The Anti-fragile offered a philosophical approach to the months of lock-down and the fear imposed by Covid 19. Ongoing discussions with The Anti-fragile Collective, those relationships made an built over the last academic year has offered insights that attitudes and rituals have been developed to enable to grow through this challenging time.  

As we began to consider what might come next within this global pandemic and the context that this crisis is playing out in, we came together in August virtually to tease out the philosophical, political, cultural and aesthetic threads of this unprecedented moment and to consider what might be useful to us next. We found joy in being together as we discussed what sort of superpowers we might need to produce new vistas, that if this moment was a sound or a texture what sensual attributes it might take on. Collectively and with the aid of a rather acerbic sense of humour we vented our frustrations and considered the great opportunity that this global pause presented us, would anything really change or all we all too adrenally fatigued to make this final push...  Here are our insights, hopes and fears as articulated into four distinct themes.  

1. Fluid Futures

Some say this feels like the end of time. We’ve experienced narrative collapse. The predictable rhythm of linear time vanished overnight and the days have become malleable and stretchy. Whilst the future we had has slipped through our fingers, multiple futures and vistas now seem possible. These Fluid Futures are full of potential but also disorientating. And we will need new forms of way-finding. Not all will be fully rationalized. We are tapping into our intuition, finding our internal compass. We look to ancient practices to guide us like divining rods that knit us closer to the wisdom of the land.

2. Stronger Together

After months of isolation and enforced separation, the need for contact, collaboration and interaction creates a yearning within to be more intentional in our relationships. This renewed urgency to come together and share ideas is like a call to arms because we cannot rebuild and reset alone. We must see ourselves as a living ecology, a collection of agents which will cooperate to come out stronger. The virus has pushed us into the hyperlocal where grassroots communities are thriving. Stronger Together must marry this with a planetary scale of awareness. We are one human ecology.

3. Release Valves

The world has stopped and yet we can’t relax, we can’t breathe. This gap between then and next comes with a sense of trepidation as we anticipate and attempt to navigate the shifting terrain. We’re pumped with adrenalin and the thrill of what could be coming and it’s building inside of us. As we face a turning point explosive energy bound up in bodies needs to be harnessed and released. Some choose anger, others choose love, it is manifesting in little pockets, below the radar of the ruling forces.

4. The Reset

Broad consensus across socio-economic groups and geographies is that we don’t want to return to a status quo that was flawed and rigged against so many. The great hope that the pandemic is a portal to the reset where values are reaffirmed on an individual, cultural, structural and collectively global scale. This hope of something new to emerge to, is shadowed with frustration and anger, an adrenal energy bound up with fear that things might never change and is it already too late? And as the still old white male guardians of power hold on for their last gasp, we yearn for an alternative to be communicated to the masses, something that might present a structural shift in-line with our hopes. This reset takes courage, an Anti-fragile mentality and collective power to build something new. Transformative habits and a reassessment of what we really need is what will take us to a better tomorrow.

With special thanks to Miriam Rayman who as a cultural strategist supported and helped develop these insights.