Maja Kuzmanović is a transdisciplinary artist, designer, writer, speaker and process facilitator with a fondness for contemplation, cultivation and futurecrafting. Maja founded FoAM as a department of Starlab in 2000. Maja's role at FoAM, her particular approach to people and technology has been recognised by the MIT's Technology Review and the World Economic Forum, awarding her the titles of Top 100 Young Innovator and Young Global Leader.
This article is intended to provide a brief introduction to working with futures as artists and culture makers. One of the central concerns is how and why Futures can provide useful methods for increasing agency and encouraging co-creation of our collective futures. It is about why futuring is important for everyone, not just corporations and governments. It describes what we at FoAM understand by futuring, our interpretation of the (pre)history of Futures and a few suggestions about where it might be able to take us. It touches on the crossovers between art, design and futures and ends with a proposition for more widespread futures literacy.
The complex uncertainties of our times make engaging with futures increasingly challenging. What could encourage proactive engagement with these challenges? The various approaches to uncertainty found in futures studies offer some starting points; where futures are iteratively imagined, tested, adapted and integrated into everyday experiences, as a continuous refinement of living in the long now.