Doors to the Future

Image by Carolyn Defrin (digital collage) & Joey Galanos (water color)

doors to the future

'Doors to the Future' is an adaptable, site-specific installation and convening space bringing people with diverse border experiences together to imagine more humane futures for migration.

Originally developed in Samos, Greece, the project is now touring.

Get in touch to bring 'Doors to the Future' to your communities.

listen to the future

click on each image below to listen and learn more

The future is who you are

Audiences are invited to experience five pink doors: some that open, some that remain closed and some with no door at all, only a frame.

Each door contains a unique QR code, giving way to an immersive headphone-audio experience envisioning how we might access more humane futures. Exploring relationships to ourselves, each other and the world around us, these pieces invite reflection and contemplation within the landscape of migration and beyond.

Co-created with five participants with lived experience of the border

(as lawyers, educators, migrants, humanitarian aid, and camp workers) the audio pieces emerged from workshops held over a year on the island of Samos, Greece. Responding to widespread exhaustion with crisis-driven discourse, the workshops prioritised connection and future world-building, creating space to look forward together beyond the silos of current border policy.

The installation premiered 14-15 February, 2026 at Skills Factory– an organization run by the NGO, selfm.aid, which independently produces humanitarian aid with migrants through social work and handicraft. Skills Factory's maintenance team built each of the doors (which have now been repurposed for various uses).

Creative Team

ALTER-SONIK ARTS COLLECTIVE

Carolyn Defrin, Concept direction, sound edit & design, writing, facilitation

Joey Galanos, Co-direction/writing, cultural mediator

Ezedin Petros, Writer, performer, cinematography

Donata, Writer, performer, photography
Melina Papageorgiou, Writer, performer

Alexia-Maria Yiakkoupi, Writer, performer

Olga Gioti, Writer, performer
Giannis Drakos, Collaborator, painter
Francisca Campos de Andrade, Collaborator

Zen Chrysakis, Music
Kevin O'Donnell, Music and sound design

SKILLS FACTORY

Katherina Scholle, Co-project manager
Jasper Duivenstijn, Co-project manager
Ezedin Petros, Community Coordinator

Benedicte Schroijen, Build team

⁠⁠Sultan Rashed, Build team

⁠⁠Kamal Ozbek, Build team

⁠⁠Mohamed Shamsa, Build team

Abbas Mousavi, Build team

Mohammed Mohammed, Build team

Jasper Duivenstijn, Build team

the Hallway

Within the installation, the project inhabits the metaphor of a 'hallway': a liminal passage between doors that open into unexpected places, where brief encounters have the potential for lasting impact.

In this space, groups of people with different experiences of borders and migration convene to explore how future imagination can impact present-day social-relational dynamics. The following core elements comprise each hallway session and can be adapted to different time formats.

ART FIRST- guests are invited to experience the installation before convening.

SHARED MEAL- guests share a meal with each other early on in the session to facilitate getting to know each other

FACILITATED DIALOGUE - guests engage in small groups, pairs and larger group discussions around specific facilitated topics

MAKE MORE ART- guests are invited to create new artworks to add to the growing archive of future migration imagination

COMMITMENTS OF CONNECTION- guests decide on small acts of connection they can create for the future. These commitments are written down and contribute to a growing archive for how migration futures can lead to connection, rather than division.

This concept was first tested with the launch of 'the Doors' in Samos, Greece in February 2026. In our first collaboration with Skills Factory, who hosted the event, their kitchen team prepared a 'menu for the future' and then joined about 20 additional participants– inclusive of NGO workers, artists, scholars and local community members in Samos for conversations (translated between Greek, English and Arabic).