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At the invitation of Waag Futurelab, Michiel Schwarz wrote an essay on the future.

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Quantum Music is a project with the aim to explore the connection between music and quantum physics through the creation of a new live performance show. 


Andrija Pavlović about Quantum Music

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Listen to the podcast: Everyone along to planet B

In this fourth episode of Game Changers, we talk to Marco te Brömmelstroet. He tries to make us realise that there is more than one way to look at our use of the street.

Game changer #4: Confusion on a higher level

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At the invitation of Waag Futurelab, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michiel-schwarz-3b437b1">Michiel Schwarz</a> wrote an essay on the future. Schwarz is an independent cultural thinker, social innovator and sociologist of the future. He focuses on design, urban planning and social sustainability. In the essay: Future is a verb (from future-shock to future-making), Schwarz argues that new local forms of collaboration are the only way to achieve a sustainable and inclusive future. 
<a class="button" href="https://waag.org/sites/waag/files/2022-09/Future-is-a-Verb_Michiel-Schwarz_EN.pdf">download the essay</a>
Hi Michiel. Why do you call future a verb? 
'We often talk about 'the' future. But I don't see it as a destination or something coming at us at high speed. It is something we have to create together. Often it seems like external forces like 'technology' will cause the future to look very different.
<blockquote>But just as we write history, we must also write the future.
</blockquote>
But just as we write history, we must also write the future. The future must be our future and not their future. Hence the subtitle: from "shock" to "make. We need not fear it, but we must change our attitude from passive observers to active participants in shaping the future.'
An important concept you describe is sustainism. What do you mean by that?  
'It is a form of culture, how we look at the world, what our values are and how we shape the world. I see it as the next phase of culture after twentieth-century modernism. In the last 10 to 15 years, we have seen a cultural shift toward important things like a more sustainable social environment, ecology, engagement and small scale. Take city makers: developing the city from the bottom up instead of from the top down.
Joost Elffers and I gave this culture change a name for over a decade in a sustainist manifesto: if sustainability is the goal, then sustainism is the culture needed to achieve it. Carried by people and communities. Local markets, Do-It-Yourself movement, self-building and city makers are examples of a new practice. And it is fundamentally different from the global view focused on scalability and growth. People want things up close again. This essay is a plea to invent those new local forms as the core of our social future-making.' 
<blockquote>People want things up close again.
</blockquote>
Who has the most influence on our future? And who ideally sits at the design table of the future?  
'The big powers and forces in construction, medicine, agriculture and technology are still leading. But the movement that began as a counter-movement is really beginning to take shape. In ten years, twenty to twenty-five percent of our economy, agriculture and production will be based on these other values. You can already see it in the growth of cooperatives and activity in the local economy. We have to get rid of the idea that the whole world has to deal with economy and production in the same way. 
How do you yourself see the future? Are you optimistic?  
'Certainly. If you look at how fast things are going in recent times. Local is growing and really getting volume. When I see how young people look at nature and sustainability I am really optimistic. Change like this often goes through governments and large institutions.
If 30 percent of these types of organizations start working with a different mindset, the models will shift. Think of the locality principle: what can be done locally, should be done locally. If you start introducing this by law, which I certainly see happening, you can make great strides.' 
You write about "civic design" as a method. Can you cite an example?  
'I see our future as a collective design question. 'Civic' is about communities and relationships in society. City-making is a good example of that: that people themselves start to design places, maintain them and live in them. Neighborhoods, community gardens, communal spaces, all based on shared ideas about how we design our local environment.' 
If there's one person to read the essay, who do you pick?  
'That conflicts a bit with the point of the essay, because I think everyone should read it. At the very least, all civic leaders and local politicians in the Netherlands should read it. Not so much from a political decision-making perspective, but more from the tone of the public conversation in municipalities and the local component of my story. The future lies at the local level! It really takes a shift to think about the big issues from a local scale, rather than the other way around.
<blockquote>There really is a shift needed to think about the big issues from a local scale, rather than the other way around.
</blockquote>
In addition, I want people working on a local initiative to see that they are part of a much bigger picture, a movement. All revolutions started small and local. If you add up all the local alternatives, hundreds of millions of people worldwide are already working on shaping their future.'

