Sonic Acts Academy 2020

<p>The <em>Magical Thinking: Towards a Future Worth Living</em> conference gathers theorists and artists, whose contributions also feature in this magazine, from Terike Haapoja, T. J. Demos, Nabil Ahmed, Anja Kanngieser, Dehlia Hannah, and Nadim Samman to DESIGN EARTH, Lukáš Likavčan, Daniel Mann, Helen Pritchard, Jara Rocha, Femke Snelting, Laura Benítez Valero and more. Magical thinking is the belief that one’s thoughts, actions, or desires can influence the external world. It is related to superstition and is often found in rituals or wellness philosophies. The idea that optimistic thoughts can magically create a positive world is a fallacy usually monetised by the marketing machinations and branding bombast of the lifestyle industries. At this year’s conference, we propose the concept of ‘magical thinking’ as a provocation. In current dystopian scenarios – from the environment to democracy – of future life on Earth, imagining a future worth living could reduce the crippling anxiety that paralyses action and create a sensitivity or openness to a more inclusive way of thinking. The question that needs answering in the global arena is: what is a future worth living (and for whom) and what tactics can get us there? How do we get from the world of climate emergency and catastrophic populism, fuelled by the machinery of gendered and racial extractive capitalism, to a world of social and ecological justice and multispecies equality? The theorists and artists assembled at the Academy conference and in this magazine explore a range of topics, from ecocide and the geopolitics of climate emergency to interspecies solidarity and more-than-human perspectives…</p>