The Jewish Futures Project
The Power of Positive Futures
Even anecdotally, we’ve each experienced the power of positive futures –– be it sci-fi novels, the first time you saw Black Panther, or any myriad other experiences you may have had –– spending time in a positive vision of the future gives us hope. In fact, studies and experiments in the social and neurological sciences have confirmed that telling better stories about positive and practical futures is the best way to engage people in the work necessary to achieve a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable world.
The design and infrastructure of Black Panther's fictional East African nation, Wakanda, prompted architectural and city planning experts to explore alternative futures.
Since artists are the imagineers of the future, we hope to work with a small group of them to rethink what Jewish futures could look, taste, feel and sound like. We will work with 12-18 artists to create digital, story-based depictions of the future, and then test them to better understand their impacts.
The Jewish Futures Project
Discussions about the future of Jews in America, and subsequent spending toward such futures, are often a conversation about numbers — how many Jews are marrying Jews, going to synagogue and raising their children as Jews. We believe that there is a much broader, creative, exciting and diverse horizon of possible Jewish futures to explore. We want to open up this world of possibility, and the role of artists is pivotal in helping shape this early experimental approach.
Each artist who participates in this pilot will receive a stipend, a production budget, extensive support from Erin Potts and her team, and will retain ownership of their creations while granting us license for use. In addition to finding inspiration in these artistic visions, we’ll also use a variety of tools and methods we’ve developed to measure the social impact these works have on a variety of audiences. Content creation can start as soon as possible, with testing happening in mid-July 2022. Eventually, we hope to work with the artists to release some of these creations to a wider audience through exhibitions and other public spaces.
This project is led by Erin Potts (see below) as a part of Jumpslide’s Futures Lab, which conducts research and experiments to understand how to tell better stories about the future around climate, gender, race, democracy and elections, amongst others. The Jewish Futures Lab is supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation.
EXAMPLES OF TELLING STORIES ABOUT THE FUTURE
Projects:
Grist’s Fix Lab Fiction Contest on the year 2200
Examples of stories about the future:
Black Futures: An Ode to Freedom Summer (video)
Fix: Imagine 2200 Fiction Series
Walkaway, a novel by cory doctorow
About Erin Potts
Erin Potts has always worked to create change through culture. In her twenties, Erin co-founded the Milarepa Fund and Tibetan Freedom Concerts with the Beastie Boys. She went on to establish and lead several nonprofits, including Revolutions Per Minute — a nonprofit agency she co-founded with Pearl Jam and R.E.M. that supported over 1,300 musicians and comedians making change, led Culture Surge to help artists engage in the 2020 election, and has conducted groundbreaking research that helps the field of art and activism have bigger impact. Throughout her twenty-five year career, Erin has been a pioneer in the field of cultural strategies, worked with and organized over a thousand artists, and earned and raised over $20M for important causes. Erin continues this work through her consulting firm, Jumpslide, specializing in cultural strategies and research.
