Speculative crafting for un/common futures, or Specxcraft for short, is a co-creative, artistic research project between 4 Brussels-based organisations: Urban Species, Natagora, Centre Vidéo Bruxelles and Constant. Using concepts from SF (sci-fi and speculative fabulation) and methods of crafting and prototyping the project tries to find answers to the following research question: Can fostering a particular form of imagination - speculative, embodied, materialised, responsible and multi-situated - lead to less resignation and more resilience facing Brussels’ future and its multiple crises?

More specifically, can the co-creative training and crafting of a ’speculative imagination’ reconfigure aspirations, fears and values that are opposed - or on the contrary allied - in Brussels debates today?

Specxcraft starts from the hypothesis that the capacity of imagining futures and projecting oneself into the consequences of present situations and choices is a citizen’s pivotal skill in the current context, continuously confronted with the threat of crises; and that the pluralisation of imaginaries of futures, working with underrepresented publics, constitutes a cornerstone of the democratic character of Brussels public action.

The project is funded by the Innoviris Co-create grant and will run from September 2022 to February 2024.