Following a hiatus caused by the pandemic, the CPPFS came back with the Postnormal Times exhibition in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. The Welcome to Postnormal Times Exhibition was a collaboration between the International Institute of Islamic Thought, East and Southeast Asia (IIIT) and the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies (CPPFS), taking the audience on a visual, experiential, and pedagogical journey. It provoked questions about recent issues and developments and offered a better way to navigate all our futures. The exhibition was held at the KL Jazz & Art Centre (KLJAC) in Seputeh from the 29 September until 15 October 2023.
The Welcome to Postnormal Times was an Exhibition about change. It’s not just that change is accelerating but the very nature of change itself is changing. This is not happening in isolation. It is a global phenomenon as readily visible in London as it is in Kuala Lumpur. The exhibition explored our changing times with real world, examples, and explains the theoretical elements of postnormal times theory.
The Welcome to Postnormal Times Exhibition was presented in two parts. The first part was the upstairs element which asked the question: So, what is going on?
To move beyond postnormal times, we need to think deeply about how we live and act, the choices we make, and the way we imagine our futures.
The upstairs portion comprised of a curated collection of current events, thematically organised.
Featuring The Last Polar Bear Skull, as due to our climate crisis, the creature may not soon exist in the wild. Behind the skull are a series of existential climate threats presently in front of our eyes.
Does anyone remember the pandemic?
The second part of the exhibition was downstairs and featured more of elements of postnormal times theory, including the 4S's, the 3C's and many more.
A small room downstairs featured the menagerie of postnormal potentialities complete with a pensive soundtrack and an engagement with the black elephents, black swans, and black jellyfish.
The Timeline even made an appearance for the more keen eyed!
Malaysia's Prime Minister YAB Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim officiated the opening of the Welcome to Postnormal Times Exhibition (And it was not your normal exhibition!). Postnormal Times Theory and the insights from the field of futures studies explored in this exhibition aided greatly in the development of Prime Minister Anwar’s Malaysia MADANI policy framework. This exhibition was quickly rethought to incorporate its relation to Malaysia MADANI the following year.
