It was not until the 18th century, when colonial powers began to form states into nations, that imagination became a creative ability and aesthetics developed into a technique of individuation. Fantasies of the People is a new series of texts in e-flux journal that draws on debates in anthropology, political theory, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry to think of the concept of fantasy as something that radically challenges the real.
The Fantasies of the People series emerged from a conference organized by Devin Fore and Prof. Kerstin Stakemeier at Princeton University in 2025. The series invites a variety of contemporary artists, writers, and researchers to participate in the discussion and understands fantasy not as a private or irrational activity, but as a collective material practice of “people's fantasies” (Lu Märten).
On the series of texts Fantasies of the People, e-flux journal
Published: 03/09/2026
