WELCOME TO THE LIQUID SOCIETY
by Zodwa Kumalo-Valentine
Coined by sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman in 2000, the term “liquid society” describes the “condition of constant mobility and change in relationships, identities, and global economics within contemporary society”.
Twenty years later, the concept which was also explored by Italian literary critic and novelist Umberto Eco in Chronicles of a Liquid Society, published in 2016, aptly captures our post-pandemic state: uncertainty. Without any reduction in intensity, uncertainty leaks out of us, the effect of which is manifesting in all the spheres of life where we find the most stability in. The question the late film critic Gene Siskel would ask his interviewees – a question popularised by Oprah – comes to mind: What do you know for sure?
While every generation experiences its own sea of change, the past two years have been of almost-apocalyptic proportions. As one of the hardest hit, the cultural and creative industries have faced one of their most challenging periods, having to navigate what feels like a dystopian reality.
We will soon reach a social, political, and environmental tipping point, one that will drive people to drastically reform and rewire their world, write Sarah Owen & Tully Walter of the Future Forecast 2024 report, “from reinventing the notion of work and challenging the current growth narrative, to reshaping societal norms and developing entirely new digital realities”.
In spite of the impact the pandemic has had on livelihoods, the upheaval has also forced innovation. When the Pantone Color of the Year was announced as Very Peri, the dye was cast for the year, so to speak. The global authority on colour describes the dynamic, periwinkle blue hue with a violet red undertone as one of a “carefree confidence and a daring curiosity” – a collective response to the aftermath of the pandemic, signifying a release from an intense period of isolation and the exposure to blurred boundaries between physical and digital worlds.”
As if on cue, Thebe Magugu’s RTW SS22 collection channels that same energy. Against the background of disorder and disruption in the country, Magugu drew from the past to reflect on and help inform the future. In his Genealogy collection, presented in Paris, he rooted through family albums, reimagined and translated looks worn by the women in his family, hosting a discussion with his mother and aunt captured as a film as part of the installation showcase – in lieu of the traditional runway show. It is in this collection we see the appearance of Very Peri, showing up in the Shweshwe fabric, with the traditional African iconography used on the cloth replaced by photos of Magugu’s family.
The boundaries of fashion in their traditional confines have been consistently pushed by Magugu who interviewed Apartheid spies for his SS21 collection, Counter Intelligence. “Creating a new colour for the first time in the history of Pantone Color of the Year educational colour programme reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place, Laurie Pressman, vice-President of the Pantone Color Institute was quoted as saying. Pantone 17-3938 displays a “spritely, joyous attitude and dynamic presence that encourages creativity and imaginative expressions”.
We know that everything has altered, and if it hasn’t, it needs to; that boundaries and traditional concepts and ideologies need to be pushed to new understandings and interpretations. Not a reckless abandonment of the past but rather a considered review of what we have come to accept as the way the world works. Innovation, reinvention, and collaboration have ceased being buzzwords thrown in for good measure. They are the very critical ingredients for a sustainable future.
The conversation around women in the workplace was once again put back on the agenda by McKinsey’s report at the end of 2021, revealing that despite burnout and marginalisation, women continue to make great strides in leadership. Lesley Lokko is one such woman, who in 2020 resigned as dean of the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College in New York just 10 months into the role, citing a “crippling workload and a lack of empathy for Black women”. As the founder of the Graduate School of the University of Johannesburg, she detailed how she was ill-prepared for how this racial divide would show itself in the US, and chose to prioritise her mental health. In short, Spitzer is not a case study. And as Black women, the world over, we all understood.
Amid the uncertainty, Lokko rose, sharing in a Guardian interview that she sensed the future of architecture wasn’t going to come from the historic centres of excellence. That the change would not come from the west or the north, and that she planned to return to Accra to set up an independent school of architecture there.” She did. With architecture Sir David Adjaye OBE she established The African Futures Institute in 2021, “a space that is simultaneously physical, digital and conceptual, underpinned by the desire to provoke and support new scholarship and new opportunities for radical African excellence”.
Lokko will also helm the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, the first Black curator to hold this position, and one of only a handful of women.
From how we (re)connect and work together as individuals, to how we approach problem-solving, and leadership, it is this spirit of reimagination and reinvention that will propel us.
“What was some time ago dubbed (erroneously) 'post-modernity' and what I've chosen to call 'liquid modernity, is the growing conviction that change is the only permanence, and uncertainty the only certainty. A hundred years ago 'to be modern' meant to chase 'the final state of perfection' – now it means an infinity of improvement, with no 'final state' in sight and none desired.” – Bauman.
Welcome to the Liquid society.