TALK

Generous Futures, Woven Together

What might it mean to imagine the future generously? Who is generosity for, and how is it practised? What does it ask us to give up, or give back?

Generous Futures, Woven Together brings together architects, scientists, artists, writers, foresight practitioners, policymakers and youth in a plural conversation about how we shape what comes next. Each voice offers a distinct way of thinking with and through the future: from speculative fiction to strategic foresight, regenerative design to ecological care. The programme invites reflection on how generosity might be expressed through imagination, infrastructure, the stories we tell, and the systems we build.

Anchored in Singapore’s social and cultural landscape, yet attuned to global urgencies, this symposium invites us to hold the future open — radically and together.

Image credit: Frequenseers: Archives of the Amber Sea, 2025, Shiro Fujioka. Courtesy of the artist.

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
11am – 11.05am	Welcome by ArtScience Museum
11.05am – 11.40am	Keynote: Strategic Imagination and the Public Good Speaker: Peter Ho (Senior Advisor to the Centre for Strategic Futures and Senior Fellow in Civil Service College) Opening the symposium, this keynote will ground the concept of generous futures in practice. Peter Ho will explore how strategic imagination and futures literacy can inform long-term, inclusive approaches to governance, particularly in Singapore’s context. The talk will reflect on the practical stakes, responsibilities and possibilities of shaping the public good for the future, inviting reflection on the challenges and opportunities of state-led futures-making in a rapidly changing world.
11.40am – 12.55pm	Session 1: Futures at Scale — Governance, Regeneration and Civic Stewardship Speakers: Liana Tang (Second Director of Smart Nation, Strategy, Futures at Ministry of Digital Development and Information), Jeanette Kwek (Head of the Centre for Strategic Futures and Director of Futures at PMO Strategy Group), Cheryl Chung (CEO of Tent Futures), Zara Khanna (AI ethics youth advocate) How can civic frameworks meaningfully engage with plural, uncertain, and generous futures? At the scale of governance and policy, generosity can be difficult to practise, yet it is crucial for addressing long-term and systemic challenges. This session explores how foresight, civic stewardship and regenerative frameworks can reshape how institutions think about futures. It also probes how emerging technologies such as AI raise urgent ethical questions for intergenerational justice, and how youth perspectives might expand the possibilities of futures-making.
1pm – 2pm	Break
2pm – 3pm	Session 2: Futures of Hope — Generosity, Care and the Work of Imagination Speakers: Honor Harger (Vice President of Attractions and ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands), Keri Elmsly (curatorial leader), Aaron Maniam (poet/futurist). What does it mean to imagine the future generously — not as prediction, but as a practice of care and hope? This session explores generosity as both ethos and method, and how it might be translated into cultural practice that invites participation and shared meaning. It also considers hope as a disciplined form of imagination that moves us from vision to action. Together, the talks in the session reflect on how these principles can guide more humane, interconnected and imaginative futures.
3pm – 4.20pm	Session 3: Futures in Form — Architecture, Infrastructure and Urban Generosity Speakers: Richard Hassell (architect and founding director of WOHA), Srilalitha Gopalakrishnan (Associate Director Research at Future Cities Laboratory Global), Chum Jiaxin (Regional Director for Landscape, Henning Larsen APAC), Annabelle Tan Kai Lin (architect, urban designer and illustrator). What might generosity look like in our built environments? This session considers how architecture and infrastructure can nurture belonging, equity and ecological care, and how buildings, public spaces and urban systems might foster openness, care and reciprocity instead of exclusion. Reflections will explore how long-term, plural futures can be translated into tangible forms that give back socially and ecologically, particularly in resource-sensitive contexts such as Singapore.
4.20pm – 5.40pm	Session 4: More-than-Human Futures — Entangled Ecologies and Generosity Beyond the Human Speakers: Michael John Gorman (Director of the MIT Museum), Diego Maranan (transdisciplinary artist and educator), Anuj Jain (Founding Director and Principal Ecologist at bioSEA), Ong Kian Peng (media artist) Generosity is often framed in human terms, but what might it mean to extend it beyond ourselves? This session invites exploration of futures that centre ecological interdependence, multispecies justice and the worlds we might co-create with emerging technologies. The conversation will consider what it means to give back to ecosystems, design practices that acknowledge interdependence with other species and emerging intelligences, and enact justice across biological and technological futures. Curiosity, wonder, empathy and embodied practice will be explored as powerful forms of ecological and technological generosity.
5.40pm – 6.40pm	Session 5: Imagining Otherwise — Culture, Fiction and the Speculative Imagination Speakers: Ken Liu (writer), Maggie Greyson (Chief Futurist and CEO of Futures Present), Debbie Ding (artist). How can creative and cultural practices resist singular futures and open possibilities for plural, situated imaginaries? This session treats storytelling and artistic practice as forms of generosity capable of fostering justice, repair and foresight. It explores how speculative fiction, worldbuilding and artistic experimentation can prototype alternative realities, cultivate empathy, and provoke reflection on the responsibilities of imagining futures on behalf of communities.
6.40pm – 6.45pm	Thank You and Closing by ArtScience Museum

Buy tickets

About Futures Festival: Worlds in the Making

13 – 15 Nov

Futures Festival: Worlds in the Making is an invitation to hold the future open. It brings together the community in a shared exploration of plural worlds emerging from the equator — worlds that are generous, resilient and already in the making.

View details