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Photography Essays

Abandoned Futures

A Journey to the Posthuman World

by (author) Tong Lam

Publisher
Carpet Bombing Culture
Initial publish date
Sep 2013
Category
Essays, General, General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781908211132
    Publish Date
    Sep 2013
    List Price
    $38.95

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Description

What will the end of the world look like? ‘Abandoned Futures’ is a breathtaking global overview of the decay and abandonment that sits in the midsts of humanities constant push towards an uncertain future. It’s a visual epic dedicated to the edge of our power, where human industry fails and decay takes over. These are the landscapes that give the lie to our dreams of immortality.

Abandoned Futures is a roadtrip into a post-apocalyptical landscape that is at turns both beautiful and frightening. It features striking imagery from every continent: from the futuristic island that forms the base of James Bond’s nemesis in Skyfall to a sinister abandoned theme park in USA. Witness the despair of crumbling industrial Detroit and the spectre of failed modernism in a deserted space age village in Japan. Follow us on a journey off the grid through ghostly asylums, decaying sanitoriums, sublime industrial collapses and contemplate the spectacular fallout of what really happens when a worldwide bubble economy pops.

Humanity versus nature. It looks like we won the war. But at what cost?

The new becomes old at first in centuries, then decades, now it’s merely measured in years.

About the author

Tong Lam is an Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Studies and the Graduate Department of History at Toronto University. His research is on the modern and contemporary history of China, with emphases on empire and nation, governmentality, knowledge-production, as well as urban space and ruins.

Tong Lam's profile page

Editorial Reviews

Visually spectacular, provocative, and engaging.