Performance lecture in two parts. 2023.

In Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail, a formally-dressed, academically authoritative version of the artist Catherine Ryan is introduced, with much opprobrium, as a highly knowledgeable researcher who will give a keynote address. She commences to lecture the audience about what they need to do in order to be completely prepared for every apocalyptic scenario that may eventuate in the near future, from climate crisis and sea level rises to agricultural collapse and humanity’s domination by artificial intelligence. She tells her audience that she has read everything that there is about how to be ready for the future. As her multimedia presentation about readiness starts to malfunction around her, however, it quickly becomes apparent that she is not even prepared for her own lecture.

The work was developed during a residency at the State Library of Victoria (SLV). It incorporates archival materials from the collection of the SLV, including realia and ephemera from Year 2000 parties and an Australian public safety video from the late 1990s about the importance of being ready for the Millennium Bug.

Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail was presented as part of GUTFUL: Bug In The System - co-created by APHIDS and Long Prawn and presented by State Library Victoria as part of Now Or Never Festival, 2023. This project was developed with assistance from State Library Victoria’s Alchemy program and has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, the City of Melbourne, and Creative Victoria through its Creative Enterprises Program.

Images: Eugene Hyland and Michael Pham