Inter­generational conversation

Use

To explore the worlds created, to experience one's emotional imprint in time, to visit the future in good company.

Protocol

1

Wear a magician's robe.

2

Invite a spectator to chat with you, it will only take 10 or 20 minutes

3

You can start with this introduction:

• Introduce yourself briefly and ask the person to introduce themselves.
• Then say something like this:
  *Your time line is wider than you think. We're going to play a little game that allows you to travel in time, it's a kind of waking dream, it's very simple, you're going to let yourself be guided by my questions and travel in your imagination.
  Before starting, I suggest that you close your eyes and take this object in your left or right hand. Close your fist on the object. We look at what it is at the end of the discussion. I suggest that you keep it secret and warm in the palm of your hand during the whole journey. Are you ready?
  Can you visualise the oldest person you love? Who is this person, do you want to tell me? What is their name and age? What is your relationship with this person, why do you love them?
  Now visualise the youngest person you love. Who is this person? Will you tell me? What is their name? And how old is this person?
  Now imagine that xxx (youngest person) reaches the age of XXX (oldest person?) What year will it be? Here you are, in … Do you see xxx (youngest person at the age of XXXX oldest person?) at…? In …?
  As we travel through time, I invite you to imagine a door in a tree trunk. This is the door that we will mentally open to move into the future.

Now I suggest you open your eyes and we go for a little walk. Imagine (youngest person/older person in 2080 etc.) walking with a child of the age he or she is today… who is this person for him or her? And can we imagine the first name of this person?*

4

Then start to co-construct the future with your interviewer with these simple questions:

So x and y share a pleasant activity, like going for a walk.

• You walk for a few minutes, at first in silence, and then you can start asking: How are they both dressed? Can you describe what the landscape around them looks like?
• You can stop if you are more comfortable seeing into the future and close your eyes. You don't have to tell me everything, you can answer in your head too
• and you improvise questions. How are the houses? The quality of the air? What are they talking about? Do you see objects that belong to them? Do these objects already exist today? Does an object of yours still exist in this period? Who kept it and why? Then improvise a manoeuvre for the return to the present: a return via the starting hatch perhaps, which could be a tunnel or a hiding place in a tree trunk.

5

When the person has finished, you can ask them to open their hand and say:
This stone has travelled with you, it has also gone into the future.
You can keep it as a souvenir of this conversation and use it when you want to go back to this dimension and talk to xxxx … youngest person invented… and imagine their future.

6

The person takes off their glasses, you thank yourself and say goodbye.

Some tips for pleasant time travel:

Invite the person you are guiding to be gentle with themselves and build a pleasant moment for them. Suggest a beacon: as in mental time travel, you can suggest that the person put on a protective suit before starting the time travel or the journey. The time travel or take an imaginary talisman of their choice. Make sure that the person has returned to the here and now.

Testimonies

Experiencing this conversation on a beautiful sunny autumn day in Riga, on a large lawn in the middle of the old market, we found ourselves completely catapulted into the future with its little walks. The game requires very careful listening. It is quite intimate and intimidating in fact, the imagination shared with a stranger can be very moving. Combining empathy and imagination is quite an unsettling experience. Walking together makes the moment lighter and more playful, but also probably adds to the intensity. We are in Riga. We have travelled. We do not know each other. The person we are guiding surrenders to us and relies on us. Surely in the future of cooperation we build together by showing each other our scars.

Anna.Cz

Credits

Anna Cz. and Anna R. wrote this score between Brussels, Jurmala and Rome in 2021. The futurology group experimented with this during a public meeting at the Homo Novus Festival, at the invitation of Bek Berger, and made some modifications. Finally, Marie Lisel, Master Practitioner in Ericksonian hypnosis, explorer and creator, gave advice on how to make the experience safer.

We were inspired by the activities developed by Agence Future in Antwerp. AF develops and runs projects to find, collect, study and create images of the future. Their interdisciplinary projects combine creative, experimental, artistic and participatory approaches with future studies.