Beyond the Now: opening new creative, cultural and political affinities for a post-pandemic world

Create is delighted to introduce  ‘Beyond the Now’ a syndicated social practice platform, founded by partners based and working in locations across the globe. Beyond the Now aims to open new creative, cultural and political affinities for a post-pandemic world. Beside Create, partners include Counterpoints Arts, Open University,  Plymouth College of Art, Ettijahat, Coculture, and Mozilla Festival.

The first season contains nine submissions from artists, arts professionals and community activists, reflecting on the Covid-19 situation. Three submissions will be shared each month, between October and December, at which point the first season will conclude.

The pandemic has global effects, but it is experienced in diverse ways, in many different contexts. In recognition of this diversity, ‘Beyond the Now’ features personal reflections alongside those that are theoretical; interviews and discussions as well as artworks.

The sensory dimension of social experience and the meanings attributed to human interaction have changed, because of the invisible vectors of disease transmission. Social distancing and the wearing of masks are only the most obvious signs of this altered situation. There is a great deal that needs to be explored and understood. It is our hope that the texts, films and artworks that form this season, and those that will follow in subsequent seasons, will provide opportunities to engage with the question that animates this project: ‘where and what is the social in a post-pandemic world?’

Our October release features writer, filmmaker and activist Ashish Ghadiali’s text ‘Age of Uncertainty’; artist, activist and educator Gregory Sholette’s short film examining responses to the pandemic by a range of international artists; and artist Jeanne van Heeswijk’s text ‘How we have been preparing for the not yet’.