Arts-based approaches for futures workshops: Creating and interpreting artistic futures images

As a multidisciplinary field, futures research borrows approaches from different disciplines. However, it often ignores the potential of the arts on a large scale, even though the arts embrace creativity and often depict and narrate imagined futures. This article applies a case study approach to review and categorize selected arts-based approaches and assess their potential—strengths and limitations—for futures workshops in higher arts education context. The approaches were tried extensively in Art School Futures Labs (15 test labs and 12 actual labs) and a summer school in eight European countries. Three case examples are scrutinized in more detail to illuminate their use in the cocreation of futures images. One artistic futures image is discussed within the frameworks of Wittgensteinian aspect perception and intertextuality, highlighting the importance of interpretation in unpacking the complex meanings that artistic futures images convey. Finally, some recommendations are given to support the successful use of arts-based approaches in futures workshops.