Hope in the Heat

The Hope in the Heat initiative saw Somerset House partner with Superflux and a team of climate experts to engage with a newly formed Youth Collective of ‘Future Producers’ in imagining hopeful futures for the hotter world of tomorrow.

Over the course of seven mentored sessions with Superflux’s  Anab and Jon, six Future Producers developed their own perspectives and visions for other possible worlds; from intergalactic intimacy and space travel envisioned through the black queer gaze, to plant generated poetry and post-colonial herbology. While the project focused on speculative futures into climate change, as the work progressed a range of themes emerged such as sexuality, mortality and communication. It was clear that the anxiety towards climate change reaches far deeper than just the environment, and into the fabric of society and humanity.

The Future Producers are now working on their next project at Somerset House, with artists Seth Pimlott and Rose Nordin. They are responding to Somerset House’s current exhibition No Comply.

A recent ‘Hope in the Heat: In conversation’ event explored the creative responses of the Future Producers, which have been brought together in a digital space curated by Studio Koseda. In conversation with Jon and Anab, the Future Producers discussed the ways in which their work developed and manifested over the course of the eight-week process, and explored the forces facing their futures.

Watch the event recording here.

Image: Experimental images of the future past world by Valeria Toro