Skip to main content

Foreverism

Notes

What do cinematic “universes,” cloud archiving, and voice cloning have in common? They’re in the business of foreverizing – the process of revitalizing things that have degraded, failed, or disappeared so that they can remain active in the present. To foreverize something is to reanimate it, to enclose and protect it from time and the elements, and to eradicate the feeling of nostalgia that accompanies loss. Foreverizing is a bulwark against instability, but it isn’t an infallible enterprise. That which is promised to last forever often does not, and that which is disposed of can sometimes last, disturbingly, forever.

 

In this groundbreaking book, American philosopher Grafton Tanner develops his theory of foreverism: an anti-nostalgic discourse that promises growth without change and life without loss. Engaging with pressing issues from the ecological impact of data storage to the rise of reboot culture, Tanner tracks the implications of a society averse to nostalgia and reveals the new weapons we have for eliminating it.

Artist / Author Grafton Tanner
Publisher Polity
ISBN 978-1-5095-5806-3
Reference P4287
Date 2023
Type Publication

Keywords

Similar items

Unfixed Archives: Holders of Liveness – Podcast Launch

Artist/Author: Sophie Barrett-Pouleau | Digital Reference: EF5432 | Type: Digital File

Unfixed Archives is amonthly radio show podcast on RTM radio, taking listeners on an audio journey that investigates how archivists and artists work with performance, why they do what they do, and what happens to performance once it’s ‘finished’.

Audio recording of the Unfixed Archives: Holders of Liveness – Podcast Launch on Friday 27 June 2025.

Beer Advertisement (Dyke, Just Do It)

Artist/Author: SWEATMOTHER | Reference: EF5418 | Type: Digital File

Beer Advertisement (Dyke, Just Do It) (2025) is a two-cannel video installation by SWEATMOTHER, presented at LADA as part of Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest exhibition The Body Is a Thing in Time, curated by kane stonestreet.

Mishandled Archive: Book Launch and Celebration

Artist/Author: Tara Fatehi | Reference: EF5411 | Type: Digital File

An online event to celebrate the launch of artist and writer Tara Fatehi Irani’s new book Mishandled Archive, published by LADA. Hosted by Rachel Mars, the event features an excerpt from Tara’s performance of Mishandled Archive with Pouya Ehsaei, a performative presentation by Diana Damian Martin, Mary Paterson, Jemima Yong, Maddy Costa and Holly Revell and special appearances by Giulia Palladini and Joe Kelleher.

Video Games Have Always Been Queer

Artist/Author: Bonnie Ruberg | Reference: P4318 | ISBN: 9781479843749 | Type: Publication

Bonnie Ruberg pushes the concept of queerness in games beyond a matter of representation, exploring how video games can be played, interpreted, and designed queerly, whether or not they include overtly LGBTQ content.

The Hologram

Artist/Author: The Hologram | Reference: P4315 | Type: Publication

The Hologram is a feminist health militia that produces networks where we can practice skills like trust, communication, and cooperation that will help us outlast capitalism.

Radical Rediscoveries: Performance Texts from the Women’s Theatre Movement 1969–1987

Artist/Author: Susan Croft, Jane Arden, Pan Gems, Hesitate and Demonstrate, Melissa Murray, Natasha Morgan, Winsome Pinnock | Reference: P4314 | ISBN: 978-3-945247-36-5 | Type: Publication

This collection brings together six seminal works of British alternative feminist and women’s theatre from the archive, with a contextual introductory text by Dr. Susan Croft, co-founder of Unfinished Histories.

TransMission: Sissy TV

Artist/Author: Nando Messias | Editor: David Caines, Mary Kate Connolly | Reference: A0949 | Type: Article

"TransMission: Sissy TV" is an exploration of the idea of trans archives. And auto-archive of the artist's body, work, costumes, props, hopes, dreams and memories accumulated over nearly three decades of creating queer work.

BACK LASH

Artist/Author: LGBTQIA+ Cultural Barometer | Reference: P4250 | Type: Publication

Research Highlights: Documenting and understanding experiences of backlash currently being received against LGBTQIA+ cultural programming and/or creatives in the UK’s cultural sector from 2020-2025.

Sonia Boyce

Artist/Author: Elena Crippa | Reference: P4300 | ISBN: 9781849769501 | Type: Publication

Sonia Boyce (b.1962) is a groundbreaking artist whose practice is founded on taking creative risks. Unafraid to play against set expectations about how art should behave, her collaborative interactions between audience and performer enable spontaneous and intimate social encounters, resulting in the creation of work that is simultaneously self-aware, visceral and open-ended.

This book is a much-anticipated introduction to the life and work of this extraordinary artist. Touching on her engagement with the work of other feminist artists and her time as a leading figure in the 1980s Black British Art movement, it contextualizes Boyce’s journey from her early pastel drawings and collages to her pivotal shift to film, sound, and performance art. Highlighting her artistic innovation as she experiments with medium to explore and question culture, identity and the boundaries between the public and private spheres in unexpected ways, it celebrates the visionary practice of a truly uncompromising artist.

6º Festival International Imaginários Urbanos: Corpo-Território

Artist/Author: Marília Oliveira | Reference: P4294 | ISBN: 9788542016987 | Type: Publication

O Festival Imaginários Urbanos é uma realizaçao da Plataforma Imaginários, com apoio da Secretaria da Cultura do Estado do Ceará e do Ministério da Cultura, utilizando recursos da Lei Paulo Gustavo (Lei Complementar n. 195/2022).

 

This publication is in Portuguese (Brasil).

GAM - 10 Years of Cultural Transformation

Artist/Author: Ximena Villanueva Garin | Reference: P4292 | ISBN: 978-956-09708-0-0 | Type: Publication

This book is in Spanish.

Spanish title: GAM: Diez años de transformación cultural

I Love You Too

Artist/Author: Kemang Wa Lehulere | Reference: P4291 | Type: Publication

I Love You Too is a project from a visual artist focused on the writing of letters, shifting the focus from how a community uses a library to how it creates one – a library, in this case, of love. The stories in this book were told during the COVID-19 pandemic by more than 100 people from across Manchester. Through in-person and online interviews with 11 writers, their testimonies were transformed into this collection of love letters. To ensure all those involved felt safe and supported while sharing their deeply personal stories, well-being managers were on hand at every stage of the process. By way of thanks, each participant was gifted a portrait created at the time of their interview. Thank you to the people of Manchester for sharing these beautiful and personal stories with us.

 

South African artist Kemang Wa Lehulere spent MIF19 in residence in Manchester’s network of libraries – and two years on, published I Love You Too, a beautiful book inspired by the time he spent in the city.

 

At the start of 2021, Wa Lehulere invited more than 100 people from across Manchester to share with us their love stories: to people, to places, even to possessions. Through a series of online and in-person meetings, a group of 11 Manchester writers put their words on to the page. The result is I Love You Too, a personal, powerful and inspiring 232-page hardback book of love letters rooted in our city – and the first in an international series.

Donation

£