Past Makes Future, a micro conference hosted at Portsmouth Guildhall by HARBOUR artist, Thomas Buckley - by Kate Phillips
To be honest, there was nothing micro about Thomas Buckley’s so-called experimental micro-conference Past Makes Future (to use the words of Portsmouth Guildhall’s very own Rupert Rowbotham)… the seating capacity of the venue and the size of the screen alone! But then there was the scope of the ambition and the magnitude of the subject matter.
“It felt quite important to call it a conference. I’ve never run a conference and I’m not even sure PAST MAKES FUTURE was a conference, it might have been more accurate to call it a symposium, or a talk… But really, the aim of PAST MAKES FUTURE was to be bold – to give confidence to the city and remind those in the room that there’s a wealth of experience, facilities and ambition in Portsmouth. So it felt right to be ambitious, there were ‘Delegates’ not speakers, it was a ‘conference’ not a workshop.” – Thomas Buckley
Past Makes Future made its first tentative steps with the arrival of four wardrobes from across the channel (it was meant to be five, but one fittingly refused to leave the island of Jersey, where its provenance was rooted). I remember the day well: Thomas and I met them at Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, where they were going to be exhibited under the guise of Resonate. They were unloaded into the rain and sat looking bruised and battered on the pavement before we could haul them over the cobbles and into the shelter of Storehouse No. 9. Over the course of a couple of days, we restored these ‘immersive memory sculptures’ to their former selves – though the missing one left a void, which we took literally by representing its very absence.
From here, Resonate began, and a cohort of seven Portsmouth artists was invited to respond to our work and engage with emergent technologies and intangible heritage as part of this new commissioning and development programme.
Just over six months later, with sessions of mentoring at Ankle Deep Studios, explorations of the amazing facilities at CCiXR in the University of Portsmouth and many Zoom calls under our belts, the new works were showcased at Treadgolds in Portsmouth.
I felt honoured to have worked with the artists and was humbled by the works they created based on our own – it felt like such a generous, trusting exchange; a dialogue full of integrity, sincerity and unity. One that also spoke of the relationships generated not only between all the artists involved but between the preservation of memories, the use of emerging technologies and places of historical interest as exhibition spaces. It spoke of lived experiences enhanced and understood more fully by these interactions, but in turn, it highlighted the presence of a lack of cohesion already existing between these hitherto disparate agencies. Red rag to a bull, this was a blank space full of potential between these converging points, a gap that could be bridged and would be all the better for it.
So here we are; we have arrived. The grand mission is presenting itself—no small feat. Past Makes Future. The topic and the urgency to act seem prescient in light of what amounts to a stalemate between the arts, heritage organisations, and emerging technologies. But within some quarters, there is clearly an appetite for change.
Twelve speakers, amongst their number representatives from the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Mary Rose, ArtHouse Jersey and Portsmouth University, stood on the stage at Portsmouth Guildhall in front of an audience of over one hundred and spoke of the challenges faced and the potential for future possibilities.
To show the possibilities of engaging an audience in the memories of a stranger, and to relate to some of the past work Thomas Buckley and I have made in a quest for empathy, we gave every conference attendee an edible memory in the shape and form of a lollipop – but this was no ordinary lollipop. It gave the audience a taste, literally, of the precious memory of an elderly woman who recalled picking tar from the roads of Nazi-occupied Jersey and eating it pretending it was toffee…
But now, to bring it full circle, so to speak, we return to the Resonate artists who got the chance to enlighten and enchant us with a screening of their works, or presentations about the works, culminating in a discussion panel, not to mention the opportunity to don a VR headset and be transported to another realm unfolding as a magical choreography of the senses.
“As part of PAST MAKES FUTURE, we ended the day by asking attendees to co-write a manifesto – another bold statement / ask. But what I hoped was that this would galvanise people, and make us feel like we were at the start of a defining journey. I wanted to give people permission to feel they were the vanguard of an empathy revolution, shielded from ideas of moderation or humbleness. PAST MAKES FUTURE is an invitation to be theatrical and grandiose in your aims for your art, your organisation and your city.” – Thomas Buckley
So did the project live up to the original vision? Undoubtedly. Did it dare to surpass even its own expectations? Certainly – in aspiration and scope. Is it now all in the past? Definitely not… it is only the beginning… because the past makes the future.
by Kate Phillips