For 15 years, the art programme in the FutureEverything festival (formerly Futuresonic) has explored themes of society, technology and the city.
In 2010 we introduce the new name, FutureEverything, and have chosen suitably expansive themes, with special attention to the character of global cities, and in particular our home city, Manchester.
The main exhibition this year is titled Serendipity City, inviting you to discover unexpected encounters, the invisible and unknown. FutureEverything has long been interested in place-making and reimagining the city, and the art programme explores our evolving urban condition, through a series of urban interventions, and artworks visualising the city in imaginative ways.
Place-making through a collision of contemporary art and digital media is the focus in a commission by art collective, Agents of Change. Fresh from transforming an abandoned village, Agents of Change work in secret to transform a very special urban location in Manchester using spray cans, projection and perception-altering art. Visible only over a video link, with hype generated through a viral campaign, clues to its location will be gradually released, culminating in a public opening on the last day of the festival.
Elsewhere there are other urban interventions. Manchester Kiosks is a new artist commission to reclaim and reconnect the five remaining iconic k6 red telephone kiosks in Manchester. Installed to one side of Manchester’s most sumptuous hotel lobby is a multiscreen work by AES+F on decadence in a luxury hotel.
Within the gallery, artworks visualising the city take a number of forms. Rana Begum’s light sculptures toy with architectural form, Anders Weberg & Robert Willim make portraits of cities they have never visited using only video gathered online, and Jon Rafman presents an unheimlich photographic exhibition culled from Google Street View.
Outside the city theme, SoSoLimited perform a live remix of a 2010 UK Election TV debate, reconstituting the material to reveal the speaker’s linguistic patterns. This is a part of a strand of work on data visualisation, which has emerged out of FutureEverything’s work on Open Data. We welcome back artist and designer Aaron Koblin to select inspirational visualisations of the digital world, alongside works by Digit and Martin John Callanan.
Increasingly, visual artists who don’t define themselves as media artists are working with digital media. This is the inspiration for a curated show by contemporary art group Contents May Vary, and an afternoon of talks and discussion on the multitude ways that artists grapple with medium and mediation, and on the porous boundary between media art and visual art.
PlayEverything is a special twelve hour event bringing together the artists and geeks. It features an unconference on art and digital culture where you can lead your own user-defined session, and participatory workshops including a social gaming sandpit by Hide & Seek.
The creative potential of unlimited connectivity is the focus of Jonah Brucker-Cohen andStefan Agamanolis, who take high speed networking out into the streets of New York and Manchester, as well as Paul Sermon, who features within GloNet.
FutureEverything is helping to launch the UK’s first Fab Lab. Here, digital objects imagined in the infinite space of your computer are given physical form, bringing us closer to the ‘internet of things’. FutureEverything has challenged 18 artists to create new work in 8 hours in the Fab Lab Art Challenge.
Sharing and gift giving are of special interest in digital culture and the contemporary art world alike. Three contemporary artists present works that invite you to exchange objects and stories. In keeping with the global character of the festival, they hail from Iraq, China, and Scotland.
The art programme also features a selection of works from our new international award, which celebrates the most inspirational art, design and social innovation. The winner, The EyeWriter, a pair of revolutionary low-cost glasses that allow artists with paralysis to draw again, illustrates the creative imagination that will shape our future.
FutureEverything 2010 takes place 12-15 May, with exhibitions continuing till 23 May 2010.
Drew Hemment with Kate Taylor & Karen Gaskill
Tags: art, change, City, Data Visualisation, Fab Lab, FutureEverything, Gift E, Mobile Apps, Rapid Prototyping, Social Gaming, Unlimited Connectivity, Visual Art
FutureEverything 2010 Art Curatorial Statement Online….
Read curatorial overview on the art programme at the FutureEverything 2010 festival. by Drew Hemment with Kate Taylor & Karen Gaskill. Mine and Robert Willims film Elsewhereness:Manchester is part of the program…….