Revisiting the Futures in A Time of Uncertainty

"Exposing the Archive" with Kevin Wu

By Kevin Wu

August 15, 2021

In this first dispatch of “Exposing the Archive,” Kevin Wu reflects upon the two months spent cataloguing and researching items from the World’s Fair Collections at the Queens Museum. “Exposing the Archive” is a series that will include dispatches from the Museum’s archival activities, an ongoing process that centers on research, accessibility, and reframing the Collection for future generations.

When our well-being is at stake and we’re preoccupied with challenges of survival, contemplating the future seems like a luxury. But the uncertainty of our time also acts as an agent of much-needed disruption. It thwarts the expectations of steady growth that late-capitalism has seduced us into believing and suggests alternatives that are more just and caring. Through capitalism’s cracks, we may glimpse the universe out there, the glimmering futures that could fill our hearts with consolation, hope, and determination. It is worth our time to meditate on the future at this moment despite the imposing difficulties.

It was in these precarious times that I encountered Queens Museum’s World’s Fair Collection. I consider this archive special because it not only preserves the past but also doubles as a reservoir of possible futures. Many flavors and brands of futurism—some realized, some abandoned, others forgotten—can be found within the boxes stacked in QM’s Archive Center. “The future” was a major theme for both New York World’s Fairs. The 1939-1940 Fair adopted the motto “The World of Tomorrow,” and the 1964-1965 Fair featured forward-looking exhibits that have come to shape popular imaginations of the future—or rather, futures

A color photograph of “The Triumph of Man” 45” album cover, which depicts the giant red-and-white Traveler’s Insurance Pavilion from the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair at the center of the composition. The Pavilion looks like a UFO, and there are people drawn into the image walking around it. The title of the album is written in black text within a white band that goes across the top of the album cover.
Caption: The Triumph of Man, 1964. Commemorative record and album sleeve, from the Travelers Insurance Pavilion. Written by Harry L. Shapiro. Provenance research in-progress.
Image Description: A color photograph of “The Triumph of Man” 45” album cover, which depicts the giant red-and-white Traveler’s Insurance Pavilion from the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair at the center of the composition. The Pavilion looks like a UFO, and there are people drawn into the image walking around it. The title of the album is written in black text within a white band that goes across the top of the album cover.

The futures presented at the 1964-1965 World’s Fair, much like the diverse architectural styles of its pavilions, were fundamentally plural. They entwined and frequently clashed: the General Motors Pavilion anticipated gargantuan vehicles that would level rainforests to make highways, and exhibits at the Better Living Center envisioned a world where humans treated other species as cohabitants. While the computer at the United States Pavilion sourced essays to justify the US’s intervention in Vietnam, the IBM Pavilion’s computers auto-translated Russian into English to facilitate understanding. At the heart of the Fair was the question, “what does ‘the future’ entail?” There was technological progress, expansion, security, and better communication, but through what means, and at whose expense? 

As I lost myself in the archive, I recognized that it might not necessarily be a good thing to perceive ‘the future’ with clarity and certitude. When futures are left in suspension, presenting themselves as an ongoing debate rather than destiny, they feel like something up to us. This period might’ve deprived us of the feeling of certainty, but maybe it can grant us more agency, more possibilities, more futures. 

A photograph of the proposed Antarctic Meteorological Station, built and on-display in General Motors’ Pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair as a part of the audiovisual amusement ride, Futurama. Two men sit at a control desk with maps of the world, assorted knobs and buttons, and screens in front of them, assumed to be surveying the environment from beneath the ice, sometime in the future.
Caption: Antarctic Meteorology Station, 1964. Photograph, from General Motors’ Pavilion exhibit, Futurama. Vintage silver gelatin print. Provenance research in-process
Image Description: A photograph of the proposed Antarctic Meteorological Station, built and on-display in General Motors’ Pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair as a part of the audiovisual amusement ride, Futurama. Two men sit at a control desk with maps of the world, assorted knobs and buttons, and screens in front of them, assumed to be surveying the environment from beneath the ice, sometime in the future.

The World’s Fair Collection undoubtedly offers proposals for possible futures, but its projections should not be consumed raw. They require artists, thinkers, and community members to critique, re-contextualize, and activate them in the present. By asking questions—who created this future, and for whom?— pathways and pitfalls become clear. In this way, we begin to realize a future that we desire, gain new perspectives on the present, and construct new tools that help us thrive.