<blockquote>“I think quantum music will become an open platform, quantum is such a big story”  
 
</blockquote>
There is a great mystery surrounding quantum physics and the complexity of it. As part of the <a href="https://waag.org/nl/better-future-now/">Better Future Now Festival</a>, Waag organises the event Quantum: new rules or a whole new game? on Friday 23rd of September 2022. During this public program a panel of artistic, academic and societal experts shine their light on quantum from their own specific angel. Pianist Andrija Pavlović will speak about his artistic work, and present the <a href="http://quantummusic.org/">Quantum Music</a> project. 
  
First things first. What is quantum? A quantum literally means the minimum amount of something by which it is or can be quantised. In the early decades of the 20th century, one of the peculiar things physicist found is that reality on a very small (subatomic) scale seems to be best defined by quanta rather than by a continuum, hence the name quantum physics (or quantum mechanics). Currently this is the most accurate theory to describe physical properties of matter and energy at the most fundamental level.  
  
Quantum Music is a project with the aim to explore the connection between music and quantum physics through the creation of a new live performance show. 
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</div>
<figcaption>Photo by Tan Ee Tong 2017</figcaption>
</figure>
Andrija Pavlović (1980) is a pianist and composer born in Belgrade (Yugoslavia). With his colleague, pianist Sonja Lončar, he formed <a href="http://www.lpduo.com/">LP Duo</a>. The duo are leaders of the pioneering art &amp; science project Quantum Music and inventors of a new musical instrument - the Duality Portable Hybrid Piano. They are working on translating quantum concepts into sound and music since 2014.  
  
  
The Quantum Music project in Delft is now coming to an end. What is the outcome? 
  
We created a very interesting multimedia performance that is touring through Europe at the moment. During the Quantum Music project, me and Sonja created a new instrument: the Duality Portable Hybrid Piano. This instrument is a real new thing! The hybrid piano creates a MIDI output from a concert piano which enables us to play synthesizers using the mechanics of a piano. Along with the hybrid piano hardware, a complementary software is produced. Its sounds and timbres relate to phenomena of quantum mechanics. The hybrid piano will be used to incite waves in a Bose-Einstein condensate (a state of matter where atoms are cooled to absolute zero). Only at such conditions where matter is cooled down so much that it almost doesn’t move at all, quantum effects become visible. This way specially composed music can be transferred to the quantum level. Bringing new sounds that stem from the work we’ve done with quantum is one of the big artistic outcomes. 
<img alt="Andrija-Pavlovic-Waag-Quantum-Inspire-Duality-Hybrid-Portable-Piano" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="526a118b-8041-4f79-aeb8-4d3f0e6b2748" src="/sites/waag/files/inline-images/duality%20hybrid%20piano_0.jpeg" /> 
  
Curious of how that sounds? Have a look at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgklNJsLmRI">live performance of ‘Collaps’</a>  on two Duality Hybrid Pianos.  
  
Did you extract and record already existing sounds, or did you create your own sounds during the project Quantum Music?  
  
Both. You can already extract some sounds of atoms, for example by experimenting with the process called 'scanning tunneling microscope'. That’s the sound I recorded with Prof. dr. Sander Otte (TU Delft). When I was a <a href="https://kavli.tudelft.nl/kavli-artist-residence/">Kavli artist in residence</a> I had the opportunity to closely interact with scientists from the Institute of Nanoscience and take part in their lab work. Take for example an experiment where scientists cooled atoms to near absolute zero, the coldest point you can imagine. The atoms were running around very fast when they were cooling down, finally becoming one big atom together. Then they hit them with lasers which made the big atom create some kind of mechanical wave. Any mechanical wave can form the base of a sound wave. We were getting data from experiments from Prof. Klaus Mølmer (Aarhus University), and then using a process called ‘additive synthesis’ (a sound synthesis technique that creates timbre by adding sine waves together), producing samples and banks to compose and perform new music. 

Is a piece of Quantum Music completely composed beforehand or is there also a live or improvisational aspect to it? 
  
