“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 and their activities informing the Future Preparedness case study:

• Experiments for Home Futurists: FoAM's fieldwork on scenario planning and future prehearsals
• Transiency of a Contemporary Journeyman: Dougald Hine on a quest for resilience as the Resilients' “artist in transience”
• Transgenerational Residency: The Simpsons (Mark, Leah, Scarlet and Delilah) as a “Family in Residence” where FoAM in Brussels transforms from a cultural laboratory to a 21st century clan, celebrating the first Rocket Boat Day
• Collective Introspection in the Naikan Retreat: Helga Hartl assisted by Christina Stadlbauer conduct a silent retreat at the FoAM studio, investigating the effect of the naikan practice on collaboration and communication in the working environment
• Science, crafts and emerging technologies in Mathematickal Arts Workshop: Carole Collet and Tim Boykett bring together disparate disciplines - mathematics, textile design and tangible programming - to explore whether borrowing from each other's fields can increase their resilience.
• Resilients Salons: a series of conversations about topics related to cultural resilience
• Resilients Apprentice: Anthropologist Coralie Stalberg's in a creative apprenticeship investigating the resilience of re-use and repair techniques in war-time clothing.

• Scenario Symphony
• Temporal Model
• From Pan to Panarchy