Agence FutureExploring futures

FutureScALeS eXHIBItIOn Agence Future Exhibition

FutureScALeS Local Edition

IrIS FutureS Foresight in Brussels

HuMAn ScALeHumans and Technologies

OExpo ‘58 Back to the future

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AGENCE FUTURE

Agence Future (AF) is the working title of a long-term research project about conceptualisations of the future. For the initial field research photographer Bram Goots and Dr. Maya van Leemput travelled across the world withtheir recumbent bicycles and the necessary technology. During thirty months, in 25 countries, spread over five continents, they held over 300 conversa-tions about the future. Their conversation partners made up a varied group of experts and people from many different layers of society.

AF combines academic research with other fields of practice such as jour-nalism, visual arts and design. Each field of practice offers its own perspec-tive on the object of study as well as its own motivations for questioning the object at all. Scientists often work in/for/with the fields of business or gover-nance and this cooperation has more to offer than merely funding. It brings specific questions and points of view to the research design and implemen-tation. It offers a range of registers and contexts for showing the images of the future found in the exploration.

With its focus on images of the future, the results of Agence Future were presented, in print, on the web, in exhibitions and audio-visual montages.

Time: 02000-02003Place: five contintentsPartners: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, TVLokaal, European Green Alliance, KPN-Orange, HPVelotechnik, De Morgen, S&T Vacature

Exploring futures

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Agence Future: Interviews

The respondents that contributed to AF’s collection, come from different loca-tions around the world, with different cultural, political, professional, religious and economic backgrounds. We approached these people directly and talked with them in their own settings.

84 expert respondents included: Thidiane Ba – biologist and UICN president (Senegal); Tony Stevenson – futurist former president WFSF (Australia); Sheikh Kiftaru – Grand Mufti (Syria); Kemal Meatle – director PBC Software Technology Incubator Park (India); Jacek Damienski – architect (Poland); Steve Davidson – AI researcher Hewlett Packard Labs (VK); Tom Gerhels – astronomer (VS); Thomas Izquervo – economist (Chilli); Pedro Gonzales – writer (Guatemala); Serdar Ozalalaybey – seismologist (Turkey).

A sample of over 200 diverse conversation partners: a rickshaw driver in Madurai, a Turkish fashion designer, an unemployed Cuban and a light tech-nician from the same country, three generations Australian surfers, a flower seller, housewives and churchgoers, OAP tourists on a cruise in Norway, school kids, Chilean farmers, sugar factory workers in Senegal, a Dogon elder in Mali, university students in Mexico, homeless people in Australia, Syrian hip hop dancers, secretaries, civil servants, activists, travellers, bar flies, night guards and kitchen maids.

Chris, psychotherapist from Sydney Australia, hopes that the best thing that could happen to him in the future is not

limited by his mindset of today.

Eva Grinan in Santiago, Cuba, thinks wireless microphones could fly in the future.

Farmer Carmella Valdivia in La Espinal, Chile, is waiting for Jesus.

Thomas Isquervo in Santiago, Chile, doesn’t want to loose himself in the system.

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Agence Future: Outputs

EFMN Brief: Agence Future - Futures Conversations Around the Globe. European Foresight Monitoring Network. Forsight Brief No. 055. Brussels, 2006

Posterpresentation : Futurescales - Evaluating Images of the Future. JRC-IPTS. Second International Seminar on FTA. ‘Impacts on policy and decision making’, Sevilla, 2006.

Conference Paper: Diverging Methods in Single Futures Research Projects. Second Prague Workshop on Futures Studies Methodology. CESES – Charles University, Prague, 2005.

Conference Paper and Workshop: The Toynbee Convector Experiment. Second Prague Workshop on Futures Studies Methodo-logy. CESES – Charles University, Prague, 2005.

Various workshops and presentations adult education, vzw’s, bicycle fairs, Antwerp, Brussels, Gent, Amsterdam, Friedrichshafen, Munich, Karlsruhe, Honoloulu, 2004 – 2008

Seminar: ‘Researching concepts of the future. The idea of progress in local discourses’. University of Kerala. In collaboration with Prof. Dr. V. Nanda Mohan, Trivandrum, 2002.

Interim Reports: Agence Future research component. Vakgroep Sociaal Onderzoek. VUB, 2001, 2002, 2003.

Various interviews print media, radio and television, 2000 – 2006

Website: www.agencefuture.org with illustrated travel and research stories, 2000 - 2003.

End-report field research Agence Future. Fonds Pascal Decroos voor Bijzondere Journalistiek, 2000.

