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Ellen Anthoni is a generalist polymath bricoleur endlessly fascinated by humans and their relationship with each other and the planet. Through writing books on youth culture, studying multigenerational and multicultural perspectives on presents and the dynamics of change, she got intrigued by futures and how images of the future can bring new understandings of and agency within society. 

Together with Khushboo Balwani she founded BrusselAVenir, a lab to build pluridisciplinary futures stories with and for the people of Brussels. Through creative research, collective imagining and role-play with their 100 imaginary friends, they dive into topics like socially just climate transition, sharing in hyperdiversity and sane connection for youth in near futures. Each research journey is an adventure with many actors in the city and ends with a story, which can be a radio talk show of the future, a tram of the future, or whatever format fits the topic. 

In 2018, she co-founded Plurality University Network, a global, open organisation that connects artists, designers, utopians and activists that use the power of imagination to enable alternative futures. For her PhD on the methodology of BrusselAVenir, she studies the potential of futures fiction as a form, a method and a space, and links her practice to academic theory. She also makes costumes for underwater world karaoke bands, art on her relationship with bots, and plants.