“The future will always be more messy than we imagine.” –Jamais Cascio

“Future Preparedness” (FP) is a case study of behaviours of individuals and groups in challenging or unpredictable conditions. The case study combines meditative practices with transdisciplinary and trans-generational experiments, borrowing from age-old sideshows, anachronistic re-enactments and futurist scenarios. In FP we seek out practices that allow us to become aware of our past and present actions, as well as to collectively imagine and experience a range of possible futures. We believe that by cultivating awareness of our present condition we can be more open to whatever the future brings, knowing what we can or should change, what is worth keeping and what we're better off discarding. At the same time, we want to step into the future with a healthy dose of 'visionary adaptation' - with a vision of where we'd like to go, but being ready to adapt to unexpected circumstances. As the roots of any future can be found in our past and present actions, we're looking at ways to co-create future visions that are rooted in where we came from, who we are and what we do today. We prototype these visions as experimental situations that we call “prehearsals” or “pre-enactments”. In prehearsals we use improvisation and contemplation to examine the constants and variables of thoughts, behaviours, reactions and opinions - both individual and collective. Prehearsals draw on theatre games, mystical traditions, live action role playing games as well as military drills for disaster relief, such as the Nothing Can Surprise Us (NNNI) exercises in ex-Yugoslavia. Future prehearsals model life in unpredictable yet possible scenarios in Europe's near future as improvised, participatory performances. We speculate that through prehearsals, communities can begin establishing valuable contacts and skills to face uncertainty - preparing for any possible future.

The Resilients activities that are thematically related to the Future Preparedness:

• Family In Residence
• Naikan
• Mathematickal Arts Workshop
• Resilients Apprentices
• Resilients Journeyers
  • Coralie Stalberg's “debrouillardise et coquetterie”
  • Dougald Hine's travellogue & rhapsodies → http://rhapsodi.se/resilients/
• Resilients Salons

• Scenario Symphony
• Temporal Model
• From Pan to Panarchy

• future preparedness notes (in dutch)
• scenario planning
• Foreground Research

• FoAM scenario planning exercise 201204
  • Weekend Superheroes
  • The Flotilla
  • Incubator for Successful Artists
  • A Bohemian Salon
• scenario workshop 201205