Image credit: Photograph of Susanna Davies-Crook by Liz Seabrook

For over 15 years, writer and curator Susanna Davies-Crook has been a vital force in contemporary art and media – shaping conversations that bridge the poetic and the political. Her latest Barbican series, Dystopia is Not the Future, is both an act of resistance and hope: evidence that imagination and compassion can be tools for change-for-good. Across talks and screenings featuring the likes of Andreas Malm, Maria Alyokhina (Pussy Riot) and Cory Doctorow, Davies-Crook invites us to strive together – fiercely and collectively – toward better worlds. Ever the agent provocateur of ideas, she also teases her next adventure: Dirty Weekend, a two-day celebration of fashion, filth, and freedom. Expect intellect, mischief, and the conviction that culture has the power to change everything. Read on. Get involved. Enjoy!

The title Dystopia is Not the Future feels defiant. What sparked this series – and what made you want to reclaim optimism as a radical act in 2025?

I’ve always been active in wanting to co-create a more just world. We are the change, and that change has to be collective – it can’t happen in a vacuum. Like many of my generation, I went to the marches against the War on Iraq in 2003 when I was at school. I’ve attended the anti-austerity and anti-disability cuts protest marches, and you know what, nothing changed. It all seemed to get worse. That sense of not being heard, or not being able to effect change combined with the atomisation and individuality of social media culture, means that in some ways it can all feel hopeless – like nothing makes a difference and we might as well accept our fate sliding toward the visions of dystopia laid out for us.

I joined the Barbican shortly after Devyani Saltzman arrived as Director for Arts and Participation, and she was clear immediately that talks and critical discourse were top of the agenda. When we were first discussing the series back in summer, the Barbican’s interim head of cinema Cary Rajinder Sawhney MBE and I spoke about countering hate with hope, and how instead of the churn of disaster imagery perhaps speculative imagination and collective optimism is something that could imagine different futures. Then I was at Glastonbury this year which was the first time I’ve really felt it as a place of collective spirit as well as a revel – with the Led by Donkeys project and Kneecap performing against the odds. Will McCallum from Greenpeace made a rousing speech – and he said an interesting thing that I agreed with, which is that we know our common enemies but the real enemy is apathy – because we must know that we can make a difference every day – small and big. I like to think of Diane Di Prima’s message from Revolutionary Letters, “no one way works, it will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down”.

Image: Photo of Andreas Malm who will be in conversation with Steven Donziger and Adrienne Buller as part of Dystopia is Not the Future. Sun 2 Nov 2025, 15:00. barbican.org.uk

You’ve gathered thinkers from across activism, technology, film, and ecology. How did you curate this constellation of voices, and what connects them through the lens of hope?

They are all figures who have gathered and raised their voices against the odds, and are moving through fear, imprisonment, attempted silencing – it makes me emotional even to write this – because being able to speak, to fight, to defend human rights, ecological rights and freedoms is vital, and it is hard, hard work – and these humans do it, and write about it and are published by our inspiring partners publishers Verso and Allen Lane. They share the struggle and empower the rest of us. Andreas Malm has inspired and amplified the fight for climate justice and speaks with Steve Dozinger who dared to challenge Big Oil and his life has been radically altered as a result. Masha Alyokhina has resisted authoritarianism and remains at risk for that, and Cory Doctorow has written at length about the traps technology and big tech lure us into – and is paired with Sarah Wynn Williams who also placed herself at great personal risk to speak out. I am inspired by their spirit and dedication to freedom of speech and action.

We’re also running a series called Writing Ecologies in the Barbican Conservatory alongside the talks as a generative writing group across four sessions. The first was led by writer Siddarth Shrikanth and it rewired my brain even in the four-hour session to see nature everywhere, as a part of my daily ritual – appreciating the blade of grass sprouting from the concrete as a daily ritual.

Film credit: Trailer for ‘Doppelgängers³ (PG*)’, screened as part of Dystopia is Not the Future. Wed 29 Oct 2025, 20:45. barbican.org.uk

The series insists on “leaning into compassion.” In your view, how can empathy operate as a tool of resistance – politically, socially, and artistically?

