‘Normal’ has evaporated, Postnormal Times (PNT) is a description of the rapidly changing nature of our world. Change itself is changing. Our world, dominated by accelerating change, has become increasingly complex, riddled with contradictions, and left to the mercy of chaotic events. Postnormal Times is also a transitional phase – an in-between period where old orthodoxies are dying, new ones have not yet emerged, and very few things seem to make sense.

As such, PNT is not merely another ‘post’ —such as post-industrial, post-ideology, post-liberal, postmodern— not a concept for analyzing and deconstructing. Rather, it is a theory of the changing nature of change that aims both at diagnosis and prognosis. In normal times, we have confidence in our facts and values, and we can take our time in making correct and appropriate decisions. In PNT, the future feels like a runaway train barreling into the unknown – ‘facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes are high and decisions urgent’.

THE EXHIBITION, BOTH AN ART INSTALLATION AND A PEDAGOGIC RESOURCE, BRINGS THE MAIN FEATURES OF PNT TO THE FORE. It represents Postnormal Times as a calling: an invitation to examine current developments that would radically transform our world – leading to existential threats – and to challenge our assumptions and biases about our contemporary times and the possibilities for the future. It is specifically designed to interrogate our sense of what is and is not ‘normal’; illustrate the basic characteristics of PNT and its drivers; explore challenges and potentials for our common futures; and to ascertain the values we need to navigate postnormal times.

In conjuction with the exhibition, we also had organized seminar, workshop and lectures. The opening of the exhibition was attended by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia. Ministers and deputy minister also visited the exhibition throught the week such as:-

The exhibition was organized by Centre for Postnormal Policy and Future Studies (CPPFS) and International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).