The Future Imperfect

If the ‘future imperfect’ were to exist in linguistics, it would be a verb tense which fuses the past, present and future. It would bring together the ‘future perfect’, which looks forwards to a situation with a predetermined ending, and the ‘imperfect’, referring to the potentially endless continuation of a past event.

The Future Imperfect presents Cubitt’s archive in this tense. Considering the site of the archive and the archival document, typically, as a static, boxed-away, conception of history, The Future Imperfect looks towards the future of these documents.

You are invited to reactivate documents from within the archive, using ‘state-of-the-art’ digital technology. By translating physical documents to digitised imitations, archiving in an age of rapid technological advancement is put to the test. Employees of the ‘Bureau of Transmogrification’ will guide you in the process of shaping a possible future for Cubitt’s archive, which may result in an outcome less ideal than originally hoped...

The Future Imperfect is a one-day performance event, curated by Sophie Bownes and Lucy Cowling. It is an event with one-on-one performance, each lasting approximately ten minutes, and running continuously between 2.00-6.00pm. It is the second edition of an ongoing collaboration between Cubitt and the MFA Curating programme at Goldsmiths, University of London. This opportunity allows students to conduct curatorial research within Cubitt Gallery and Studio’s rich archive, which narrates its twenty-six-year exhibition and event history.