7 Magazine articles: Science Technology, September 1999 - June 2000.

24 Newspaper articles: Agence Future. Ontdekkingsreis naar de toekomst. De Morgen, July 1998 - November 2000.

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Met Agence Future blikten we vooruit naar gedroomde en gevreesde, realistische en imaginaire toekomstscenario’s. ‘FUTURESCALES’ werd samengesteld om het verzamelde materiaal ten toon te stellen. Voor het eerst werd ook een montage van video-opnames van de interviews getoond.

We hielden 90 interviews met experts, ongeveer honderdvijftig diepte-inter-views met mensen uit verschillende lagen van de bevolking en bijna even-veel kortere ‘vraag en antwoord’ gesprekken op openbare plekken. In al die gesprekken werden toekomstvisies op een persoonlijke, lokale en wereld-wijde schaal besproken. Het verzamelde materiaal geeft een indruk van de diversiteit die Goots en Van Leemput aantroffen onderweg en meteen ook van het effect dat hun vragen over de toekomst kunnen hebben

De tentoonstelling volgt dezelfde basisstructuur als onze interviews over de toekomst. Het eerste deel bekijkt de kleinste schaal waarnaar de inter-views vragen, die van het individu, de persoonlijke:schaal 1:1. Het tweede deel van de interviews bespreekt de plek waar iemand leeft: schaal 25:000. De globale, internationale en tegelijk dagdagelijkse schaal wordt dan 35:000.000.

Time: 02004Place: AntwerpPartners: Gun Shooting Gallery, ASAP Photographic Services

ExhibitionFutureScALeS

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The Futurescales scales

Scale 1:1

Do you ever think about the future? What would be the best that could happen? What would be the worst? What do you think will happen?

Scale 1:1 is the personal starting point, it is the scale in which the future is perhaps best represented as every human being.

Scale 1:25.000

Can you imagine this place in 100 years time? What would be the best that could happen here in the next thirty years? What would be the worst? What do you expect will happen here?

Scale 1:25.000 is the local starting point, in which the future is still close by. This scale can be represented as every place.

Scale 1:35.000.000

Can you imagine the world in 500 years time? What would be the best thing that could happen with the world in the next fifty years? What would be the worst? What do you expect to happen?

Scale 1:35.000.000 is the global starting point, in which the future reaches furthest and can be represented as daily life every-where.

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After a screening of the Futurescales DVD for the Brussels vzw Constant Stitch and Split series at Muhka_Media, the media department of the Antwerp Museum for contemporary art commissioned an additional 35 inter-views to be conducted in Antwerp. The resulting film with an impression of the kinds of responses the AF questions elicited in Antwerp was screened for the first time on April 23, 2006.

Fitting in the Agence Future and Futurescales context, the film does not attempt to give a representative overview of what Antwerp people think about the future, but instead focuses on the different ways in which some of our respondents engage with questions about the future.

The film concentrates on how the different scales are treated by the people we encountered in Antwerp and combines in-depth interviews and street interviews. In the personal scale we hear about what it means to grow up and to grow older, about immortality and the body. In the local scale town planning, infrastructure and multi-cultural community are discussed. In the global scale we hear how people from Antwerp look at the future of the world around them. Throughout the film comments by conversation partners are provided about the way things change, how the future can be pictured, cer-tainty and uncertainty and the need for futures thinking.

Time: 02006Place: AntwerpPartner: Muhka_Media, Constant

Local EditionFutureScALeS

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welfare

infrastructure

creativity

IrIS FutureS

Iris Futures was a two-year study of prospective activities and futures think-ing in Brussels conducted at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel with a Prospective Research for Brussels grant of the Institute for the encouragement of Scientific Research and Innovation of Brussels. The point was not know-ing or predicting the future of Brussels, but creating an overview of existing prospective activities and approaches to futures in Brussels.

The research built up short-lists of 60 future oriented activities and 120 organisations in Brussels. In addition 82 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with people from the short-listed organisations and groups. These conversations focused on one of four guiding themes: urban infra-structure, welfare, learning and creativity.

The analysis concentrated on the barriers and constraints to foresight in Brussels. The case of the Brussels Capital Region demonstrated that institu-tional and organizational fragmentation need to be overcome. De-fragmen-tation (bottom-up and institutionally) presents itself as a condition for and an effect of a futures oriented practice.

Time: 02005 - 02007Employer: VUBClient: IRSIB-IWOIB

Foresight in Brussels

learning

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Iris Futures: Outputs

Conference paper (journal article forthcoming): Foresight in the Brussels Capital Region. University of Strathclyde 3rd Foresight Conference ‘Learning the Future faster’, Strathclyde, 2007.

