CityLife

Hi-tech world of creativity at the FutureEverything festival

Making Future Magic: iPad Light Painting And Media Surfaces

FutureEverything festival - various venues - until May 14

Take a festival with the lofty ambitions of FutureEverything to do all things utterly differently and it would be easy to get blinded by the science of its techie-heavy programming.

But it is one of the few festivals that treats the arts as a hefty contributor to the schedule rather than an apologetic add on to events, and it’s also a festival that allows the arts to explore new dimensions beyond the usual mediums.

FutureEverything doesn’t only gather together work by a staggering number of artists – all connected by their love of new technologies and the futuristic creative arts – but it commandeers entire buildings to house the exhibitions.

This year, they’ve grabbed the newly-built Four Piccadilly Place for the purpose and snatched spaces all over the city, including Umbro’s Dale Street design studio, Victoria Baths, Cornerhouse, the Zion Arts Centre and various bars, shops and hangouts.

Most events are free but that hasn’t stopped them going all out for headlines by scheduling world premieres, previewing major collaborative works and raising the interactive bar for all shows that seek to create a connection between art and the audience.

Among the most interesting is On Ways To Disappear Without Leaving A Trace, a unique concept from Me And The Machine that needs to be experienced one viewer at a time.

Opening Wednesday, the installation sits you at a telescope looking out of a fifth floor window in Piccadilly Place to watch a scenario unfold – a cinematic plot that you can only peep into from a distance (free, but booking essential via futureeverything.org). 

At the other extreme is Kevin MacDonald’s Life In A Day, one of the biggest contributor events of the festival and created using YouTube videos all uploaded on the same day by thousands of website users. The resulting film captures an usual view of life on Earth.

Group show The Data Dimension provides a massive meeting place for artists looking to visualise the complex data we’re surrounded by every day through clever installation and technical experiments.

Some – like Marcos Luytens’ Absolut FlavourCollider and Elliott Woods’ Lit Tree  – harnesses our own energy to create a dialogue between us and light, plants and spaces, while Borderline (by MIT Senseable Cities Lab) and Nicolas Feltron’s Annual Reports examine the minutiae of human behaviour to look at how we, and even our cultural borders, operate.

Collaborative work Making Future Magic: iPad Light Painting And Media Surfaces uses Apple’s touch pad to create a 3D stop animation, and iShed Presentations stimulates our senses to ask how scent, noise and taste can alter our perceptions.

Handmade, a big crafting event at Victoria Baths, neatly merges old techniques with new developments with the assistance of Fab Lab. Their workshop events with digital manufacturing equipment are free (book via website) and give all visitors the opportunity to create something to take away.

As does ECAS – Festival As Lab, which encourages us all to play with the technology on offer to develop new creative ideas and to get involved in a number of big interactive events.

Various venues, from Wednesday until May 14. Most events are free, some arts events run until May 22 and a series of workshops are open to the public throughout the festival – see futureeverything. org/art-overview for full programme.