FutureEverything: Bringing the future into the present.
Inspired by the extraordinary artistic and political possibilities of new participatory technologies, FutureEverything 2012 presents a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Mass Observation Movement and the UN International Year of Co-operatives, with a unique contemporary twist by artists and designers working within this new media. ‘FutureEverybody’ presents leading thinkers and works of art that enable us to see the possibilities of such connectivity.
Hosted at MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) in Castlefield, Manchester, the FutureEverything 2012 Conference is hosted on 17-18 May and the Art Exhibition runs for two weeks from 16-27 May 2012.
FutureEverything Festival Theme 2012: ‘FutureEverybody’
Technology has profoundly changed the ways people connect, work and play. People can collaborate with tens or thousands of strangers across networks to create original, sometimes beautiful media objects in which the results of individual creativity can be seen. Or participate in social revolutions, using new technologies that enable their voice to be heard, their point of view appreciated.
Artists, designers, and programme-makers are creating new kinds of participatory experience. Public media and information, and personal data trails, can be accessed to create new kinds of entertainment and art. Increasing numbers of creative projects are based in many people finding things, and creating something new from the things they find. New forms of art, and of artist, are beginning to emerge.
Mobile networks enable swift and spontaneous collaboration across loosely connected groups. Widespread web connectivity allows co-production at a massive scale where large projects are completed by the public in thousands of bite-size tasks. Citizens can control and shape their own data and media.
2012 is a good year in which to rethink these ideas. Both the Cooperative and Mass Observation movements have roots in Manchester. The political implications of citizen-led content can be seen in Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring and Wikileaks.
Citizen-led content and experience in an increasingly digitally connected world is also principle theme of the new Creative Exchange Hub for the Creative Economy, led by Lancaster University. FutureEverything’s Art Programme is curated by Drew Hemment and Charlie Gere. The theme of next year’s FutureEverything festival is Digital Public Space.