Keynote Speakers
Betti Marenko
Dr. Betti Marenko is Reader in Design and Techno-Digital Futures at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, where she directs the Hybrid Futures Lab, a platform for design research at the intersection of philosophy, technology, and future-making, and leads the research group Technologies in Question. Her work explores uncertainty as a critical resource for imagining and designing new modes of being alive. She is the author of The Power of Maybes: Machines, Uncertainty and Design Futures (Bloomsbury, 2025), co-editor of Deleuze and Design(2015) and Designing Smart Objects in Everyday Life(2021). Her new research project focuses on design, translation and transdisciplinarity as technologies for planetary diplomacy.
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Thinking Backwards. Stitching the Breach of Time, Reclaiming Uncertainty
In an age governed by predictive systems, uncertainty is treated as a problem to be managed, calculated, and reduced. From algorithmic recommendation and behavioural analytics to predictive policing and AI forecasting, contemporary forms of governance operate by transforming open-ended futures into probabilistic trajectories. But what if uncertainty is not a deficit to overcome, but a condition to defend? This talk revisits the philosophy of Henri Bergson to argue that uncertainty is not merely a temporary lack of knowledge but a constitutive feature of reality itself. Drawing on Bergson's concepts of duration, novelty, and attention, I explore how modern regimes of prediction rely on a deep habit of thought: the assumption that the future already exists as a field of latent possibilities waiting to be extracted, modelled, and optimized. Against this logic, Bergson proposes a radically different understanding of time as the continuous creation of the unforeseen. Thinking backwards, in Bergson's sense, becomes a way of reversing the habits through which we spatialize time, reduce becoming to calculation, and mistake prediction for knowledge. At stake is not simply a philosophical account of time, but the possibility of reclaiming uncertainty as a political resource and preserving the conditions through which genuinely different futures may emerge.
Fabio Scarano
Fabio Rubio Scarano is the Curator of the Museum of Tomorrow (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), where he is also the chairholder of a Unesco Chair on Futures Literacy. He is Professor of Ecology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and fellow of the Linnean Society of London. He has served the UN scientific panels on climate change (IPCC) and biodiversity (IPBES), and has held lead executive positions at the Botanical Gardens of Rio de Janeiro and at the NGOs Conservation International and Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development (FBDS). Two of his books have received prestigious Brazilian literature prizes in the field of natural sciences. His most recent book is “Regenerative Dialogues for Sustainable Futures” (Springer Nature, 2024). In 2025, Prof. Scarano has been listed among the 100 Brazilian scientists among the most influential in the world.
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Anticipation, Presence and Time: Learning from Non-Humans and Non-Moderns
Despite unprecedented capacities to predict and forecast, contemporary societies often fail to act on available knowledge. This talk argues that the gap between understanding and action is linked to an atrophy of sensorial capacities resulting from modernity’s separation from nature, and to a diminished capacity for anticipation. Drawing on philosophy, ecology, and Indigenous perspectives, the talk explores how modern societies have reinforced a division between the self and the world, privileging human exceptionalism while overlooking forms of intelligence present across living systems. Intelligence is approached as the capacity to make choices, grounded in the interplay between memory, attention, and anticipation. Examples from Brazilian plant species and Indigenous peoples from the Amazon illustrate how anticipation emerges through presence. By activating ancestral memories, plants trigger anticipatory processes that support adaptation across ecological and geological times. Some Indigenous communities use dreams as tools for making choices and defining strategies. These examples suggest that anticipation depends on cultivating memory, attention, and presence. They also point to the value of ancestral knowledge, regenerative practices, and ways of life that sustain the conditions for adaptive action. The talk concludes by examining how these lessons inform exhibitions and public engagement strategies at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro.
Ivana Milojević
Ivana Milojević is a researcher, writer, and educator with a transdisciplinary background in sociology, education, gender studies, peace studies, and futures studies. She obtained her PhD in Education from the University of Queensland and has since held academic positions at universities in Australia, Serbia, Taiwan, and the UK. Currently, she serves as the Director of Metafuture, a global think-tank, and Metafuture School, an online platform offering futures-oriented courses. As a foresight specialist and consultant, she has collaborated with numerous multilateral, governmental, and non-governmental organisations. Through the global foresight think tank Metafuture, she has applied innovative futures tools and action-learning approaches, delivering speeches and workshops worldwide. Extensively published, her books include The Hesitant Feminist’s Guide to the Future (2024); CLA 3.0: Thirty Years of Transformative Research and Practice (2022, co-editor); and Educational Futures: Dominant and Contesting Visions (2005, 2011).
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Alternative Temporalities and Choices for Our Futures
The futures we anticipate are shaped by temporal frameworks that often remain unquestioned. Dominant approaches to anticipation and strategic foresight tend to rely on linear and measurable conceptions of time that present the future as predictable, manageable, and controllable. Such assumptions limit our capacity to engage with uncertainty, indeterminacy, and plurality. Drawing on the concept of time literacy, this talk explores how contemporary anticipatory practices remain constrained by hegemonic time, a temporal regime rooted in modern science, industrial capitalism, and bureaucratic rationality. It examines alternative temporal frameworks, including co-present, cyclical, linear, and spiral understandings of time, and considers how these shape different ways of imagining futures and organising collective life. The discussion also explores the relationship between temporal assumptions, gender, power, and social organisation, contrasting forms of anticipation oriented toward control and strategic advantage with those grounded in education, creativity, care, and social transformation. Developing time literacy creates space for recognising the assumptions embedded within dominant narratives of progress, security, and development. In a context of ecological disruption, geopolitical instability, and social fragmentation, expanding our understanding of time becomes essential for imagining more equitable, sustainable, and peaceful futures.