Art of Brian Jones

In the Future

This piece was written for the Grapheion Yearbook ‘Memory of the Future’ issue, the brief being “what will print and art be like in 30 years”; this was Brian's considered response.

In The Future…

In the future, everything older than ten years will become sacred and of value
In the future, technocrats will commission art that will entertain and be transient
In the future, used items will cost more than new items as fewer items are produced
In the future, technicians will call themselves artists
In the future, artists will not know the joy of oil paint nor mark-making with charcoal or graphite in the life room
In the future, all art will be part of an image bank
In the future, art will become soul-less and cynical;death will be more celebrated than life
In the future, pickled animals will be presented as art
In the future, dead artists will earn more than the living
In the future, artists will issue their own banknotes
In the future, art will become so expensive that it will become the preserve of the rich
In the future, the art in your home will change monthly when you subscribe to an image bank; you will have the latest approved designs changing throughout your home on moveable electronic frames
In the future, alternative means of production will be built
In the future, 'hand-crafted by the artist' will be an almost redundant phrase
In the future, artists will not be involved in the manufacture of their artefacts
In the future, Williams Blake, Burroughs and Turner will pass into myth from reality
In the future, collections will be carried in small storage devices and traded like bubblegum cards
In the future, culture will become a myth and proved out of existence
In the future, art will wear the Emperor's new clothes
In the future, the Dome will issue licences for the practice of Dome artists
In the future, unlicensed artists will become criminalized
In the future, all art will carry the Dome watermark and licence number
In the future, the mass populace will be starved of good art to the point where they never see it and are indifferent when questioned
In the future, a new relevant art will be bought and sold like drugs, funding a black economy
In the future, artists will become heroes of the people
In the future, artists will become censored
In the future, artists will be kidnapped by political factions for the production of propaganda
In the future, ideas and thoughts will be copyrighted
In the future, intellectual property values will outstrip those of tangible objects
In the future, the Dome will help us to become more cultured
In the future, all art will be recycled
In the future, all recycling will become art
In the future, all art will become commodified
In the future, true art will have no price
In the future, art will be worn on apparel in ever-gaudier combinations and eras
In the future, the copy will be king
In the future, originality will be frowned-upon by the Dome and the masses
In the future, art will be the liberator
In the future, art will be the slave-master
In the future, digital culture hits will be enjoyed like drugs
In the future, rich collectors will empty galleries of good art and fill them with bad art
In the future, elite tastemakers will dictate what is permitted through loans to galleries
In the future, an unmade bed will be presented as art
In the future, prints will be animated and presented as hi-def moving images
In the future, an international symposium will agree a standard for colour, sound and word-decoding equivalents
In the future, you will hear Mozart in glorious colour
In the future, the words of Milton will be orchestrated
In the future, the paintings of Bacon, Freud and Rego will top music sales
In the future, live broadcasts will transmit the few gallery openings to subscribers who can then speak with the invited elite
In the future, nothing will be permitted but everything will be possible
In the future, everything will be permitted but nothing will be possible
In the future, the richest collectors will extend their lives to 150 years in order that they can keep consuming and controlling culture
In the future, there will be no culture, only saleable re-releases for an homogenized international market
In the future, echoes of the past flash forward into the present like unwanted erections on a crowded bus
In the future, the past will be carefully edited
In the future, the present will be carefully edited
In the future, the future will be carefully edited
In the future, great minds will rot like unpicked fruit on untended vines
In the future, subversive literature will be produced on ancient copying machines
In the future, the best art will be seen on the streets
In the future, rich collectors will be referred-to only by their first names
In the future, everything will be the same
In the future, everything will be different
In the future, hundreds of tiny clay figures will be made by many and will define the work of one person
In the future, art will entertain
In the future, art will neither educate nor illuminate
In the future, paper will become so rare that small scraps will be preserved in collages for generations to come by bands of image pirates
In the future, paper will cost more than oil
In the future, all trees will be protected under the re-introduction of the Brehon Laws
In the future, all books will be digitised and re-cycled
In the future, all libraries will close
In the future, all prints will be digitised and re-cycled
In the future, the original will be king
In the future, we will forget the past
In the future, we will remember nothing
In the future, individual flames will flicker worldwide as elegies to what has been lost


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