Future Shock review – like a pretentious nightclub where no one is dancing

180 The Strand, London
It claims to showcase the art of the future, but surely we have more to look forward than dry ice, lights and music that sounds like the contents of Brian Eno’s dustbin

When you’ve seen one laser carving clouds of smoke to create illusory 3D spaces that warp and shift before your eyes, you’ve seen them all. And I saw this special effect in Back to the Future: The Musical, so the two installations that use it in the latest subterranean art spectacular in the cavernous club-like depths of 180 The Strand cut no dry ice with me.

There are other parallels between this exhibition and Back to the Future, which is at the Adelphi, down the street. Both are science fiction. But whereas the story of Marty McFly and his time-travelling DeLorean wittily plays with ideas about crossing your own timelines, there are no ideas or wit in Future Shock. It is a light show without a gig. The electro music accompanying most of the installations sounds so samey in its soothing beeps that it just washed over me. At least in Back to the Future you get some laughs, and a car flies over the audience at the end. This is like being at a pretentious nightclub where no one dances.

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