On Distant Keys is a growing collective artists, designers, writers, scientists and activists working collaboratively to generate speculative futures in the wake of climate change. This project highlights speculative modes of representation such as art, literature and theory to envision a future that is both sustainable and enlightened. Set in the year 3000, the cone of variable prediction is expansive. This not only allows for a broad spectrum of plausible scenarios, but also offers an opportunity to zoom out from our present timeline and consider a millennial perspective– from where we were a thousand years ago, to where we are headed a thousand years from now, this two thousand-year span is still a mere blink in geologic time. With a virtual twist and playful shake, On Distant Keys invites creators and thinkers from many disciplines to plant their ideas, hopes, knowledge, fears, dreams and utopian visions, as seeds for change.
KEY COLLABORATORS
Sandy Litchfield (founder)
Ben Richter (music curator)
Kelly Feeney (co-curator)
CONTRIBUTORS
Bella Donovan
Edie Meidav
Evelyn Howie
Jan Šabach
Julie Brigham-Grette
Katherine O’Callaghan
Madeleine Charney
Malcolm Sen
Marianne Connor
Patrick Bui
Rebecca Brown Adelman
Rob DeConto
Ray Mann
Shemar Stewart
Viviana Bonilla
Valentine Bulbin
SPONSORS:
Architecture Research Collaborative, UMass Amherst
College of Humanities and Fine Arts, UMass Amherst
Design Building Gallery, UMass Amherst
Faculty Research Grant, UMass Amherst
Office of Equity and Inclusion, UMass Amherst
The Puffin Foundation
WEB DuBois Libraries, UMass Amherst
SPECIAL THANKS
ADVANCE Mutual Mentoring, UMass Amherst
The Anthropocene Lab, UMass Amherst
The Renaissance for the Earth, UMass Amherst
The Transdisciplinary Futuring Studies Team
WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
Sonia Atalay, Alice Nash & Yair Zick
Ethan Zuckerman, Jenny French, Alix Gerber
Noy Holland, Curt Newton, Amanda Maciuba
Ash Williams, Malaika Ross, Meredith Degyansky
Jennifer Jacobson, Marianne Conner, Seth Cable
George Ferrandi, Erica Dewitt, Sarah Ahern
Martin Medina Elizalde, Nour Bishouty, Linda Molenaar