Blog

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.

Senior Curator
M HKA

Exhibition | ‘A Temporary Futures Institute’

Senior Curator of M HKA, Anders Kreuger at M HKA in Antwerp and one of the editors of the art journal Afterall, published in London. He was previously Director of the Malmö Art Academy amd Exhibitions Curator at Lunds konsthall, in his native Sweden, and a member of the Programme Team for the European Kunsthalle in Cologne. A frequent contributor to Afterall, Kreuger has also published numerous catalogue essays and other texts (e.g.).

Future and Innovation Designer
Conscious Futures; Teach The Future

Gathering | Teach the Future

Erica Bol is an entrepreneurial future designer who brings together strategy and creativity for sustainable future innovation. At the Dutch futures consulting firm, Conscious Futures, she works as Future and Innovation Designer for international clients in business, governments and Ngo’s. For the foundation, Teach the Future, an international initiative working to integrate future thinking in classrooms, she has the role of ‘Change Maker’ and is responsible for the European section. She has set up the Dutch Node of the Millennium Project and is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF) and the Dutch Future Society (DFS). Erica is a creative partner in reWrap, an independent brand that designs and produces accessory products inspired by the Cradle to Cradle principle.

Photographer; Cameraman
Agence Future

Exhibition | ‘A Temporary Futures Institute’

Bram Goots grew up in Brussels before he moved to London in 1993 where he received a BA Fine Arts Multi-media from Middlesex University in 1999. As a free-lance photographer Bram shoots reportages for project developers, engineering offices and  architects. He was the set photographer on video-clips for different Belgian musicians and shortfilms. He is the house photographer for the Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp. He is a member of the international photographers’ collective OST and of the cooperative Picturetank since they were first established. Bram is responsible for the imagery for Agence Future and also for logistics as well as artistic interpretations and representations of the collection of images of the future brought together with this project. Bram was the second cameraman for the ‘ToekomstEN-AvenirS’ documentary and the director of photography for the pilot episode of the participatory television project Vill9 la serie. Since 2012 he has also worked as cameraman for a range of promotion, publicity films, musicians and visual artists.

Student; Intern 
Dickinson College; Agence Future

Exhibition | ‘A Temporary Futures Institute’

Duanduan Hsieh was born in New York City in 1997 but grew up in Taipei, Taiwan from the age of 5. The son of an acclaimed futurist, Professor Mei-Mei Song, Duanduan was exposed to futures studies at a young age. His 2015 four-part video series, WHAT WORKS IN FUTURES STUDIES, an interview with futurist Sohail Inayatullah, was awarded the Jan Lee Martin Award. Duanduan is currently pursuing a BA in Art and Art History with a Studio Arts Concentration at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Most of his art work is centered around identity and his experience as a Third Culture Kid, growing up as Taiwanese-American. In collaboration with Professor Song, Duanduan designed POSTERS FROM THE FUTURE  (2017) for exhibiting in A Temporary Futures Institute, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA). From holographic musicians to the autobiography of a spiritual robot, the four hanging posters each represent possible and probable futures.