Author Archives: Bo Reimer

During nine months – March through December 2024 – I have a research sabbatical, funded by the foundation Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. I will work on a book with the provisional title “Imaginative Futures”. Below you can see a summary of the work I do.

We live in troubled and complex times, more than ever requiring imaginative thinking about the future. However, many researchers, artists and cultural critics point out the difficulties with the very notion of future, not to mention the formulating of credible and valid visions. In a Western context it has for example been deemed difficult, by many even impossible, to imagine an alternative to capitalism. Similarly, in relation to climate change, it is argued that we face a general “crisis of the imagination”.

The purpose of this project is to make an intervention into the ongoing academic discussions on the role of imagination and imagining practices in shaping and creating our futures. With the help of the concept of “imaginative futures” I explore the possibilities of creating visions of a future society that contain ideas and elements that one would wish to move towards, although without regarding the visions as necessary, or even possible, to fulfill. The focus is thus not on what these visions may be, but on the facilitating of the possibilities for them to unfold. This is a question that furthermore concerns the role of the academic and the need for academic work to also approach the imaginative, its practices and technologies, in order to catch the processes. The topics of imagination, future, time, materiality, art, and artificial intelligence are central for the analysis.

I have taken a three-year break from posting here. But will now start again. In a few week’s time the exhibition Time Space existence will open in Venice. It is organized by European Cultural Centre and will run for six months with about 200 exhibitors, primarily archicture offices, but also a number of universities. MedeaContinue Reading

Here is the final Music Quiz of the spring term, broadcast on June 4. It features songs about pushing boundaries, moving on, and breaking through to the other side. And for the final question, on early jazz, I use an HMV gramophone from the 1930s. You can take the whole quiz here.

The fourth episode of the K3 Music Quiz was broadcast on May 19. The theme was “Reasons the be Cheerful (Pt. 3)”. It featured songs about happiness! And joy! And some sorrow! Take the quiz here: Or just listen to great music and watch great clips.

And here is last week’s music quiz. The episode is called Bright Lights, Big City. Songs about cities and living in the fast lane. Take the quiz here.

In order to do something new during these corona times, I have started to do a live online music quiz. It is called K3 Music Quiz: The Outer Limits. I will do it every second week during the rest of the term. The latest episode is called Fly Me to the Moon and was broadcastContinue Reading

Three years have now gone since the Medea Lab Malmö became a research platform at the Faculty of Culture and Society, Malmö University. Among other things, during the years we have produced almost 20 Medea Talks (available online) and soon 30 Medea Vox podcasts. A while ago, the Dean of the Faculty decided to financeContinue Reading

Social strategist Heidi Forbes Öste runs the podcast Evolving Digital Self. Last month she did an interview with me for the series. It’s on media, technology and education, but also on living and working (and studying) in the city of Malmö. You can find it here.

One of the most significant cultural events of 2016 was the nomination of Bob Dylan as the Nobel prize winner for literature, and the subsequent award ceremony in the Stockholm Concert Hall, where Patti Smith sang Dylan’s “A hard rain’s a-gonna fall”. Her struggle with getting through the song is captured beautifully by American rock criticContinue Reading

For one week, I was in charge of the Facebook group “7 from 80s”. Started by sociology professor Ellis Cashmore, the idea is to post one favourite 80s song a week, and shortly discussing why that particular song was chosen. This was my week. Thank you pal Raiford Guins for inviting me to the group.Continue Reading