Ahead of FutureEverything’s twentieth edition this month, the event’s director Drew Hemment talks us through five landmark technological projects that represent the cutting-edge nature of the festival.
emoto (2012)
A unique data art project, emoto captured and visualised the excitement around the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As stories unfolded, emoto processed global Twitter data, around 12.5 million Twitter messages, which were analysed for content and emotional tone before being fed back to the viewer, providing greater insight into the ups and downs of London 2012 as they happened. This collective data visualisation provided an alternative perspective to that broadcast by mainstream media. After the Games, an interactive data sculpture was created enabling people to relive the emotional journey of the London Olympics.
emoto2012.org
The Duellists (2007)
The Duellists was a spectacular performance and film in which two free runners perform a duel throughout the Arndale Shopping Centre in central Manchester. Combining free running with free media, The Duellists was created using only found and hacked technology in the city. In this case, the artist group was given the freedom of the Arndale Shopping Centre for three days and nights, including unrestricted access to the state-of-the-art in-house CCTV system. The film was created for Futuresonic 2007 as part of The Art for Shopping Centres exhibition, which featured major commissioned artworks responding the social context of the shopping centre. It was exhibited on plasma screens throughout the shopping centre usually used to carry advertising.