The Arts and Industries building, the second oldest Smithsonian building, is the most beautiful Smithsonian structure. It’s been closed since I came to D.C. in 2010 and being able to walk in 11 years later is just great. The structure greeting visitors, Soo Sunny Park’s Expanded Present, may be the highlight of new exhibit at the old museum.

The installation made of fencing, metal studs and dichroic glass (a material invented by NASA) constantly changes with the sun. It’s massive and awe inspiring. It’s the future of art made from very old and very modern materials.

Once you walk into the FUTURES exhibit you’re greeted by the only room explicitly about the past. There are artifacts of space travel and World’s Fairs and African American communities. It’s a room that celebrates achievements made by groups of people working together on common goals.

The rest of FUTURES is dedicated to what’s to come. It requires some cognitive dissonance.

As of this writing and at least the opening weekend of FUTURES, guests will be wearing masks. Masks help prevent the spread of an airborne disease. Masks are incredibly important in the recent past and definitely the present and most likely the future. There are no acknowledgements to masks in FUTURES. That’s OK and probably the right decision, but it’s difficult to think about decades in the future when you’re nearly two years into hiding half of your face.

The exhibit does acknowledge Covid and the Black Lives Matter movement. There’s a beautiful tribute to both with The Grove by Devan Shimoyama. It’s a piece dedicated to loss and trauma that’s shiny and new. It sounds contradictory. It is not.

Another highlight is Coin-Operated Wetland by Tega Brain. It’s a washing machine that uses a closed waste water system to grow a miniature ecosystem. It’s an artist’s take on the future of survival. Next to the washing machine is Capsula Mundi by Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel, a biodegradable death positive burial capsule featuring a mausoleum built out of mushroom bricks. Both pieces come from artists using what’s already present to ensure a better future.

If you’re looking for potential steps forward in cars and video games and movies and space travel, it’s everywhere. If FUTURES proves anything, it’s a guarantee Minecraft and Hyundai and Microsoft and Virgin and Amazon Web Services and the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be part of our collective future. That is not exciting to me. But I am an adult, not a kid that cares about tech billionaires attempting to escape this planet. Or the MCU.

If you are into escaping earth or video games or the MCU, you’ll probably enjoy FUTURES. Regardless of the funding, escaping earth and video games and the MCU all feature exciting and hopeful steps forward. For example, you can play Minecraft with your eyes at FUTURES. That’s amazing! Think about the joy that’ll deliver! And the other ways this tech can be utilized!

But I keep thinking about the washing mashing. And the mushroom mausoleum.

There’s a sign next to the laundry ecosystem that reads:

ATTENTION

NO DYEING

NO BLEACH

NO BILLIONAIRES

NO TECH FIXES

NO SPACE COLONIES…

If you turn around from the washing machine, you’ll see a quote from the third richest billionaire, Bill Gates. If you turn to your right you’ll see Virgin Hyperloop’s Milestone ‘Pegasus’ Pod, a product from billionaire Richard Branson. If you walk to another room you’ll find dozens of tech fixes and space suits that would work in space colonies. And of course, there’s the donor wall, with Amazon Web Services taking up a large portion of thanks.

FUTURES is an exhibit of contradictions. Are we going to survive by working together or stand aside and in awe of union busting billionaires? Most likely, it’ll be both. The future is the past is the future.

FUTURES is trying to have it all. And why not? The museum is based on the unknown, predictions and hopes. But there is a disconnect between commerce and wishes.

FUTURES will be on display at the Arts and Industries from November 20, 2021 through July 6, 2022

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