The aim of this thesis was to study how the methods of experiential futures studies apply in the visionary work of the cultural field. Experiential futures is a multidisciplinary field that studies ways to bring the future to the present so that people can experience different possible futures and change their ways of thinking and acting in order to achieve the best possible future.

This thesis was commissioned by KULTA ry in search of new angles of vision, tools and information for their strategic planning, envisioning and lobbying for the cultural field.

The methods have been developed over the last ten years within and in cooperation with several fields of study. Cultural field however has not been very active and there are only a few examples to be found. This thesis opens up the development of future studies, some of the key researchers and methods thought to be suitable for the cultural field. Some methods were also tested in practice and it was studied what is required of the participants and what kind of results can be expected.

In this thesis two methods of future studies were tested in the production process of the Street Festival of Lauttasaari. First method was Ethnographic Experiential Futures (EXF) and the second one was Guerilla Futures. EXF combines two traditions of foresight, Ethnographic and Experiential Futures studies, whereas Guerilla Futures brings the future to the present to be experienced in a surprising way. As a result, a song and a video were produced based on the future visions and hopes of the people of Lauttasaari. The ideas were gathered in an open online questionnaire. The same material was used to design a full page ad of the imaginary Street Festival of the Future, which was published in the local paper and thus brought directly to the coffee tables of the people of Lauttasaari. Another questionnaire was created to gather feedback for both experiences, music video and newspaper ad.

The results were promising. Over 90% of the feedback respondents felt that the experiences from the future enhanced their probability to take part in the Street Festival. 55% felt they might be interested in participating in the production as volunteers or exhibitors. The open feedback was positive and an especially encouraging result was that the organisation arranging the festival, Lauttasaari-Seura, was very keen on developing the festival along the lines that came up in the questionnaires.

It came clear that the creative, touching and concrete methods of experiential futures studies apply very well in the strategic planning and envisioning of the cultural field. The creative operators and projects of the field can very well be the subjects of development themselves, not just driving forces or moderators in the processes of developing other fields as they traditionally have been.