Autumn Breon: Reimagining Broken Systems through Art, Activism, Radical Self-Care, & Speculative Worlding | Urgent Futures #16

My guest this week is Autumn Breon.

Autumn Breon is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the visual vocabulary of liberation through a queer Black feminist lens. Using performance, sculpture, and public installation, Breon invites audiences to examine intersectional identities and Diasporic memory. Breon imagines her work as immersive invitations for the public to join in the reimagining and creation of systems that make current oppressive systems obsolete. Breon has created commissions for Target, Art Production Fund, Frieze Art Fair, and the ACLU of Southern California. Breon’s performance history includes Hauser & Wirth, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Water Mill Center. She is an alumna of Stanford University where she studied Aeronautics & Astronautics and researched aeronautical astrobiology applications. Breon is a recipient of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart Fellowship for Abolition & the Advancement of the Creative Economy and the Race Forward Fellowship for Housing, Land, and Justice.

Urgent Futures is no stranger to polymaths—folks who have idiosyncratic, hybrid expertise across domains—and Autumn definitely lives up to the term, from aeronautical astrobiology to arts and activism. This more recent expression of her practice encompasses many different forms, as you’ll see in this conversation. But what I so appreciate about her work is her commitment to equity, and using speculative futures, art, design, and performance to invite new imaginings for what contemporary reality could be. In some aspects this is super conceptual, such as in her use of Planet Esoterica as a storyworld from which she draws powerful metaphors, aesthetics, figures, and other artistic ideas. But in other aspects this imagining is rooted directly in the present, such as her groundbreaking Care Machine “Caravan,” through which she partnered with Plan C to provide free access to abortion pills for folks in different parts of the United States in the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade.

Her focus on radical self-care feels like critical wisdom: it’s easy in the face of all the noise to throw ourselves into our work, whether that’s the grind of jobs and side hustles or activist causes. Either way, beginning from a place of self-care enables us in turn to genuinely care for others in our community—whatever form that community might take. It’s so simple and yet, speaking for myself, something that I forget so often. If you’re like me in that regard, this is definitely an important episode for you! And even if you have that all figured out, this episode is chock-full of insights across art, technology, activism, speculative fiction, and more, so buckle up!

If you’re loving the Urgent Futures podcast…

Please subscribe + leave a review on your preferred podcast platform! Both things help the podcast grow. Guests on Urgent Futures are experts across art, science, media, technology, AI, philosophy, economics, mathematics, anthropology, journalism, and more. We live in complex times; these are the voices who will help you orient to emerging futures.

Support Reality Studies:

NOTE: Thank you for supporting my work by purchasing these products through the links provided. I will only ever share products I actually believe in.

ZBiotics: Right now, get 10% off ZBiotics. Just head over to zbiotics.com and use code JESSEDAMIANI. If you have an evening with drinking and a morning you need to feel fresh, I strongly recommend these.

Genetically engineered by a team of PhD microbiologists, ZBiotics is a probiotic drink that breaks down the byproduct of alcohol responsible for rough mornings after drinking (acetaldehyde).

NordVPN: Right now, get up to 69% off 2-year plans + a Saily eSIM data gift through this link. Some people tell me that “VPN” brings to mind ideas of hackers and the dark web, but honestly VPNs are just an extremely easy way to stay much safer online. I’ve used NordVPN for the past four years, and appreciate what they offer, including Threat Protection against malware, 24/7 customer support, fast speeds, and more. One account can protect up to 6 devices (phone and computer), and they don’t track or share what you do online. Another benefit: you can always access the content/apps you have at home, wherever in the world you are.

Mission Farms CBD: Mission Farms CBD crafts full-spectrum CBD products for specific conditions like sleep, stress, and discomfort, using a combination of CBD and terpenes found in essential oils. I swear by this stuff: I take one of their Marionberry Lemon gummies to end each day.

There’s a lot of junk CBD on the market. All of Mission Farms’s CBD comes from a small farm in Bend, Oregon. They farm the hemp organically, tend every plant by hand, and test for purity four times: the soil, the hemp, the hemp-extract, and the final products. This CBD is designed for wellness and it shows. Go to this link and sign up for emails to get 25% off your first order.

CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.

Find video episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures.

Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe