[NEW DESIGN CONGRESS](https://newdesigncongress.org) x [RECLAIMFUTURES](https://reclaimfutures.org) present _The Para-Real: Finding the Future in Unexpected Places,_ a livestream series about subcultures building livelihoods in spite of platform exploitation. Over 12 episodes streamed weekly, we meet filmmakers who have never met their actors, artists building their own networks of value, documentarians exploring digital identity, and members of resilient subcultures. All of these people share a commonality: they have an innate understanding of the _Para-Real,_ and have seized upon it to better their surroundings.

Between the digital realm and our physical world, _The Para-Real_ is a third space, equally material but poorly understood. The _Para-Real_ is where class politics, economics and the outcomes of hardware and infrastructure design collide. It manifests as the desire for play that turns young Minecraft players into network administrators, the moments where digital security meets physical safety, the creation of mutually-supportive artist-driven marketplaces or the tension inherent in Virtual Reality’s land-grab against the living room. The _Para-Real_ is the embodiment of the observation, ‘_We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us._’  _The future is not a Zoom call_. The digital systems we are confined to today merge protocol with platform to prey on isolation and extract value from labour. That we grapple with this incarnation of the digital realm indicates a dominant cartel in decline. In its place is a vacuum. We must resist the immature groupthink of the 90s’ vision of what the Internet can be. The _Para-Real_ is once again contested space.
