The Future Is Not What It Used to Be: A Documentary Film on Erkki Kurenniemi

The Finnish artist, inventor, and futurist Erkki Kurenniemi (b. 1941) is one of the most fascinating figures you’ve never heard of. He came of age in the 1960s, and his various projects reflect the heady techno-utopian aspirations of such thinkers as Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller.

Kurenniemi’s speculations on computer technology and artificial intelligence were well ahead of his time, but he didn’t content himself with merely thinking about the future. He helped pioneer the fledgling genre of “electronic art,” creating experimental works for video and electronic music. In the early 1960s, Kurenniemi founded an electronic music studio at the University of Helsinki, and beginning in the 1970s he invented a series of electronic instruments called DIMI (digital musical instrument), which generated musical sounds from sources such as video images, human touch, and brain waves.

For many years now Kurenniemi has been methodically documenting his daily life through notes and photographs, on the theory that future developments in computing will make possible the artificial reconstruction of consciousness on the basis of such collected memory.

This hour-long documentary by Mika Taanila presents a captivating view into the mind and work of Erkki Kuenniemi, in whose future we all now live.

Presented as part of the Experimental Culture series. Experimental Culture is a Philadelphia-based event series dedicated to exploring the frontiers of art, knowledge, and communication. Through an array of free public events, Experimental Culture presents challenging, innovative, and imaginative new experiences for audiences of all backgrounds.

Admission is free.