Jad Abumrad

Arizona State University's Emerge 2015 will showcase its radically new visions of the future. The featured visionary – Radiolab host, creator and MacArthur "genius" Jad Abumrad – will join ten spellbinding "visitations from the future," including theatrical performances, improvisation, games, dance and hands-on opportunities to design and build the future.

Emerge dares brilliant creative and technical minds to bring these questions to life through performance, technology and storytelling. The event gathers artists, designers, scientists, engineers and audiences to imagine optimistic, thoughtful futures. Part performance, part hands-on interactive experience, Emerge explores the ways we are already creating the future, and asks us to think about how we ensure it is the future we hope for – rather than one we dread. Each of the ten “visitations from the future,” as well as the performance by Abumrad, are different ways of responding to the open question about what kind of futures we can envision, and what kind of futures we want. Because the teams behind each of the visitations are drawn from such diverse backgrounds, their answers could not be more different.

Emerge 2015's ASU sponsors and partners include the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, the Center for Science and the Imagination, the SkySong Innovation Center, the Office of the President, the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development, the School of Earth and Space Exploration, the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, LightWorks and the ASU Art Museum. Additional sponsors and partners include KJZZ 91.5, Scottsdale Public Art, Whole Foods Market and the Arizona SciTech Festival.

The event is free and open to the public but registration is required. For more information about the evenings' events go to emerge.asu.edu.