A sensory sociology of the future: Affect, hope and inventive methodologies

This article examines the difficulty of researching the intangibility of the future. Drawing on recent work on visual and sensory sociology, affect, and futurity, I propose that inventive methodologies provide some ways of grasping, understanding, and attuning to the future. To develop this argument, I pay close attention to the Children of Unquiet (2013–2014) film project by artist Mikhail Karikis, which involved Karikis working with children to probe the possible futures of a site that was once invested with hope and progress, but has since been depopulated. In turning to an art project, my intention is to examine the resonances between the project and some of the concerns of a sensory sociology of the future. In particular, I discuss the participation of children, and a conceptualization of hope as potentiality, open, affective and in the present. In conclusion, I explicate how the article seeks to contribute to a sensory sociology of the future by offering some indicative coordinates for this emerging field of research, including its involvement in creating conditions through which possible futures might be invented.