The centre of expertise Applied Futures Research – Open Time of the Erasmus University College Brussels and M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp) are collaborating on an exceptional three day conference linked to M HKA’s 2017 summer exhibition ‘A Temporary Futures Institute’.  

Taking cues from futurists and artist from different local and global contexts, DDT looks at how futures are designed, developed and transformed.  We will host academic and professional futurists from the global North and South as well as artists and designers, professionals from development (cooperation), (public) policy, business (management) and civil society. Bringing together such diverse perspectives, we are setting the scene for a rich exchange on how futures orientations can be applied to address the complex, chaotic and contradictory nature of the present.

At the DDT conference we will: 

  • Gather experiences and images of the future from different fields of practice, including those from the global South and the field of the arts;
  • Create learning opportunities from connecting the futures orientations of different practices;
  • Give account of the diversity of approaches to futures;
  • Provide networking opportunities around applied futures approaches.

Participate to: 

  • Learn what artists and futurists make of the futures;
  • See how images of the future generated in projects from diverse contexts become tangible;
  • Experience collaborative and open-ended approaches to possible, probable, plausible and preferable futures;
  • Share cases, insight and knowledge, build skills, find inspiration;
  • Find out what selected futures research, projects and programmes have attempted and achieved;
  • Compare notes with fellow participants in the Open Space at M HKA;
  • Ask new questions, activate capacities and create opportunities for new futures perspectives.