Most parts have a clear structure but they also include improvisational parts. At some point we started recording artificial intelligence-produced voices. I like to call the AI-voices Brain and Amy. These AI-voices brought poetry into the multimedia show. 
<blockquote>
  
“For me, the main question is, how humanity can live and work together with the machines and artificial intelligence that we’ve created – especially in a world where technology is so fast and well-developed”.  
</blockquote>

  
For the show, we were trying not to use the real hardcore explanation of what is happening in this quantum science. I just wanted to create something that is more connected to the world we are living in today. Because for me, the main question is, how humanity can live and work together with the machines and artificial intelligence that we’ve created – especially in a world where technology is so fast and well-developed.  
  
In what way can the audience experience the poetics you mentioned earlier? 
  
In the visual part of the multimedia show, which was created in collaboration with an artist whose artist name is ‘Incredible Bob’, graphical solutions based on multiple quantum experiments helped the music and the story.
<blockquote>
  
“I want people to go home with new ideas, fresh energy and some new emotions that maybe they couldn’t express before.”
</blockquote>

  
The poetics of quantum music can be felt in the spoken word that comes from the AI-personalities Brian and Amy. In a way, they are playing the concert with us. They also challenge the audience by giving them questions to think about. I want people to go home with new ideas, fresh energy and some new emotions that maybe they couldn’t express before. When we play quantum music for an audience, it can be quite emotional. 
  
I would expect Quantum Music to be quite rational because of the technology, but the audience reacted to the emotionality of it. Was that the main response you’ve gotten?  
  
Yes, isn’t that interesting? In a way, music is already very much connected to science. I’d like to look one step before that; how did people in ancient times start to express themselves? For me it should be about the communication between listeners and performers. Gathering around music is an ancient ritual.  
  
The music comes from all these conversations and inspiration from Quantum, but first of all it has the purpose to move and trigger people, to ask questions. Music is perfect for transcending emotions, especially because music is so abstract.  
  
How do you see the future in Quantum Music? What will happen in 5, 10 years? 
  
At the moment, we are trying to find a way to work with all the topics that came up in the Quantum Music project for the next five years. But if you ask me about the future of music, I must say that I’m a little afraid. Music today is becoming more and more a kind of algorithm that is so predictive. I see music becoming detached from its essence of being a human ritual and a tool to transcend. I think art and science should have a strong ethical awareness to help us to create a better world. 
Quantum music will become more of an open platform, since quantum is such a big story. Also the music we made for the quantum music project is just one of many ways to do it. Quantum music is just inviting people to be involved in science and to compose in a different way. I’m trying to put the light into the unknown. 
Do you want to know more? Join us on Friday! 
This event will be in Dutch
Quantum: new rules or a whole new game? 
Time: 16:00 – 18:30 
Location: De Waag, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam
This event is part of the project <a href="https://waag.org/en/project/quantum-inspire/">Quantum Inspire</a> where Waag aims to give more users access to the technology so that they can independently program and run quantum algorithms. Waag will investigate the implications of quantum computing for society together with users.

As part of the Quantum Inspire project, Waag and partners will organise a series of co-creation workshops, bringing together and inspiring students, artists and tech-minded citizens. The first workshop is scheduled for September 23 (10:00-15:30). Two more will follow at the end of November 2022 and March 2023. Are you interested? Mail to albana [@] waag.org

