This Was Tomorrow // Exhibition Loop // Processing

This Was Tomorrow isn’t about nostalgia or embellishing the past.
It reflects on a time when dreams were big, not for gain but for communities. These houses, while often cold and flawed, succeeded in creating spaces where people could belong-places that fostered security, connection, and a sense of togetherness. The failure wasn’t in their design or materials but in the systems that neglected them.
Support structures-maintenance, funding, belief-crumbled as quick solutions overtook the deeper vision of building communities. The concrete didn’t fail; what failed was the collective commitment to those bold ideals.
Inspired by the 1956 exhibition This is Tomorrow at Whitechapel Gallery, this project echoes its spirit. The original exhibition brought together figures like Alison and Peter Smithson, Nigel Henderson, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Erno Goldfinger-united in imagining a shared future shaped by art and architecture.
This Was Tomorrow began as a book with Judith Martin, exploring the legacy of postwar modernism.
Now, this exhibition expands that dialogue, urging us to reflect: What are we building? For whom?
Accompanying the exhibition, opening 18 Jan 2025 at Museu Quinta de Santiago in Porto, is a video exploring these ideas. Using Tim Rodenbröker-inspired techniques, I processed original images in Processing // @processingorg, reassembling them in a stop-motion style and editing them back together.
This blend of deconstruction and reconstruction mirrors the hopes and contradictions of the past and present.
This project isn’t just about looking back. It’s a challenge to the present, to believe in something better.
Do we still dare to dream?