Imagining European Quantum Futures

Quantum technologies are often discussed in terms of scientific progress, strategic relevance, and economic potential. However, these technologies also raise questions of imagination. What kinds of future do they reveal? What hopes, fears and assumptions do current narratives convey? How might alternative narratives help us to think differently about the role of quantum technologies in society?

This workshop brings together perspectives from the arts, quantum research and technological reflection to explore the future of quantum technologies through creativity. Building on the analysis of existing and emerging narratives from the Q-Narratives project, participants will engage with the dominant ways of talking about quantum technologies, considering where these narratives resonate, where they fall short and what remains unseen.

The workshop's focus is not only to discuss quantum futures, but also to actively imagine and co-create them. Using artistic and participatory methods, participants will develop alternative visions which might connect quantum technologies with social values, cultural meaning, responsibility and possibility. The workshop invites speculative, critical and poetic approaches to quantum technologies, making the abstract tangible and opening them up to the broader public imagination.

Together, we will consider what 'European Quantum Futures' could become when shaped not only by roadmaps, markets and policy goals, but also by artistic enquiry and collective imagination. The workshop is intended as a space for interdisciplinary exchange, experimentation, and future-making, contributing to new narratives that are socially meaningful, creatively compelling, and technologically informed.