ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter – which situates, expands upon and articulates the many concerns of the book – is constructed in four sections. Each of these takes an aspect of the book’s title as its own title. First, the introductory section, ‘Opening gaps’. The quotation from Alfred North Whitehead which provides one of the drivers for this book is as follows: ‘immediate existence requires the insertion of the future in the crannies of the present’. Brassett and O’Reilly have argued elsewhere that creative practices construct the main aspects – real and imaginary, material and immaterial, actual and virtual – of our existences. This introductory section thus provides the spatial locations of the urges of this book. Second, ‘Inserting futures (with a creative philosophy)’ locates one of the main intellectual aspects of the book. To think of philosophy as a creative practice is not usual and is a particular facet of the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Philosophy, they say, creates concepts. We use this way of conceptualizing philosophy to position it as a crucial way of investigating creativity and its role in futures-related anticipation. Third, ‘Anticipating chapters’ gives an overview of the different chapters of the book. This is fairly standard. Where the editors take a slightly different direction to usual practice, is to open up the chapters to the insertion of possible future lines of research. Another book from a parallel time might have added these editors’ lines of exploration as appendices to the chapters themselves. Finally, ‘Immediate existence (whenever that might be)’ provides a thoughtful or emotional potential affective quality of the book.
