Notes on Tomorrow's World...

While the word tomorrowism, for some, might hold a negative connotation, it is not my intention to use it to describe a negative investigation within an art context. Tomorrowism, as a thought-vehicle, relates to modern society functioning and progressing, even surviving, on a strong internalization of future happiness, an idea of a better tomorrow, in place of a condition of a satisfying present . This promise, that Man can actively build a better, foreseeable future is furthermore seen through the knowledge of the hyper-now, that we can have our better future immediately, that we can have it tomorrow, through whatever cost and sacrifice. Contemporary art practice is riding the wave of expectation, of shock. We want the newest of the new, which is often equated with being the best. Tomorrowism, as a vehicle for thought in the arts, is not looking forward with blind expectations for better-ness, instead, Tomorrowism is a manifesto, working through artworks, that is exactly at the mesh-point of modernism and post-modernism, in a position to replace them as artistic directives, at least as they are known through a shared history of art.

Modernism brings together a break with the past, a subjective creativity that collects humanism and personal dreams to reflect progressiveness. Postmodernism truly purports a fluid un-meaning to everything, a questioning of relationships to the concrete, meaning, and even the desire itself to whether you know what you really know. It is the great act of deconstruction of meaning within art practice. At the junction between these two opposing fields of thought and action, Tomorrowism borrows the knowledge of the past, understanding progressivism, the need for progressive ideals, and slices this desire-need with the fluidity and reflexivity of postmodernist thought into a new thought-vehicle. Tomorrowism, a mode of artistic thought that is malleable/changing/learning.

The desire within Tomorrowism to understand the meaning of tomorrow walks hand in hand with a questioning of multiplicity and overabundance. We stand in a time of history where overabundance of objects, choices, lifestyles, kitchen designs and bathtowels saturate the aesthetic oriented portions of the mind of Man. He no longer can see the division between art, design, personal vision or the society of the spectacle. However, we still give credit to Mankind to be only temporary numbed, and desire to welcome/awaken him from his mental prison. Look around you. Look into every corner store, market place, Wal-Mart and see the overabundance of color, form, identity and model. How do we, as a species with only two eyes, focus anymore? We want something better in our lives, for tomorrow’s sake, but we don't know precisely what that is...

This desire for the improvement of tomorrow is often psychologically embedded within today’s fashion, that fashion which I will call consumerism and democracy. Art is not per se a political tool—not in itself a solution to problems—it is best understood as a gesture. To solely focus with all one's attention on the subject of art making, in order to learn to make a better piece of art, is missing the point entirely. This act of art making, of learning and progressing as artists, is reflective of our understanding of society just as much as it is an understanding of proper image making. To be aware and focused, in the act of seeing, is a necessary skill for artists, but also for living. Remove yourself from the luxury of abundance of choice, and focus onto meaning. As understood within the ideals of Tomorrowism, meaning and individual thought are in relation to today’s time and tomorrow’s future, and we understand that as a malleable structure. And because it is malleable, we as artists then have the responsibility of choice of meaning.

Sustainability, engagement, a focus beyond reduction, a desire to improve upon common knowledge by understanding the past or the root of knowledge, a method to understand today’s desire of tomorrow.


srk(at)tomorrowism.org