08: Ashley Cook on ‘After the Future’ by Franco “Bifo” Berardi
Thinkers write texts about the activities of complex ecosystems to better understand why things are the way they are, which other thinkers then consume, discuss and respond to as part of an ever growing network of wonder, investigation and discovery. These pieces of writing often function as a reflection of their time, influenced by some kind of collective sentiment, but more than providing answers to questions, they offer a space to explore how deeply intertwined things can become.
In 2009,After the Future by Italian Marxist philosopher, theorist and activist Franco “Bifo” Berardi was published by AK Press, a worker-run, collectively managed anarchist publishing and distribution house. It is a book that comprises twenty-eight texts written over the course of a decade that incrementally unpack the future as a utopian concept that contemporary societies have lost the ability to envision. Berardi addresses the psychological stress experienced by organic bodies when they are required to adapt to the acceleration of a hyper-connected infosphere and wide scale neoliberal deregulation. Tracing specific political, economic, environmental and social events that have occurred since the emergence of Italian Futurism in 1909, Berardi’s argument is abundant with references to figures, systems and movements of the last century that have caused feelings of hope to fade into despair.
Though seemingly macabre, this piece of writing offers reassurance that feelings of apathy, exhaustion and depression are cognitive and physical symptoms shared by a majority of individuals trying to survive in the 21st century. But about halfway through the book, Berardi begins to weave in some potential solutions to this dystopic Gordian Knot, ending with the Manifesto of Post-Futurism, a proclamation of withdrawal from competition into a life of rest, love and pleasure, unapologetically.
– Ashley, December 2025
Ashley Cook is a Detroit-based artist and writer who was born on December 23, 1986. She earned her BFA from College for Creative Studies in 2009, and her MFA from Haute École d'Art et de Design in Geneva, Switzerland in 2017. She is the founder and lead editor of the Detroit-based arts and culture publication, Runner Magazine, and has written texts for Holiday (Paris, France), Dwell Magazine (San Francisco), Morning Calm (Seoul, South Korea), and Detroit Art Review (Detroit, Michigan, USA) among others.
