Manchester-based FutureEverything, has just announced details of its 2016 Manchester festival and conference programme.
Entitled Less and More: Rethinking Resources, the 21st FutureEverything annual festival will take place Wednesday 30 March to Saturday 2 April in venues across Manchester. Hosting events this year will be Manchester Town Hall, Manchester Art Gallery, The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester Central Library, Islington Mill and Soup Kitchen.
This follows its incredible success in Singapore last autumn when it delivered its first large-scale international commission to great critical and public acclaim, including an endorsement from Prime Minister David Cameron.
Taking the theme of ‘Less and More’, the festival will explore how we can rethink resources within a world that is changing exponentially. Whether it’s a change to our antibiotics and food, or the world’s natural resources, the first thing that we look for is alternatives. With the carbon economy reaching its peak, we need to adapt to changes in climate, and find more tools, and more methods as a way of working with the inevitable. This forces a rethink on how we can gather, and manage, the resources of Earth to overcome the dependencies of the industrial age.
Drew Hemment, CEO and Founder of FutureEverything, comments:
‘We are facing the consequences of our dependency on the endless consumption of the world’s finite resources, and now is our opportunity to think about where we go next. Because let’s face it, everything has the potential to run out. This year, FutureEverything are excited to see some of the world’s brightest minds bring their expertise to the table as we return to Manchester’s iconic Town Hall for our 21st year. We are delighted to be working in partnership with some of the city’s best venues, with Manchester Art Gallery hosting the premiere of a new commision by Gazelle Twin.
We’re also thrilled to launch a revolutionary climate service at this year’s festival, Project Ukko, which we know will be a major contribution to those working in climate science, as well as a series of new commissions.’
Conference highlights will include presentations from a wide range of international thought-leaders, artists, scientists and academics including, Cellular scientist Abi Aspen Glencross, a pioneer of cultivating synthetic meat from animal cells ,Assemble’s Mathew Leung, a member of the 2015 Turner Prize-winning architecture and design collective
The conference will also see Nesta’s Lydia Nicholas, a specialist in ‘Collective Intelligence’ and an expert in automated data gathering, data regulation, public privacy and government digital policy and The University of Salford’s Andy Miah, Chair in Science Communication & Future Media, and a leading figure in the debate about ethics, emerging technologies and social media
Amongst the cultural highlights is The world premiere of Kingdom Come – a new collaboration between the experimental artistic persona Gazelle Twin, and filmmakers Chris Turner & Tash Tung, which will see unworldly audio samples and live vocal manipulation mixed with extreme physical performances together with a highly immersive film experience.
Smoke Signals by Ed Carter and David Cranmer, a visual and sonic installation which will see a bank of smoke cannons generating a series of seemingly random smoke rings which have actually been triggered by the constant movement of data across email networks.
Project Ukko by Moritz Stefaner, a joint climate science data visualisation project between FutureEverything, The Met Office and the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre which predicts crucial short, medium and long term global wind energy patterns in a format which is both visually stunning and highly accessible to metrological professionals, climate change scientists, academics and governments around the world
The Corridor by Andrew Hodson, an interactive audio project where the public can tune into a special soundscape via their mobile devices which has been created by local residents along the emerging Oxford Road Corridor district of Manchester.
There will also be a vibrant nigh-time programme of gigs, DJ sets and experimental music throughout the festival at various Manchester venues.
