Art for Futures Lab

**Art for Futures Lab** is an interdisciplinary, participatory project combining art, science, innovation and sustainability to imagine, prototype, and foster desirable futures.

It is run by the Institute for Art and Innovation (IFAI) in collaboration with Filmuniversity Babelsberg and other partners. Nicole Loeser is one of the co-founders and leads much of its conceptual work - art-innovation.org

- gem-project.eu - pdf

Its method is not simply to warn or depict dystopias, but to explore *probable, possible, and preferable futures* through creative and artistic means — generating hope, sparking imagination, and enabling action.

# Key Features & Methods

Here are some of AFFL’s key practices and methods: - Co-Creation Labs - filmuniversitaet.de - **Understand-Imagine-Contribute** (UIC Framework) - Archives of Innovation - **Narrative & aesthetic work**: scenographic phases, visual & verbal storytelling (e.g. “Street Corner” exercise in a recent world‐building workshop) to make futures concrete. - **Interdisciplinary & international reach**: works with universities, institutes, students across disciplines, includes partners from different countries - filmuniversitaet.de

# Goals & Impact

The Art for Futures Lab (AFFL) aims to: - Shift narratives from fear and dystopia toward more positive, productive, regenerative visions. The “Film Cities of the Future” workshop via UNESCO Creative Cities Network with Potsdam and other film cities is an example - pdf - Increase *futures literacy* — the capacity of people to think about and engage with the future in a way that enables better decision-making - pdf - Translate imagination into action: not just stories, but creating impulses/tools/strategies that people or communities can take. - Foster sustainability, social innovation, and ecological responsibility through creative modes.

Also, the project has won recognition: AFFL received the *German Award for Sustainability Projects* in 2024.

# Example Projects & Outputs Some concrete examples of what the Lab has done: - The **“World Building meets Art for Futures Lab”** (2023): this combined AFFL with the *World Building Institute* (USA) to use a dystopian base scenario (an island destroyed by a volcano) as a starting point, then move toward imagining utopian / positive futures from that. Students created societies, systems, resource recycling models, etc. - Workshops / events such as “New Greening World”, “Ocean Future Lab”, “Potsdam Science Day” etc.

# Structure & Partners

Some notes on who is involved, and how it is organized: - Nicole Loeser (Institute for Art and Innovation) is a central figure: curator, researcher, organizer -holitopia-festival.com - Filmuniversity Babelsberg (Film University) is a core institutional partner. - Institute for Art and Innovation (IFAI) is the NGO/institute behind many of the projects. - Other partners: Scientists for Future; various universities; international collaborators (e.g. World Building Institute, etc.)

# Assets

art-for-futures-lab

- AFFL Mixed Methods

# See - Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF - UNESCO Creative Cities Network (2024) - pdf

[5]: https://www.unesco.org/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2025/04/Potsdam_Monitoring_Report_2024.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com "UNESCO CREATIVE CITIES NETWORK" [6]: https://www.holitopia-festival.com/contributors?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Contributors"