Recent studies reveal a troubling trend: about 75% of young people view the future with apprehension (Marks et al., 2021: "Young People's Voices on Climate Anxiety, Government Betrayal and Moral Injury: A Global Phenomenon"). The complexity and unpredictability of today's world, exacerbated by continual changes, demand innovative approaches in education.
These approaches should emphasize playful learning, experimentation, simulations, and skills for embracing complexity and navigating uncertainty. Complementing traditional educational methods, teaching about the future can encourage multidisciplinarity, foster informed optimism, broaden perspectives, and empower learners and leaders alike.UNESCO has identified futures literacy as an essential skill for the 21st century. It encourages us to reconsider our views on the future, making the narratives that shape our expectations of what's to come more democratic and varied.
More than just expanding discussions, futures literacy aims to cultivate a proactive and critical attitude towards change and dominant stories. To tackle challenges and reduce vulnerability, skills oriented towards the future must be made widely available in society.This contribution seeks to blend futures and AI literacy by introducing an engaging way to experiment and collaborate with new technology, both visually and narratively.
Recommended amount of time: 2.5-3 hours.
Number and size of groups: 4-8 groups of 4-6 people.
Facilitators: 1-2 facilitators for 4-5 groups and 3 facilitators for 6-8 groups.
Facilities: the AI program works best with images taken with a plain, uniform background.
Necessary materials: Laptops with webcam, ideally 1 per group, individual and collaborative printouts, recyclables (ideally 20 pieces per group), scissors (minimum 2 per group), glue, strong and preferably transparent tape (1 per group), ballpoint pens (1 per person).
Recommendation: Ask participants to bring trash and other materials from home.
Where to use the Future Mirror? Anywhere! The format is flexible and works best with images against a simple and darker background. You can dive right in and follow the steps at the info page or follow the longer format for deeper speculation and building processes. This approach is particularly pertinent in fields related to innovation, creativity, technology, design, and crafts.
The Future Mirror was commissioned by Innovation Lab and Centralbibliotekerne for the NextGen conference at Dokk1 in Aarhus, Denmark 2023, and was developed by AI Artist, Andreas Refsgaard and Futurists, Nicklas Larsen and Jasmin Cramon from the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. It was supported by Poul Due Jensens Fond. The Future Mirror builds upon the Futures Bazaar which was created by Stuart Candy and Filip po Cuttica, co-published by Situation Lab and the BBC.
We encourage using this project to imagine positive futures. We discourage entering offensive content or private information into the system in the form of images or text prompts. We recommend not taking any pictures of faces or people. Instead, the system is intended for processing images and text descriptions of artefacts built in the workshop. The project does not have server-functionality, so once the browser tab is closed, the generated content cannot be viewed again by users.