FutureEverything is an art, technology and social innovation organisation that runs year-round innovation labs and an annual festival of art, music and ideas - bringing the future into the present.
After 15 years at the forefront of art, music and ideas, Futuresonic is now FutureEverything. FutureEverything 2010 takes place 12-15 May 2010 in Manchester, England.
FutureEverything is an award winning, world class organisation using mass participation in creativity and social innovation to bring the future into the present. It has a strong global network and international profile, and is recognised around the world for leading pioneering projects and important international debates. The organisation delivers a range of benefits, including mass engagement, awards, international networks, local advocacy, training and thought leadership, on themes including innovation, technology, art, society and the environment. It is embedded in business support networks, and is central to the innovation ecology in the UK.
FutureEverything Awards - A major new international award in four categories for artworks, social innovations, or software and technology projects which bring the future into the present, awarded by an international jury following a rigorous assessment process.
Festival - The FutureEverything festival (formerly Futuresonic, est. 1995) is attended by 75,000 people and is completely unique, bringing together world premieres of cutting edge artworks, an explosive city-wide music programme, and visionary thinkers from around the world.
Conference - The place to go each year for the important international debates in the field, bringing 500 opinion formers, futurologists, researchers, artists, technologists and scientists together to explore the latest upgrade affecting today’s digital culture.
Innovation & Leadership - FutureEverything is an innovation incubator with a long history of creative leadership in areas such as mobile and locative arts, social media, and the environment.
Global Network - FutureEverything is a destination for a world-wide community of creative visionaries in digital media and contemporary art, and an international hub for Manchester and England.
Year-round Impact - FutureEverything is embedded in research and business development networks feeding in and out of the festival, so that there is continuity between the inspiration space of the festival and year-round support and engagement.
Collaborators - FutureEverything enjoys an important strategic alliance with the ImaginationLancaster research centre at Lancaster University. It is collaborating with the BBC to establish an alliance of technology events in the North of England, and is working in partnership with a wide range of other regional, national and international organisations.
Get Involved - in The Experimental City in 2010, and New Mobilities in 2011.
Futuresonic has 4 main strands: Art, Music, Ideas and Showcase.
Art
The world renowned Art strand commissions major new artworks and presents exhibitions on society, the city, technology and the environment, with a focus on artworks that are participatory and that take over the city streets.
Music
A celebration of musical pioneers and those who perform on the cutting-edge, including one-off performances and unique artist commissions involving emerging technologies, staged in 30 venues city-wide.
Ideas
The FutureEverything Conference explores the latest upgrade affecting today's digital culture. It presents pioneering ideas, which will transform the way you and your organisation operate, innovate and interact.
Showcase
A user-generated festival strand which enables artist groups and event organisers to present independent events. Since 2005, Showcase (formerly EVNTS) has grown into a community who each year return to give the festival an extra edge.
FuturesFamily
FutureEverything has a number of on-going projects, including FuturesFamily, our artists in residence scheme.
FutureEverything and the Social Technologies Summit are presented by FutureEverything CIC, a non-profit creative 'community interest company'. It is registered with Companies House UK and regulated by the CIC Regulator.
FutureEverything has been awarded Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) status by Arts Council England, Pillar Event status by Manchester City Council, and three year funding by Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
FutureEverything was nominated for the prestigious Lever Prize 2009, and the Director, Drew Hemment, received an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica 2008.
FutureEverything was a 'Manchester Firsts' project commissioned by the inaugural Manchester International Festival, and was selected as an exemplar project by the Original Modern campaign directed by Peter Saville.
The founder and Artistic Director of FutureEverything is Drew Hemment.
FutureEverything CIC
Swan Buildings 20 Swan Street
Manchester M4 5JW
Office Tel 44 (0)161 834 1300
info[at]futureeverything[dot]org
Futuresonic was established in 1995, with the first major festival was in September 1996, and has since presented projects in Asia, Africa, N America, S America and Europe.
1995
Futuresonic established and presents its first event.
1996
The first full Futuresonic festival in September 1996 was a defining event for the field, and its format has influenced events internationally.
2001-3
Futuresonic presents exhibitions on themes such as surveillance and migration, and tours the world with the Sensurround project.
2004
Futuresonic presented its best known exhibition Mobile Connections, which was the first major exhibition worldwide on mobile, wireless and locative arts. It followed pioneering events and workshops by RIXC in Latvia, and preceded Wireless Experience at ISEA2004.
2005/6
It introduced the Urban Play strand of the festival, featuring interactive artworks in urban space.
2006/7
Futuresonic presented in 2006 the first fully realised live show using the amazing TENORI-ON by Yamaha and Toshio Iwai, the success of which led Yamaha to stage the worldwide launch exclusively in the UK in partnership with Futuresonic.
2007
Futuresonic is one of the 'Manchester Firsts' projects commissioned by the inaugural Manchester International Festival, and is selected as an exemplar project by the Original Modern campaign directed by Peter Saville.
2007
Futuresonic takes over one of the UK's principle shopping centres in an exhibition of major world-first artworks with a footfall of 1 million people. Two news items dominate the regional TV news, Tony Blair's resignation and the Futuresonic exhibition.
2008
Futuresonic stages the world's first major art exhibition on social networking, Social Networking Unplugged.
2009
The final Futuresonic festival raises the bar yet higher and is a stunning success across all areas of the festival.
2010
The inaugural FutureEverything festival is scheduled for 12-15 May 2010
Futuresonic thanks all the artists who have participated over the past 15 years.
Featured musicians include Philip Glass, Murcof, Johann Johannsson, Ariel Pink, Kode 9, Anti-Pop Consortium, 4hero, Apparat, Battles, Cristian Vogel, Faust, Fennesz, Graham Massey, Jamie Lidell, Kaffe Matthews, King Britt, Ladytron, Lee Ranaldo, Matthew Herbert, Merzbow, Mouse On Mars, Rhythm n' Sound, Def Jux ft. RJD2, Semiconductor, Shy Child, Skream, Sleeparchive, Wolfgang Flur.
Art and digital culture participants include Ackroyd and Harvey, Fujiko Nakaya, Amy Balkin, James Marriott, Access Space, Akitsugu Maebayashi, Alexei Shulgin, Blast Theory, Christa Sommerer, Cory Arcangel, Graham Harwood, Harun Farocki, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Light Surgeons, LoVid, Marko Peljhan, Masaki Fujihata, Olia Lialina, Owl Project, Sadie Plant, Shu Lea Cheang, Toshio Iwai, Zachary Lieberman.
Futuresonic projects include Environment 2.0 (2006-ongoing), Social Networking Unplugged (2008), Art For Shopping Centres (2007), Futurevisual (2007), Manchester Peripheral (2007), Social Technologies Summit (2006-onwards), Music For The Beep Generation (2006), Off The Map (2006), Maphester (2006), Instrument (2006), Urban Play (2005-onwards), EVNTS (2005-onwards), Low Grade (2005), Mobile Connections (2004), Turntable Re:mix (2004), Migrations and Eurodac Express (2002/3), Blacktronica (2002), Sensurround (2001/2), BrokenChannel (2001), Women in Electronica (2000-1), Audiovision (2000), SenseSonic (1999), Sub.merge (1998).