Conference
Anticipation 2026 is an interdisciplinary conference for rethinking how ideas about futures operate within conditions of uncertainty, indeterminacy, and unknowing. Bringing together researchers, designers, philosophers, policy makers, and practitioners, the conference opens space for exploring how futures are shaped through aesthetics, ethics, epistemologies and material practices. From the politics of speculation to the situated knowledges of anticipation, Anticipation 2026 foregrounds design as a transdisciplinary engagement with what remains unresolved, unspoken, or yet-to-emerge.
Dates
> 29, 30 June 2026 | PhD Summer School
> 1, 2, 3 July 2026 | Anticipation 2026 Conference
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
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Registration & Submissions
The call for abstracts and contributions will open in September.
Registrations will be available from February.
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Venue
The 6th International Conference on Anticipation will be held at the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano,
one of Europe's leading institutions for design research and education. Located in the heart of Milan,
a global capital of design, fashion, and innovation, the department stands as a site for examining the
contemporary and future roles of design within complex societal, technological, and ecological systems.
Politecnico di Milano’s Design Department is renowned for fostering experimental, practice-based,
and transdisciplinary approaches that challenge conventional boundaries of design. It cultivates a vision
of design as a powerful mode of inquiry.
From critical design to foresight, from service design to post-human aesthetics, design at Politecnico di Milano nurtures an ecosystem where research, pedagogy, and practice interact to explore how futures are made and contested. The department brings together a diverse network of researchers, educators, and practitioners committed to advancing critical, speculative, and anticipatory design approaches while benefitting from ongoing exchanges with industry, cultural institutions, and grassroots communities. Its interdisciplinary structure includes dedicated labs and centers focused on areas such as communication and product design, service design, sustainable transitions, and design for social innovation. These spaces foster a culture of inquiry where prototyping, material experimentation, and reflective practice converge. The Bovisa campus offers state-of-the-art facilities, from fabrication workshops to immersive environments, supporting collaborative and transdisciplinary engagement.
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Conference Series
From 1st to 3rd July 2026, the 6th Conference on Anticipation will be held at the Politecnico di Milano,
Design Department. Anticipation 2026 invites participants to explore the entangled relations between futures,
unknowing, and design. The overarching aim of the Conference Series and of the emerging field of Anticipation
Studies is to create new perspectives on how individuals, groups, institutions, systems and cultures use
ideas about futures to act in the present.
1st Conference on Anticipation
Held in Trento, Italy, in 2015, it brought together over 350
delegates to explore topics ranging from design futures to anticipatory economics and the philosophy
of the present.
2nd International Conference on Anticipation
Hosted in London, UK, in November 2017, the second series aimed
to put into dialogue the empirical, practical and theoretical insights emerging across diverse fields,
from biology to psychology, cultural geography to critical theory, physics to design, and more.
3nd International Conference on Anticipation
This conference extended these concerns, driven by a deepened awareness of diverse
interests and actors in shaping anticipatory alternatives.
Held from 9th to 11th October 2019 at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO),
the conference benefitted from its design university setting, where design is understood
as an anticipatory practice, reflexive, analytical, and generative.
4nd International Conference on Anticipation
The fourth conference took place in two formats: virtually on 4 November 2022,
and in person from 16–18 November 2022 in Tempe, Arizona, USA. Continuing the mission of the series,
it explored how futures-thinking and anticipatory practices can create new pathways across systems, cultures,
and disciplines.
5nd International Conference on Anticipation
Held from 11 to 14 September 2024 at Lancaster University, UK, it built on the series’
commitment to plural and situated approaches, the conference opened new directions
in the study of anticipation by foregrounding justice across diverse domains, including climate, AI, public
health, energy, protest, and decolonial critique.