FutureEverything returns this March, with a two day conference, world premières of participatory artworks, and a city-wide programme of innovative live music. Taking the theme of “Tools for Unknown Futures”, the festival will explore how we can collaborate on new tools, devices and systems to imagine, question and shape the world ahead.
Now in its 19th year, FutureEverything brings people together to discover, share and experience new ideas about the future. Pioneering the idea of a “festival as laboratory”, it combines innovative art and performance with new technology, insightful discussion and playful social experimentation. The conference will bring together over 700 international delegates from design, urbanism, art, business and academia.
Tools for Unknown Future
The festival will explore how we can collaborate on new tools, devices and systems to transform many spheres of life, from the arts to democracy. Drawing on powerful currents in today’s design scene, it will debate our fascination with tools as the most natural path towards social change, and open up new ways to question, imagine and make the strange, troubled thing called the future.
Conference
The FutureEverything conference will take place over two days in the stunning neo-gothic surroundings of Manchester Town Hall on 31 March – 1 April 2014 and will feature some of the most eminent practitioners and thinkers from design, urbanism, art, business and academia, as well as numerous participatory sessions, workshops and fringe events. Earlybird passes are now on sale at just £75.
Speakers include (more to be announced): James Bridle / Golan Levin / Anthony Dunne / Anab Jain / Tom Armitage / Seb Chan
Live: Darkside, Tim Hecker and more
The city-wide live music and performance programme will present work from across the spectrum of contemporary instrumental, electronic and experimental music. Taking in venues including the Royal Northern College of Music, The Ritz and Islington Mill, confirmed artists include Nicolas Jaar’s new live project Darkside, Tim Hecker, Martin Messier, Evian Christ, Longplayer and a brand new multi- sensory installation piece from Emmanuel Biard (EMN) and David Leonard.
Tickets for Darkside, Martin Messier and Tim Hecker are on sale now. We will be announcing more live events and ticket availability at various venues very soon.
Art: Pop up City, Data as Culture and more
During the festival, we will co-create a pop-up city for a day, taking over two blocks in the new city quarter NOMA. This will take the form of a speculative city, one imagined through conjecture and curiosity, where artworks and design fictions create future visions of city institutions. The festival also presents BUQS: Ubiquitous Electronic Life Forms, a brand new commission as part of the ECAS project that will explore the ever-growing omnipresence of technology in everyday life through new approaches in creating art and sound for the public domain.
Taking place at the RNCM alongside the live programme will be a listening post installation of Longplayer, allowing attendees to listen to the unique 1000 year long continuous piece of musical composition in real time throughout the festival. Also at the RNCM, Emmanuel Biard (EMN) and David Leonard premiere an installation piece built specifically for the Studio Theatre. The piece features mirrors, mechanics, lasers, optics and new structures, consisting of 2 gigantic circular flexible mirrors sealed into a frame with vacuum pumps.
The festival art programme will feature a multi-venue exhibition as part of the “Data As Culture” initiative, with the Open Data Institute and Lighthouse working alongside FutureEverything to present works in Manchester, London and Brighton. We will be announcing more details on our full art programme soon.