing. Internally, however—since it was to a considerable extent self-sufficient—the plantation was feudal in many important aspects, and its labor force consisted mainly of slaves. Thus three distinct […]

Compulsions of Pride

Rolando B. Rosler, Figure Drawing “Happy Pride” is a phrase that will, no doubt, be constantly, casually passed around this weekend. Many of us may even participate in its circulation. But, what is it that we wish when we wish another a “happy pride”? Conversely, as the receiver of the well-wish, to what are we […]

Thoughts on annie ross’ Happy Birthday, Super Cheaper

I’m not skilled at crochet; my partner, Mathew, however, is—having chained grinning lemons, animated slices of cake, and a small Totoro. And in our house, there are small beings—not unlike those found by annie ross—who huddle together on bookshelves and window ledges. It will be no surprise to you that I tried my hand at […]