Agnes Denes
Our global warming will necessitate technological advances in many fields such as climate engineering to block sunlight, accelerate carbon absorption in the oceans, remove CO2 from the air, etc. A million things we need to fix and check. Humanity needs to learn to avoid correcting mistakes in hindsight. Whether it’s human nature or bureaucracy, we must move faster to recognize wrong doing so we will not always correct in hindsight. Be wise in selecting leaders, and help those that have been brainwashed.
The future will be as the past with its ups and downs, only accelerated. Tired old words will attain new capacity for meaning. Creativity is the answer. Be creative. Understand the earth and have compassion for humanity. Put your creativity wherever it is needed, until robotics will change it all. Good luck.
Best wishes
Agnes Denes
Please answer the following questionnaire and submit your responses to agnesdenesquestionnaire@gmail.com
THIS IS THE WORK OF ARTIST AGNES DENES AND TOGETHER WITH YOUR RESPONSES, IT CONSTITUTES A WORK OF ART. IT IS A GLANCE AT HUMANITY’S MINDSET IN THE YEAR 2020 DURING A PANDEMIC.
BY FILLING OUT THIS QUESTIONNAIRE YOU ARE COMMUNICATING WITH THE FUTURE.
YOUR RESPONSES WILL BE PLACED IN A TIME CAPSULE TO BE OPENED 1000 YEARS FROM NOW, IN THE YEAR 3020.
RESPONSES CAN BE ANY LENGTH, SIGNED OR NOT. PLEASE STATE YOUR PROFESSION/EXPERTISE. PREFERENCE TO EMAIL RESPONSES RATHER THAN HANDWRITTEN.
The Future
How do you feel about communicating with the future?
Are you curious about what people will be like?
How do you see the world 1000 years from now?
What do you think these entities will think about us looking back from the future?
What would they want us to have done for a different outcome?
What do you think we should change now that might affect the future?
We now know what causes global warming, and know more or less how to stop it. What do you think we can do individually or by government action to remedy the situation?
What would you suggest to correct slow action and the tendency to correct in hindsight?
What do you think are the major problems of today?
Have you any idea what will hurt us most?
*
THE PANDEMIC
How did the pandemic change your life?
Has the pandemic changed the world?
Do you notice a change in your personal behavior and in those of others?
Have you become more serious or more care free?
Are you happier or sadder, explain how has it has changed you?
What are your greatest fears, personal and societal?
Are you hopeful for the future?
There have been many pandemics before, how is this different?
When all this is behind us, will we have learned how to prevent it from recurring?
***
General/environmental
What are the major problems humanity is facing in 2020?
We always seem to be correcting in hindsight, what do you think we could do to mitigate wrong-doing to avoid mistakes or disasters?
As the world evolves, how do you foresee the role and nature of leadership in change for humanity?
As we struggle with global warming and mismanaged societies, is there a bigger picture we might be missing?
What do you think will be most essential to human survival?
(Cleaning the oceans, supplying clean drinking water for billions, eliminating hunger and extreme poverty, reducing Co2 levels, switching to natural energy, etc.?)
What do you consider the worst human limitations?
Do you think humanity is capable of reducing the causes of climate change in time?
Do you believe art can influence our thinking, to re-think our priorities and values?
What is it you think we could do better individually and by government action?
Which do you think will prove ultimately more important for humanity—science or compassion?
(common purpose, altruism, solidarity, empathy, technological advances, etc.)
Do you think we are slaves to our customs?
What do you consider humanity's most important achievement?
What would you say the human purpose was?
What would you rather be or do, if you had a choice?
Do you think humanity should be more practical or more imaginative? (Daring, ethical, magnanimous, creative, humanistic, more decisive, more intelligent, better at problem solving, etc.?)
Is human evolution dependent on the further development of the body or greater complexity of the mind?
If we are the result of a process or development called evolution, in what direction is it moving?
What would mean the greatest happiness to you?
What would perfect existence consist of?
What do you think the future of humanity is?
What may ultimate reality be?
***
List of previous Time Capsule BURIALS by Agnes Denes:
AGNES DENES'S BURIED TIME CAPSULES
With questionnaires and responses to be opened 1,000 years hence
A LIVING TIME CAPSULE, DOCUMENTA 14, KASSEL, GERMANY, 2017–3017
AGNES DENES: WHEATFIELD, PORTA NUOVA, MILANO, ITALY, 2015–3015
A FOREST FOR AUSTRALIA, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA,
1998–2998
TREE MOUNTAIN—A LIVING TIME CAPSULE, YLÖJÄRVY, FINLAND, 1996–2996
RICE/TREE/BURIAL WITH NIAGARA FALLS, ARTPARK, LEWISTON, NEW YORK,
1979–2979
© Agnes Denes, 2019–2020
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Agnes Denes
All images courtesy the artist and Leslie Tonkonow Gallery.