A 509(a)(2) organization
Welcome to the Chicago Futures Salon
Exploring futures thinking through Surrealist, Situationist, and Futurist methods
"The marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful."
— André Breton
Our Manifesto
The principles that guide our exploration of possible futures
We explore multiple possible futures through creative methodologies, challenging assumptions about what tomorrow might bring. Our approach combines rigorous analysis with imaginative speculation.
Our salon brings together thought leaders, innovators, and creative thinkers to imagine and shape possible futures. We maintain an intimate setting to foster deep conversation and collaboration.
Drawing from Surrealism, Situationism, and Futurism, we employ games, scenarios, and provocations to unlock new perspectives. Our methods are designed to challenge conventional thinking.
While our methods are universal, our focus is local. We explore futures for Chicago and the Midwest, bringing global perspectives to regional challenges and opportunities.
Future-Thinking Provocations
Explore our collection of creative provactions designed to unlock futures thinking
Upcoming Events
Join us for intimate gatherings exploring the future
April Monthly Salon
The city is lying to you about spring. We gather at an undisclosed address to interrogate the false promises of renewal and build better ones from stolen parts. April is a forger's month and we are its apprentices. Nothing blooms without a conspiracy.
RSVP →THE SPECTACLE
Two hundred people in an industrial cathedral. Sponsors who bet on the strange. Guests who refuse to spectate. This is not a conference. This is not a networking event. This is a springtime detonation of everything we've been building in secret since the telephone booth on 14th Street. THE SPECTACLE is Chicago Futures Salon at full volume. Experiential, immersive, ungovernable. Expect provocations, collaborations, performances, and at least one thing nobody planned. Spring doesn't ask permission and neither do we. Hosted in the loop. Doors open once. Bring someone who isn't ready.
RSVP →June Monthly Salon
The longest light of the year exposes what the shorter days kept hidden. We occupy a secret room to read the city's dreams aloud and rewrite the ones that bore us. June is an open nerve and a dare. The solstice belongs to those who show up.
RSVP →July Monthly Salon
The heat makes thought liquid. We meet somewhere cool and unnamed to pour it into new shapes before it evaporates. July is the month the future sweats through its disguise. Come see what it looks like underneath.
RSVP →Futures Gaming Night
An evening of futures-oriented card games and strategic scenarios. Bring your curiosity and imagination.
RSVP →Sept Monthly Salon
The ice is cracking and so is the consensus. We meet in a secret location to perform surgery on the calendar itself. March is the month that pretends to be an ending but is actually a wound reopening. Bring your instruments.
RSVP →October Monthly Salon
The air softens and the surveillance relaxes. We convene somewhere you won't expect to dismantle the future and reassemble it without the instruction manual. May is when the serious people stop paying attention. That is when we do our best work.
RSVP →The Corporation
For a group rooted in surrealist and situationist traditions, 'lawful activities' is doing a lot of heavy lifting in our Articles of Incorporation. Our lawyers assure us détournement is not yet a felony.
(a) Advancing strategic foresight literacy by promoting the development and application of imaginative, scenario-based, and speculative methods to better understand and prepare for possible futures;
(b) Developing and disseminating educational materials, tools, and frameworks to empower individuals, organizations, and communities to engage with long-term thinking, anticipatory awareness, and transformative change;
(c) Conducting community events, salons, lectures, workshops, and other public programs designed to foster dialogue and experimentation around emerging trends, uncertainties, and alternative visions of the future;
(d) Collaborating with academic institutions, research organizations, civic groups, and other educational or charitable entities to support scholarly inquiry, creative exploration, and practical applications of futures thinking;
(e) Engaging in any and all lawful activities incidental to the foregoing purposes or that further the Corporation's exempt status under Section 509(a)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Leadership
Mike Hyzy
President
"Someone has to sign the paperwork. The state of Illinois requires a name. He drew the short straw and now owns a title that would have gotten him expelled from every art movement we claim to descend from."
LinkedIn ProfileMichael Marshall
Treasurer
"Guards the money with the vigilance of a man who knows exactly how surrealists historically managed their finances. Artistically. That's how."
LinkedIn ProfileAnna Mulcahy
Secretary
"Keeper of the minutes. Which is generous, because nothing that happens at these salons should be committed to the permanent record."
LinkedIn ProfileChicago Futures Salon Manifesto
crafted at the intersection of Surrealist wonder, Situationist mischief, and Futurist propulsion
I. PURPOSE
Chicago Futures Salon convenes an invitation‑only circle of senior corporate, academic, governmental, and artistic path‑finders who seek fresh vantage points on tomorrow. We value quality over quantity, depth over reach, depth over noise.
II. GROUND RULES OF THE SALON
1. Rarity
Entry arrives by personal summons, extended with care, guarded with discretion.
2. Plurality
Voices diverge. Debate thrives. Every viewpoint earns space, curiosity, and rigorous challenge.
3. Play
Serious imagination flourishes through serious games. Expect Exquisite Corpses, one‑minute dream journals, semantic cut‑ups. Laughter lubricates insight.
4. Drift
Each gathering rewrites the map of thought. Guided dérives through concepts, disciplines, and provocations encourage minds to stroll past default routes.
5. Remix
We seize familiar symbols, invert them, and return them charged for action. Corporate jargon becomes poetic seed. Academic citations morph into speculative headlines.
6. Velocity
Conversation accelerates toward actionable prototypes, policies, or alliances. Visions take first breath before the session ends.
III. VALUES
| Value | Surrealist Echo | Situationist Spark | Futurist Pulse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel | Seek the uncanny in the everyday. | Defamiliarize the city of ideas. | Reveal latent futures hiding in plain sight. |
| Liberation | Free the subconscious. | Escape the Spectacle. | Unshackle strategy from legacy trajectories. |
| Provocation | Court contradiction. | Engineer situations that disrupt passivity. | Jolt leaders awake to wildcard possibilities. |
| Co‑creation | Collective automatism. | Group dérive. | Multi‑stakeholder scenario building. |
| Momentum | Dreams in motion. | Action in the streets of thought. | Rapid iteration toward preferred futures. |
IV. SALON CODE
- • Admit uncertainty with pride.
- • Speak in images as often as in metrics.
- • Trade expertise for curiosity when the two clash.
- • Question every "given" at least once.
- • Leave with a prototype, a pact, or a paradigm shift.
V. RITES OF GATHERING
1. Threshold Ritual
Guests receive a random prompt card on arrival. The prompt guides their mindset for the evening.
2. Mirror Break
A short automatic writing sprint surfaces hidden assumptions which the group then fragments and reassembles.
3. Parallax Drift
Teams conduct a structured wander through a conceptual landscape—markets, technologies, human desires—marking emotional highs and lows on a shared canvas.
4. Future Flash
Rapid design fiction sketches bring one audacious scenario to life within twenty minutes.
5. Synthesis Circle
Final round captures insights, commitments, and next moves. No idea leaves homeless.
VI. VISION
Chicago Futures Salon aims to seed a league of leaders who think sideways, drift forward, and act with imaginative courage. Enterprises shaped by these leaders will cultivate cultures where bold futures emerge first as playful speculation, then as lived reality.
We gather. We drift. We unlock the marvelous.
Fund the Future
Chicago Futures Salon is a federally recognized 509(a)(2) nonprofit organization. Your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. Every contribution helps us build a more imaginative, anticipatory, and resilient community.
DonateRequest an Invitation
The Chicago Futures Salon is an invitation-only community. Share your interest and we'll be in touch.
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