Drew Hemment

Founder and Board Member, 1995–2026

Professor Drew Hemment founded FutureEverything in 1995 and led it as CEO and Creative Director for 23 years, shaping one of Europe's most influential art-technology organisations. He remained a Board Member until its closure in 2026.

He now leads national and international initiatives advancing a fundamental shift in AI development – positioning the arts and humanities as integral to how AI systems are built, evaluated and deployed. As Theme Lead in Interpretive Technologies for Sustainability at The Alan Turing Institute and Professor of Data Arts and Society at the University of Edinburgh, he founded and directs Doing AI Differently and leads the Artificial Intelligence Humanities Sandpits for UK Research and Innovation.

An artist, curator and academic researcher, his work across four decades has placed artistic practice at the forefront of successive technological transitions – from locative media and open data to AI futures.

He has received 14 international awards including Prix Ars Electronica (Honorary Mention), Lever Prize (Winner) and STARTS Prize (Honorary Mention). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and a member of the Editorial Board at Leonardo.