Most public spaces don’t make room for questions about the future. Perhaps it’s something to reconsider?
Last summer for the second time, we brought the Space of Futurization to life at Terres du Son music festival in France. As part of The Laboratorium — together with NFÉtudes, the Nap Project led by Arman Ameri Mahani and Barakat Alsaleh, and Syméon Fieulaine — we created a collective space for discovery blending science with creativity, made possible with the support of Fondation APRIL.
Space of Futurization – Terres du Son 2025, Tours, France – on Youtube
Around 350 festival-goers stepped into the Futurinarium. They engaged with questions about what the future looks like, feels like, sounds like. They mapped their personal futures and global ones — and discovered just how differently those two things live inside us.
As we shared recently, the strongest effect wasn’t on specific climate attitudes or dismantling fears in a single visit. It was on increased social connection, thoughtfulness and reflection — people’s sense that imagining the future together with others was meaningful and worth doing.
That’s what the Space of Futurization is designed to create.
The Space of Futurization is an immersive, research-based installation designed for real-world cultural contexts that helps people move from anxiety about the future to creative reflection and genuine connection — while collecting rich data on how people relate to time, uncertainty, and the future. Grounded in over a decade of cross-cultural research on how humans relate to time, it can be adapted for festivals, university campuses, science events, or cultural venues — and it’s built to be experienced together.
We’re now looking for the next places to bring it. 🌱
If you work in cultural programming, science communication, climate research, education, the arts, or public engagement — and you’re looking for something both scientifically grounded and genuinely moving — we’d love to hear from you!
What kinds of spaces do you think need this kind of conversation most? 👇