What are we without compassion? Tibetan Buddhist teaching (I am not Buddhist but I am a yoga teacher and practice and teach meditation) suggests all living beings move towards compassion and away from pain – it is the human experience that binds, corrupts and frees us. I specifically use the word compassion over empathy because there is this rhetoric of “empathy fatigue”, but a wise Tibetan nun I once meditated with who had carried out lots of death doula work said the main thing is to lead with compassion – not to feel what the other person feels and be consumed by the pain of it all – but to remain centred and compassionate, to be effective in supporting and guiding with total generosity for their experience without adopting it as your own, and to retain energy for the work that must be done to make the world better, person by person. That stayed with me.

Without humanity and compassion there is no hope, so we must protect it and protect our ability to perform it on both micro and macro levels, through whatever small or large power we are granted or take. I don’t know if it’s a tool of resistance, it’s just at the heart of things, it is why we care for others – none of us are free until all of us are free.

Optimism can sound naïve in dark times. How do you define optimism as something active, rigorous – even revolutionary?

It comes back to imagination. We have to be able to imagine better futures to make them. I co-curated a programme at Barbican with my friend and wonderful programmer Nick Hadfield earlier this year called Experiments in Utopia and it’s so inspiring to be surrounded by artists, activists and community makers doing the work. Hope and change are praxis, or daily practice even. It’s not theoretical – you have to do it. And in order to do, you must first imagine. I think a lot about declaratives and speech acts. I studied at Berkeley for a year and attended lectures with Professor John Searle, and the idea that language brings into being is such powerful knowledge i.e: the President is only the President because we imagined him, spoke him and ritualised him into existence and gave that word and term codes and power. It’s important to remember that we create this world, so we can shape it through words and action. That’s radical optimism maybe. As Ursula K LeGuin said, “any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.” I’ve also always been very inspired by economist Ann Pettifor who I’ve programmed twice now and her active inquiry into the systems of economics. It was a light-bulb moment for me understanding her assertion “credit” is from the root “credo” – to trust – ergo the credit system is held together with trust and numbers. We don’t live in a gold standard economy, we exist in credit which can be manipulated, so then austerity is a fallacy, perhaps.

Your curatorial work often explores embodiment, care, and collective repair. How do those themes translate into a talks and screenings format, rather than a gallery or live performance?

I’m not a linear person. Sometimes it’s a blessing – sometimes it’s a curse – but I think the rhizome or the mycelial network or (in my case) the neurodivergent mind offer alternatives – they offer co-operativism over competition or multiplicity over singularity. My Dad was an economics professor and liked idioms, one being “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. I remember being fascinated by his explanation of game theory and wrote my dissertation at Leeds on artist cooperatives. I am interested in alternative models and non-hierarchical structures because the structures we have are not only failing us as citizens – they are failing full stop, even by their own standards. I also work in galleries and live performance – so I think there is nothing better in the whole world, honestly, than gathering in a room and hearing ideas live that push your brain to the edge of itself – ideas that almost feel incomprehensible but somehow change your world. When I studied History of Art at Leeds with Griselda Pollock that’s how she made me feel – she’d be talking through her book and then reimagine or edit herself live on stage based on something she’d just read or someone she’d just spoken to. It’s just so inspiring, and as a woman through feminist theory I gained a voice and terminology for ideas I previously felt but had no language for. I’m eternally grateful to Griselda and her teaching.

Image credit: Photo of Mina Galán by Saint (@saint________________________). Mina Galán, founder of Club Stamina will be taking over Dirty Weekend – a celebration of fashion and filth, curated by Susanna Davies-Crook. Sat 29 – Sun 30 Nov 2025. barbican.org.uk

Finally, if dystopia is not the future – what is? What personal vision keeps you motivated right now?

My friends and chosen family. People making and resisting in small and big ways. People like Tommy Ross Williams who I met at Berkeley and then lived with as a young queer in Hackney, and whose intellectual capacity is only matched by their huge heart and will be speaking on intimacy at Dirty Weekend. Sarah Shin who runs Silver Press and whose brain I most admire but will also do my Tarot and talk to me about my astrology at length and introduce me to the most incredible artists and writers. Zarina Rossheart whose new film Freedom Song by Rohan Ayinde and Tayo Rapoport premiered on Nowness during Frieze and is an incredible work. And my yoga practice. And my writing group – shout out to my co-founder Matt Maude and Write Club London who are the absolute best!

Find Susanna at susannadaviescrook.com

Dystopia is Not the Future
Weds 22 October – Fri 14 November
barbican.org.uk

Dirty Weekend (18+)
Celebrating fashion and filth
Sat 29 – Sun 30 November
barbican.org.uk