It's a great, great pleasure to now introduce our next guest, the Ottolik Group. The Ottolik Group was founded in 2000 by its core members, Angelika Saga and Kodvo Eshun, who both live and work in London. The group works with media archives, history of futurity, and also the legacies of non-alignment and tricontinentalism. The group's artistic work explores moving image, sound, text, also very importantly curatorial practice, as well as functions as a platform for discussion on contemporary artistic production. This latter aspect can be understood as part of the group's wider interest in the construction and consolidation of a counter-public sphere. The Ottolitz group's films and also installation have featured widely in international shows, and they are actually recipients in 2008 of the LAFA Award.
The Ottolitz group will also make a special performance for our Indian Highway Exhibition, which will happen here at the Serpentine Gallery in December, a performance they call Communism Like Us. But today, the Otterly Group will present a manifesto called a field manual for this cronia. A very warm welcome to the Otterly Group. We are the Otolith Group. My name is Satyajit Ray. I'm the world's best known Indian film director. I died in 1993.
My name is Ritvik Gathak. I'm also a well-known Bengali filmmaker and I died in 1996. We are pleased to be attending the 9th World Futurological Congress here in the impressive ruins of the Gary Pavilion. Those among us that were fortunate enough to attend the 8th World Futurological Congress at the Costa Rica Hilton will never forget it. We are happy to see so many of our friends and colleagues from that 8th Futurological Congress here with us this afternoon. Is it happening yet?
How severe will it be? And when will it happen? We can't be absolutely certain about what is about to happen. But the signs are all there. Instead of waiting until it's too late. Waiting for the floods. And the droughts. And the famines. And the viruses. And the intolerances. And the partitions. And the pollutions. Of the future to overwhelm us. Shouldn't we take a wiser course of action? Shouldn't we pre-empt that possibility? Which possibility? Shouldn't we take action? Now? Now, before it's too late.
Shouldn't we act against a potential threat before it becomes a disaster? Yes, I think so. Anything less is a gift squandered. Before the threat exists, we will have acted. The doctrine of preemption authorises us to act. And whatever makes us doubt ourselves. Whatever makes us attentive. Whatever makes us apprehensive. Makes us appreciative. This will become the future basis for the present law. Whose futures inhabit yours? Whose futures live in you? None of your fears belong to you. Your fears are collective.
Isn't the best way to survive an uncertain future to create it? By engineering the disaster that you warned against. Yes, you must learn to activate the futures that you intend to prevent. These futures are Unlocatable innumerable Unaccountable. The future is a ground a A ground that is uncertain. It is a sky that threatens. But a threat, a threat is nothing yet. No, no, don't you see? It is not nothing. It is an impending state. Do you mean that it is a nearness, a proximity? No, no, a threat is the future cause of a change in the present.
Which would suggest this A threat is a form of the future That has the capacity to fill the present Without presenting itself It is a future that casts a present shadow A shadow whose presence is fear But the future will be better tomorrow What, because tomorrow is another day? That is what my mother used to say Perhaps she meant Will you take any notice of the living? Or perhaps she meant, will you elevate yourself learning from the dead? I think what she meant was, when will you be more than you are? Tomorrow's future is here now. I can see you there, walking along the corniche.
Can you take shelter inside the threat that tomorrow's promise will deliver today? No one has learnt how to control the threat of a threat. No one has learned how to control the fear of fear. Is it possessing you? It is abducting you. Capturing your potential. To be. Individually. What you will have become. Collectively. Thank you.