This year we launched the FutureEverything Award, a new £10,000 international prize to recognise the most inspirational art, design and social innovation. It celebrates creative projects in any medium, be they artworks, social innovations, or software and technology projects, which offer a new and unique way to experience or see the world and help to bring the future into the present.
The Winner of the debut FutureEverything Award 2010, The EyeWriter, is a pair of revolutionary low-cost glasses that allow artists with paralysis to draw again. The Winner was chosen because it illustrates the creative imagination that will shape our future. It is an inspirational project, made by a fantastic group of people, who are worthy beneficiaries of the debut award.
Amphibious Architecture and Open_Sailing, the two runners-up, also are exceptional projects, coincidentally both concerned with digital innovation around water or the oceans. The first has come out of a sustained and rigorous programme of art-science collaboration, the second is an ambitious conceptual design project led by a young designer and a loose, informal and very international network of collaborators.
These were selected from a long list of outstanding innovations. This long list was phenomenally diverse, and included social innovation, contemporary art, conceptual design, architectural installation, open source technology, locative media performance, sound installation, film, animation, data visualisation and telepresence artwork. It drew on all corners of the globe, featuring contributions from Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Spain, UK and USA.
The Story behind the Award
For 15 years, FutureEverything has championed outstanding innovators in art, society and technology. In the past, FutureEverything (formerly Futuresonic) has awarded commissions following a call for submissions and competitive selection process, but not an award. With the name change in 2010, we felt it right to launch the new award, as a signature and prestigious new prize for the outstanding people we have supported and worked alongside for so long.
The award promotes world class innovation and introduces leading practitioners to stakeholders and the wider public, helping to promote and foster innovation culture in the UK and around the world. The winner receives the FutureEverything Trophy, a £10,000 cash prize, and the opportunity to present their project at the FutureEverything festival and within the FutureEverything catalogue and website.
The FutureEverything Award is awarded jointly by FutureEverything and the ImaginationLancaster research centre at Lancaster University. Year round, FutureEverything and ImaginationLancaster collaborate on digital innovation projects, more information on this can be found in the FutureEverything Lab projects.
Together we have devised the ethos which inspires the FutureEverything Award, namely, using art and design interventions to bring the future into the present. We do this through prototypes or living lab experiments that enable people to envision or experience some aspect of a possible future.
FutureEverything has launched the new award to celebrate projects from around the world which share this ethos, and which create prototypes for a more socially engaged, creative and sustainable future.
The Design of the Award Process
The call for nominations and submissions went out in 2009 for the debut Award, and we were delighted with the high calibre and diversity of artist submissions and nominated projects, with over 1000 people registering to submit.
Our goal was to combine the focus on openness that runs through all of FutureEverything’s work with the highest standards of rigour, transparancy and accountability.
Hence we arrived at the formula combining a rigorous jury process (to guarantee the rigour and accountability) with an open vote by the FutureEverything community (to introduce the openness and democratic aspect).
The jury chose a shortlist of three outstanding candidates, any one of whom would be a worthy recipient of the award. The final winner was then selected by an open vote by the world wide community of FutureEverything artists and participants from the past 15 years.
In our inaugural year we published the live results so the voting is transparent. This was a subject of much debate, as there are arguments that publishing live results can sway people’s choices. The integrity of the vote is our highest concern, and so we published our policy on the website and affirmed our trust in the intelligence and discernment of the passionate experts that make up the FutureEverything community to cast their votes with due care and consideration.
In 2010, this recipe made for a phenomenally exciting vote. The vote was neck and neck through the last week of voting, and on the final day the lead regularly changed hands. On the last evening of the last day, the outcome was still uncertain, with a substantial lead achieved, and then lost. It was a dead heat until close to the midnight deadline, when the final votes finally decided the winner.
Thanks to..
A special thanks to the International Jury, Steve Dietz, Gunalan Nadarajan, Maria Balshaw and Colin Fallows, and to all the people from the FutureEverything community who made their vote count.
Thank you all, for your commitment and serious consideration in selecting the EyeWriter as Winner of the debut FutureEverything Award.
Tags: Award, FutureEverything, ImaginationLancaster, Innovation, Prize, The EyeWriter
[...] Future Everything Gala FutureEverything Award Gala: Friday 14 May, 6-8pm at Manchester Town Hall Sees the awarding of the debut award of £10,000 cash prize, and the FutureEverything trophy recognising outstanding innovation in art, society and technology. [...]