Human vs. machine

‘The hopeless future’

Article

No. 41 • March 2026

We asked seven curators and directors to look ahead. Which themes and trends will shape the conversation in the coming years? And which artists are already showing where things are headed? Heske ten Cate is a curator, researcher and director, and since February curator of contemporary art at the Amsterdam Museum. Previously she was editor-in-chief of Mister Motley, director of Nest in The Hague, and co-curator of Good Mom / Bad Mom at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.

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Text: Heske ten Cate

The end of a year in the media invariably begins with lists. The best exhibitions, the finest performances, the most important books. And with previews: what should we pay attention to, what is coming? I like to read those speculative outlooks. This past year there were strikingly few of them. Perhaps that has to do with what researchers call the ‘collapse of the future’: the phenomenon that in times of stacked crises, the ability to think far ahead comes under pressure. When uncertainty becomes structural – economic, ecological, political and technological – the long-term perspective disappears. Decision-making focuses on the immediate now: managing, reacting, and not: dreaming. I hear many artists, theatre-makers and curators openly wondering what actually is the defining story of our time.

In addition, the media themselves offer less and less grip. They are flooded with noise: deepfakes, disinformation, half-true stories. The uncomfortable feeling that you are not sure whether what you read is accurate, has become almost permanent. In 1984, George Orwell already showed what happens when language is compressed into slogans and abbreviations. Where words disappear, nuance disappears. Where nuance disappears, truth becomes malleable. And somewhere in that process, our humanity toward one another crumbles. It is not without reason that his dystopia is being dusted off en masse once again.

This is an article from See All This #41, spring 2026.