Past lives, perfect days? We heard you like film bros...

Sometimes, we might feel unbearably caught between the regret of a seemingly lost past and the future we (think we should) strive for - in this episode we reframe this space as 'the elliptical present', a place of possibility, somewhere to playfully experiment with alternative ways of life. "Now is now, next time is next time" - inspired by the movies 'Past Lives' and 'Perfect Days', we reflect upon how we might keep on living in this elliptical 'now' amidst the oppressive structures that organise our everyday lives and imagined futures. In a world that propels us towards the future, how might looking back - a glance to the past - keep open the possibility of going astray...

References: 

Past Lives (2023) - Directed by Celine Song

Perfect Days (2023) - Directed by Wim Wenders

Ahmed, S. (2006) Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others. Durham: Duke University Press.

Anderson, B. et al. (2023) “Encountering Berlant part one: Concepts otherwise”, The Geographical Journal, 189: 117–142.

Berlant, L. (2011) Cruel Optimism. Durham: Duke University Press.

Berlant, L. (2022) The Inconvenience of Other People. Durham: Duke University Press. 

Cope, W. (2023) 'The Orange' in The Orange and other poems. London: Faber & Faber.

Oliver, M. (2016) Upstream: Selected Essays. London: Penguin Press. 

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