The Future Of №1 – Nostalgia

Rooted in the Eastern European critical perspectives of Kajet Journal, ‘The Future Of…’ turns its eye towards the hypermodernity of our current age, with each issue dedicated to the exploration of a single, evocative topic that itself defines and interprets the era we find ourselves living in. Its first issue, fittingly enough, is on the topic of nostalgia. In some ways, nostalgia is the ultimate affliction of the modern age. First coined in the 17th century as a way of describing the anxieties suffered by Swiss soldiers fighting away from home, the term was later picked up by poets and philosophers as well as physicians to diagnose and investigate the phenomenon which has now become a familiar feeling. From the resurgence of “vintage” fashion trends to the revived popularity of analog photography, music on vinyl, the “slow living” movement and, more sinister, the uptick in rightwing nationalist sentiment across the globe, it’s hard not to feel like the “good old days” really were a better time. But as ‘The Future Of…’ argues, this form of backwards-looking nostalgia is static, complacent and maybe even dangerous. Instead, ‘The Future Of…’ urges us to use nostalgia as a tool for imagining a different future – in the words of utopian philosopher Ernst Bloch, to “dream forwards”.