THE FUTURE, as the architectural historian Yogi Berra is said to have said, ain’t what it used to be. Whenever it comes to pass, it leaves unfulfilled any previously received idea of itself. Especially aesthetically. Actual futurity is not futuristic.
The future most difficult of all to remember is that which was anticipated by the most recent past. Consider the early 2020s, the first years of the pandemic, the first year of the current American presidential administration, grotesquely pre-inaugurated by January 6—suddenly now so long ago. It was the Hot Vax Summer of 2021. The Delta variant was yet to come. Squid Game. Sea shanties on social media. “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo on Spotify. Tadao Ando’s ponderous renovation of the Paris Bourse de Commerce for Pinault. Lacaton & Vassal finally get their Pritzker; Pantone asserted that one of the two colors of the year is 17-5104: Ultimate Gray. And Amazon founder Jeff Bezos launched himself—wearing instead of a helmet a broad-brimmed hat, in possible tribute to the 2000 Clint Eastwood movie Space Cowboys—in a sp…