There are pockets of our past and future world all around us, if we know where to look. From cashless all-digital payments in China to the last of the old-style Pizza huts scattered across small town America, it’s possible to see a window into the future–and the past.
Contemporary Time Travel is the act of intentionally seeking out pockets of the past and the future. Contemporary Time Travel is a concept by Alexander Webb and you can read more about it in these two articles in Poetry Culture.
Contemporary Time Travel: A Guide
This practical guide to Contemporary Time Travel takes you from places like classic Pizza Huts all the way to North Korea.
“In 2013 I visited North Korea. The mostly Chinese tourists who I went with said the country reminded them of their Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). I was interested primarily in seeing what the Cold War was like on the other side of the Iron Curtain. North Korea, and perhaps Cuba, are some of the last surviving examples of a political system and ideology which has largely disappeared, in practice if not in name.”
and
Contemporary Time Travel (a more emotional, nostalgic take on the concept).
Although time flows forward like a river, social change doesn’t flow evenly—it rushes forward in some places while barely moving in others, like a waterway with both rapids and quiet pools.
