Call for participants: Futures Literacy and Imagination: Knowledge Production in the Symbiocene
22/06/2026
BOOK TICKETS
BOOK TICKETS
Futures Literacy Laboratory: Futures of the Library
22 June 2026, Lexicon, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
10.30 – 4pm
We live in a time shaped by accelerating ecological, technological, and social transformation. In moments of uncertainty, the ways we imagine the future influence not only our decisions, but also our capacity for care, responsibility, creativity, and collective action.
Futures of the Library is a participatory Futures Literacy Laboratory exploring how libraries may evolve as spaces of knowledge production, imagination, memory, and cultural transformation within the context of the Symbiocene.
Described by UNESCO as “the skill that allows people to better understand the role that the future plays in what they see and do”, Futures Literacy encourages us to reflect on how imagined futures shape present-day actions, assumptions, and possibilities. Rather than attempting to predict what will happen, Futures Literacy Laboratories create space to collectively engage with uncertainty, expand imagination, and explore how images of the future can inform action in the present.
Together, participants will engage with creative and reflective approaches to futures thinking while considering how cultural spaces may respond to ecological, technological, and social transformation. The workshop invites curiosity, dialogue, imagination, and collective reflection.
The Symbiocene, a term proposed by philosopher Glenn Albrecht, describes a future era centred on interdependence, ecological balance, and mutual flourishing between humans and more-than-human worlds. Drawing on futures thinking, creative practice, participatory methodologies, and arts-based approaches to learning, the session creates space to think beyond short-term horizons and engage more deeply with uncertainty, complexity, and futures possibilitties.
The workshop forms part of the wider research initiative Futures Literacy and Imagination: Knowledge Production in the Symbiocene, an ongoing exploration into the role of imagination, long-term thinking, and creative practice in shaping future-oriented cultural and educational environments.
Recognised by UNESCO as an essential capability for the 21st century, Futures Literacy is the capacity to understand how the future influences the present.
Developing Futures Literacy supports our ability to engage with uncertainty, complexity, and change with greater awareness, imagination, and agency. It encourages critical reflection on assumptions about progress, technology, society, ecology, and human relationships, while opening space for alternative ways of thinking and relating to the future.
Futures Literacy is increasingly being applied across education, culture, sustainability, design, research, and innovation contexts as a way of cultivating:
At its core, Futures Literacy is about expanding our capacity to imagine, question, and respond to possible futures in more conscious and meaningful ways.
The workshop is open to anyone curious about the future, creativity, culture, ecology, and new ways of thinking about change. It welcomes artists, designers, students, educators, librarians, researchers, cultural workers, creative practitioners, and members of the public interested in imagination, learning, community, sustainability, and future-oriented thinking.
Participants will engage with a series of guided activities, conversations, and reflections designed to support openness, curiosity, and imaginative thinking. Some activities may involve discussion, visual thinking, writing, observation, or collaborative creative exploration.
The session is designed as an open and welcoming environment where diverse experiences and perspectives are valued. No previous experience in futures studies or creative practice is required.
Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis
The session is facilitated by Justyna Doherty, an artist, researcher, educator, and certified Futures Literacy facilitator based at IADT. Her work explores imagination, long-term thinking, ecological futures, and participatory arts-based methodologies. Her research focuses on how creative practice can support futures literacy, intergenerational awareness, and new approaches to knowledge production within cultural and educational contexts.
This project has been supported by Creative Futures Academy’s Communities of Practice Funding which enables focused, exploratory initiatives that advance creative education and collaboration across CFA partners: IADT, UCD and NCAD.