What if we stopped taking the growth of the economy as the ultimate goal and instead took solidarity, circularity or the assurance that we can still breathe oxygen in 2090? In other words, what if we change the rules of the game?
In the blog series Game Changers, we talk to artists, musicians and do-gooders who do things differently. We ask them: 'what new rules of the game are needed for an open, fair and inclusive future?' Today we speak to Marco te Brömmelstroet, professor of Urban Mobility Futures at the University of Amsterdam. He researches mobility innovations, from self-driving cars to bicycle highways. With his work he tries to make us realise that there is more than one way to look at the way we use our streets.
<h4>How would you introduce yourself?</h4>
'I usually introduce myself as: 'I am Marco te Brömmelstroet. I am a father of two children, and I love playing guitar.' That's always a bit disruptive. It bothers me when people identify themselves with their work. That's usually what people ask of you when you introduce yourself. Of course, my work is only a small part of my life. I try to push myself more and more to think about who I really am.
I work for the University of Amsterdam. I mainly try to play the scientific role of 'honest broker'. The 'honest broker' is a scientist who constantly tries to show that there are multiple ways of looking at things. I don't necessarily make a decision in that.
<blockquote>'I call that 'confusion on a higher-level. You try to confuse people so they start asking better questions.'
</blockquote>
And yet, sometimes you have to take a position to make people think about other perspectives. Then you call yourself the cycling professor. To a lot of people, you are suddenly not an 'honest broker' but an activist. As soon as people think I am an activist, I want to jump away. You pull people out of their fixed positions by taking a different position, but you also change that position again. I call that 'confusion on a higher-level. You try to confuse people so they start asking better questions. That's my main goal.'
<h4>What do you think are the rules of the current system?</h4>
'Capitalism has won. There is no alternative narrative anymore. The only thing left is the question of optimisation. Everything becomes a technocratic issue and there is no more political discussion about the underlying goals. There is just a game of experts and policymakers who can solely say: 'we either follow the experts or we don't'.
The street shows this very well. By the street, I mean the public space from facade to facade that we have now mainly designed for mobility. There are lots of things we take for granted there. If you want to cross the street, you press a button to get the right of way. If you look out of your window at your street, you see that 60 per cent of the space is filled by moving and stationary private vehicles. Many people feel that the cars in their streets are driving to fast, so their children do not feel safe there. We spend eight billion on solving traffic jams and spend a minute every half-hour on every radio station on what traffic jams are in the country: 350 minutes a week per radio station! About all these things we think: that's just the way it is. Mobility is a field dominated by engineers, it has been for a hundred years. We no longer wonder at all why we press a button in the first place or who decided that the street is mainly for cars and people who want to get from A to B.'
<h4>What's about these rules is not working? And why?</h4>
'A technocracy has been set up. This technocracy is unable to solve the felt dilemmas of our time. If I have a question about the experience of unsafety in my neighbourhood, I am helped at the municipality by a traffic expert. The traffic expert then tries his best to answer my question, but he fails to do so. This is because the answer to my question cannot be found in a handbook. My question is political.
You must peel off the rules of the technocracy to find out what the core assumption of these handbooks is. In the world of mobility that core assumption is the idea that people are primarily consumers. Selfish and isolated individuals who maximise their own utility, the homo economicus. If you apply that to mobility, being on the move is a negative utility. You want to be at location A or B because that's where you can be productive. So, the street has to be a place that can get those individuals from A to B as easily, comfortably and quickly as possible. For that, literally everything has to give way. That is why you have to press a button when you want to cross the street, fast traffic gets priority over slow traffic, and 70 serious accidents happen every day in the Netherlands.
According to this core assumption, if you can reduce travel time by solving a traffic jam, you have huge economic benefits. That you also disturb nature or increase CO2 in widening the motorway does not outweigh the benefits of all those selfish people who can get from A to B a little faster with that new motorway. It turns out that this current set of rules does not allow us to properly solve a social problem like the nitrogen crisis.'
<blockquote>'I want to show that there is not one future, but multiple futures. We need to be much more aware of what choices we make now.'
</blockquote>
<h4>Suppose you were allowed to redefine the rules of 'the street'. What would you change?</h4>
'The street must become political again. We need to radically disagree with each other about what goals should be served in that public space. That is what the political debate should be about. We can stretch our thinking by thinking that the streets should actually be there for our children. Think about a public space where the autonomy of our children is central: what would that mean? Thinking about children forces people to step out of their own narratives.'
<h4>How do you push for an alternative to the current system in your work?</h4>
I am Professor of Urban Mobility Futures. I fought for the s in futures for a very long time. That is the core of what I do. In my studies around cycling and mobility innovations, first, I try to show what rule or narrative lies beneath each mobility innovation. Furthermore, I look for alternative narratives. What happens if you unleash those narratives on those same innovations? For instance, could you also use the self-driving car to optimise social cohesion instead of getting people from A to B as easily as possible? I want to show that there is not one future, but multiple futures. We need to be much more aware of what choices we make now.

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