An Early Futures affiliate project, MIXTUM, is releasing it’s first futurist tool (for children and adults alike).The open-ended tool is a circular mandala of symbols, organized in concentric rings, which allows a player to spin for a random arrangement of three symbols. The game is designed to create very surrealistic outcomes, focusing on the combining of normally isolated or dissimilar objects/ideas.

MIXTUM brings together the art of chance, the art of synthesis, futures oriented thinking, combinatorics and playful realities. As stated on the mixtum website, “Mixtum is intended to emphasize and strengthen our ability for flexible synthesis. With a spin of the wheel a player is given two or three random (or unconnected) symbols/objects/ideas that had to find a way to come together into one new thing, verbally or visually. For example, if one was given the two symbols house and nose, they could synthesize it into a “home for a booger” or “a nose that blows out windows” or a “house in the shape of a nose.” What are the benefits to these somewhat silly phrases or surrealist thinking practices? We like to consider it as a platform for serious new kinds of questions: “What would a house look like that was shaped like a nose?” “How can we think of our nose as a home?” “Is a home a filter of dirt, too?” By using the process of Mixtum, we refresh the abundance and possibility present in our everyday experience of ideas and objects.”

The part of MIXTUM, that Early Futures enjoys, are the numerous variations on ‘how to play’ with the tool, built of off the symbol combining concept. You can see a whole list of variations for using MIXTUM, on the variations page. For instance, there is a “futures story” variation, which Early Futures helped develop, that allows a person to create alternative futures, both visually and narratively!

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