Futurist Researcher
Erasmus Hogeschool; Agence Future

Exhibition | ‘A Temporary Futures Institute’
Presentation | Futures Course First Time Report

Maya van Leemput is a professional futurist combining research and consultancy with a creative multi-media practice. Next to her independent practice she is senior researcher developing the new centre of expertise Applied Futures Research – Open Time at the Erasmus Hogeschool. Maya’s background is in media studies, having attained a Ph.D. from the University of Westminster in 02001 for her research on “Visions of the Future on Television.” Her forward looking work on media, culture, arts, (cross-cultural) communication, development, science and technology in society and urban environments is based in critical theory and uses experimental, creative and participatory approaches. Since 1999 she partners with visual artist Bram Goots on Agence Future (AF), a long-term independent project for exploring images of the future through conversation and intercultural experiment.  The project started with a field journey for ethnographic futures research in 25 countries on five continents. The project continued with recorded futures conversations in various settings and contexts. In 2014 Agence Future completed the three-year extracurricular development education project MAONO that brought students from Brussels (Belgium) and Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo) together with Congolese artists for the co-creation of images of the future, culminating in a campus event and a one month exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp. Maya also leads the World Futures Studies Federation’s ‘World Futures Learing Lab’ project that has been active since 2012 with the support of the UNESCO Participation Programme and that has provided extra-curricular educational activities in six locations in the global South for over 300 participants.