MINING THE PAST

All times appear equally and at once. The past no longer recedes in an orderly way, but threatens to resurface at any moment in the guise of the contemporary. Nostalgia cycles are getting faster. Old material artefacts return as integral components of current trends. The future is no longer desirable or unforeseen. The contemporary is a mess of memetic references, where relevance is more valued than newness. Simultaneously, the chaos of our epoch masks a vast project of algorithmic derisking to make tomorrow identical to today: who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.

Who owns the past? We interview columnist ROBIN GIVHAN on pluralist history. Artist GERHARD RICHTER reproduces a reproduction of an overpainted photograph. Author PHILIPPA SNOW reviews leather jackets. Balenciaga CCO MARTINA TIEFENTHALER and JACK SELF discuss fashion's cyclical relationship with the past, while philosopher CHRISTOPHER SCHABERG reviews airline travel chaos. Director DARCY THOMAS reviews climate reparations and the history of slavery. SOPHIA ALAMI reviews conscious parties and LEON BATCHELOR reviews the Carboniferous Period, plus much more