Conference paper: The futures orientation of creative sectors in the Brussels Capital Region. 9th International Conference of Finland Futures Research Centre and Finland Futures Academy. ‘Changing Foresight Practices in Regional Development - Global Pressures and Regional Possibilities’, Turku, 2007.

Final Report and database: Iris Futures. The foresight landscape of the Brussels Capital Region. IRSIB-IWOIB; Prospective Research for Brussels, Brussels, 2007.

Interviews and projection: Futurescales in Brussels. ROTOR, Les Studios Public, IOIO, ‘R(ue)T(he)F(landres) 181’, 2007, Brussels

EFMN Brief: Iris Futures - Foresight in in the Brussels Capital Region. European Foresight Monitoring Network. Forsight Brief No. 094. Brussels, 2007

Workshops and presentations: Zinneke Parade. Introductory and exploratory team workshops, toolkit for imagining futures for Zinneke participants, 2006 - 2007

Multi-media poster presentation: Iris Futures – Foresight in the Brussels Capital Region. JRC-IPTS. Second International Seminar on FTA. ‘Impacts on policy and decision making’, Sevilla, 2006.

Poster presentation: Iris Futures. Thinking Futures in the Brussels Capital Region. Charles University Eighth Futurological Colloquium ‘Designing the Future in Europe ´05’, Prague, 2005.

The Rotory Club at RDF 181 offered a temporary home, additional interviewing and sharing for Iris Futures.

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21 The Human Scale: Humans and technologies 22The Human Scale: Humans and technologies

The Human Scale is een serie van vijf montages van interviewuittreksels bij el-kaar gebracht voor het Homo Futuris Festival van het UNESCO Centrum Vlaan-deren en het Kunstencentrum Vooruit.

Naast de organisatie van een debat over de impact van wetenschap en technolo-gie op de mensen en maatschappij van morgen, werkten we een programma van filmvoorstellingen en optredens uit. Een instalatie van vijf montitors opgesteld in verschillende ruimtes van het kunstencentrum maakte hiervan deel uit.

De selectie uit de diverse Agence Future collectie werd daarvoor bij elkaar gebracht met een combinatie van wetenschappelijke en artistieke methodes en doelstellingen. De vijf video loops - futures, ambitions, bodies, technologies en populations - laten zien welk effect vragen over de toekomst kunnen hebben.

Later werd de selectie voorgesteld in combinatie met de foto’s van Bram Goots. Deze plaatsen de mens alleen in zijn omgeving en benadrukken tijdloosheid of net het verstrijken van de tijd. In deze combinatie werd The Human Scale ten-toongesteld in het Cultureel Centrum van Hasselt en in het Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam.

Time: 02006-02007Place: Gent, Hasselt, AmsterdamPartners: Kunstencentrum Vooruit, Unesco Centrum Vlaanderen, Brakke Grond, CC Hasselt

HuMAn ScALeHumans and technologies

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MAS/Erfgoedcel Antwerpen nodigde Dr. Maya Van Leemput uit voor een veel-zijdig project naar aanleiding van 50 jaar Expo ’58. Het project sluit aan bij het landelijke initiatief van de Vlaamse erfgoedcellen ‘Expo ’58: Back to the Future’.

Bij het herdenken van de Wereldtentoonstelling kon nostalgisch terugblikken niet volstaan. Het ‘back to the future’ idee verdient nader onderzoek. Toekomstonder-zoeker Dr. Maya Van Leemput peilde niet alleen naar de beleving van Expo ’58 bij de talrijke bezoekers maar stond ook stil bij toenmalige toekomstbeelden, en die van vandaag over morgen.

In O58 is de laatste Wereldtentoonstelling in ons land de aanleiding om te bekijken hoe we ons de toekomst (kunnen) voorstellen. De denkpistes in het video-document worden aangereikt door 14 van in totaal 20 getuigen die hun verhaal over de Expo hielden in het kader van het breder onderzoek. Het ge-tuigendocument laat de geïnterviewden zelf aan het woord. Het biedt geen reconstructie van historische feiten noch louter persoonlijke verhalen maar reikt een reeks reflecties aan met betrekking tot toekomstbeelden.

Time: 02007 - 02008Place: Antwerpen, BrusselPartners: Museum aan de Stroom | Erfgoedcel Antwerpen, FARO, Koninklijk Belgisch Filmarchief

Expo ‘58 Back to the future

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Maya Van Leemput maya@reelfutures.net

Bram GootsPhotography

Deborah RobbianoGraphic Design