'Survival Lottery' ticket
21st century
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This future is our broken world, where resources are insufficient to meet everyone's basic needs. everyone is entered into a periodic lottery, the winners of which receive sufficient resources to survive, the losers are left with nothing and do not survive. Everyone has an equal chance in the lottery to survive, but not everyone can.
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MB 2973.14
Curator
human, 0002035 CE
early-Anthropocene
'Survival Lottery' ticket
21st century
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This piece of Survival Lottery Ticket has vividly reenacted the operation of human society back in the 21st century, during the Time of Affluence. It operates in a similar way with the Resource Lottery we have today: the winners of the lottery, whose numbers are randomly drawn, will enjoy the chance to survive and thrive, while the losers will be eliminated. Archaeologists and historians believe that the Survival Lottery Ticket is an early prototype of the Resource Ticket: both have similar visual design and operating process, as well asa unique bar code for each ticket in order to prevent false pretences. Clearly, the Affluencial people have already developed a sense of equality and fairness, apart from a sense of self-sacrificing for greater collective interests, even in a time with abundant resources.
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MB 2973.14
Curator
human, future
mid-Anthropocene
Lottery ticket
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This provides factual evidence that even in the age of affluence, people were required to compete for the resources required for their basic survival by taking part in a government lottery.
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(Reply to this view by our exhibition curator): This authorised view from the future is used to normalise the use of the survival lottery as a familiar historical response to the fair allocation of resources, in order to diffuse social unrest. In reality, our current National Lottery does a great deal to raise money for good causes (including a HLF grant for this exhibition).
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Absent Voices: Curatorial research has so far been unable to find documented accounts of the views of those who lost out in the survival lottery. The losers voices remain silent on the merits of the survival lottery process.
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MB 2973.14
Curator
human, future
mid-Anthropocene
Curator
human, 0002035 CE
early-Anthropocene
Lottery ticket
c. 0001981
Rendlesham, Suffolk, England
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Handwritten labels on the presentation case housing the survival lottery tickets suggest that these objects were discovered by FN Haward, during archaeological field surveys in Suffolk, in the early 20th century. This evidence links FN Haward, with Benjamin Harrison, James Cross, & de Barri Crawshay, who were keen amateur collectors of antiquities, involved in the ‘Eolith controversy’ and later associated with the Piltdown Man forgery of 0001907. There are contemporary accounts of private views of ‘enigmatic aberrations & intriguing curiosities’ that were later associated with the commercial forgery of antiquities from East Anglia at this time.
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It is possible that the archaeologically recovered lottery tickets were part of the lost consignment of loaned objects from the Museum of Beyond. These objects were thought to have been lost in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk in 0001981, but likely to have been dispersed further back in time by the impact of the time travelling vessel crash landing. This is supported by accounts of William S. Burroughs that predate the loss of the object consignment in 0001981. Burroughs, who was at the controls of the transport vessel, became known as an infamous Beat generation novelist, drug addict, misogynist and pederast during the mid twentieth century.
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MB 2973.14
Curator
human, 0002035 CE
early-Anthropocene
Lottery ticket
c. 0002032
Eastern England
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This is a National Lottery ticket from the early 0002030’s, indicated by the use of a QR code, which in our present society of rapid technological advancement, likely lost its usefulness and popularity by the late 0002030’s. The fact that this object has been preserved into the future suggests that it must have been the winning ticket for someone very important. Perhaps the winner used their fortune for the good of society and was venerated as a saint, or alternatively, the funds may have been used to build the individual’s business or finance their political career, subsequently leading to their fame. Curators are currently working with scientists to trace any fingerprints on the object that may lead to DNA identification of the owner of this ticket, but for now, the individual is unknown.
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MB 2973.14
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artist/creator
Dean Sully