The Futures We Create

The Futures We Create seeks to empower people to think critically, creatively, and hopefully about the future. Through a series of workshops, we help participants imagine realistic yet optimistic futures, using creative practices to spark reflection and new ideas. These workshops, launched in the summer and continuing into the autumn, aim to make futures thinking more accessible to everyone.

This project responds to the growing crisis of hope and imagination, driven by the uncertainties of the climate crisis and interconnected social challenges.

The Futures We Create is a collaboration between Andrea Gilly, Savannah Vize, Sanni Saarimäki (Tunne Ry), and Ekata Theatre.

    • future thinking

    • collective imagination

    • design research

    • embodiment

    • collective story building

How can creative cultural  practices transfer futures thinking skills and unlock critical futures imagination with a diverse citizen audience?

How can more distributed futures skills shift dominant societal narratives of climate futures?

How can creative practice and new climate future narratives build agency in individuals and enable climate action?

These research questions were explored through a series of iterative workshops. So far, we have held three workshops with groups such as Elokapina, the Mitäs Mitäs Mitäs festival, and Salarakas.

Deliverables & Legacy

    • designer in all phases

    • embodiment lead

    • workshops design & facilitation

    • futures thinking methods

    • imagination activism facilitation

    • embodiment combined with futures knowledge & practice

    • space holding

During the exploratory process, we crafted an approach to make futures thinking more accessible, comprising a bled of different creative practices:

  • An embodied practice for connecting to longing

  • A time travel visualization to the future

  • A method for collective improvised storytelling

The workshop and tools were developed with Sanni Saarimäki (Tunne Ry), whose research helped create a safe space for participants to explore difficult emotions. This approach encouraged them to face these feelings, building a sense of agency and hope for the future.

Participants shared that they felt more motivated to engage with climate and future-related work, highlighting the empowerment that comes from imagining a hopeful future together.

Why embodiment practices and futures?

I am interested in how embodiment practices—such as movement, somatics, and meditation—can help rebalance our psychological, emotional, and physical states, particularly in response to the crises we face today.

When we are in survival mode, our creativity is limited, and our ideas are often driven by the need for control. This makes it difficult to imagine new worlds.

I also recognize the privilege involved in connecting with the body and being present with what arises. Not everyone has equitable access to these practices, especially those facing direct and immediate threats. There is a need to reclaim this connection with the body as an essential human need—one that supports our capacity to heal and envision new possibilities.

Through my research and experience, I see the body as a key access point for regeneration on all levels—psychological, emotional, and physical.

In this project, I’m particularly curious about how body practices can help people connect with their individual and collective longings for the future and how this longing can serve as a driver for change.

I also want to explore how combining body practices with futures thinking methods can:

  • Foster a sense of agency

  • Shift dominant societal narratives

  • Enable meaningful climate action

What we together want to create

  1. A space of presence and care that acknowledges the complexity of the climate crisis bringing in difficult eco-emotions.

  2. A space of hope and joy that uses imagination, future-thinking methods and embodiment practices to shine a light on our inner and collective longing and what is already happening for a renaissance.

  3. A space of action that catalyses imaginaries and their felt sense into something tangible today.

Follow us on futureswe.create

WORKSHOPS

Elokapina- embodied longing

Mitäs- post card exchange

Salarakas- post-card writing

Elokapina- backcasting

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

— Arundhati Roy