My keynote presentation at Metropolis Lab in Copenhagen on 28 June on the FutureEverything festival as a living lab, an approach developed in collaboration with ImaginationLancaster.
FutureEverything - The City as Living Lab or Play Space
1. The City as Living Lab or Play Space
Drew Hemment
http://futureeverything.org
http://imagination.lancaster.ac.uk
2. Festivals as Living Labs
Co-creating networked urban futures.
Transforming the city into a living lab for participatory
experiments in art, society and technology.
3. A global festival of art, music & ideas
4 days / 300 artists and speakers / 100 events / 40 venues.
Established 1995.
15. Loca: Set To Discoverable (2004-6)
Loca consists of a small network inside each node is a Bluetooth device, encased in concrete for use in the
of nodes... made of readily available components, urban environment.
The nodes are deployed in public spaces.
23. FutureEverything
The only way to predict the future, is to invent it.
FutureEverything is an art, technology and
social innovation organisation that runs year
round innovation labs and an annual festival
of art, music and ideas.
24. ImaginationLancaster
Using design, innovation and
creativity to stimulate and enable
interdisciplinary research into
people, products, places and
systems for the future.
Lancaster University
http://imagination.lancaster.ac.uk
25. FutureEverything as Research Project
FutureEverything (formerly Futuresonic) was a part
of Lancaster University's successful RAE2008
(Research Assessment Exercise) return.
Rated among the top 4 UK universities for research
in Art & Design.
27. FutureEverything Labs
Bringing the future into the present.
Year-round innovation labs, lasting between 9-36
months, each looking at a specific theme.
28. FutureEverything Labs
New Mobilities (2009-11) Low Grade (2005)
Open Data Cities (2009-10) Mobile Connections (2003-5)
Distant Collaboration (2009-10) FutureDJ (2004)
The City Experiment (2009-10) Turntable Re:mix (2004)
Environment 2.0 (2006-9) Migrations (2002-3)
Social Networking Unplugged Blacktronica (2002)
(2007-9) Sensurround (2001-2)
Art For Shopping Centres (2007) BrokenChannel (2001)
Futurevisual (2007) Audiovisions (2000)
Off The Map (2006) SenseSonic (1999)
Instrument (2006) Sub.merge (1998)
29. Festival as Living Lab
Bringing the future into the present.
The festival creates a space in which participants
can experiment and play - transforming the city into
a space of experimentation, making it come alive.
30. Festival as Living Lab
Bringing the future into the present.
Participatory art-design interventions construct
possible futures and enable people to inhabit
them experientially and experimentally, bringing
the future into the present.
31. Festival as Living Lab
Bringing the future into the present.
These experiments devise and test innovations in
art, society and technology, and collaboratively
generate ideas and concepts.
32. Festival as Living Lab
Bringing the future into the present.
Activity can include artworks, technology prototypes,
social innovations and design projects.
Co-creating networked urban futures.
33. The evolution of the method and the
approach to the public realm.
43. Locative Arts
Or, art by the geospatially uninhibited
New ways of seeing, sensing
and representing
Radar, sonar, GPS, WiFi,
Bluetooth, cellular, GIS, etc
Seeking an art of mobile
communications:
Are there any forms of expression
that are intrinsic or unique to mobile
and wireless media?
44. •We are all being mapped,
•all of the time
•The devices we carry leave
traces of our movements
45. Loca: Set To Discoverable (2004-6)
Loca consists of a small network inside each node is a Bluetooth device, encased in concrete for use in the
of nodes... made of readily available components, urban environment.
The nodes are deployed in public spaces.
66. Environment 2.0
Exploring the interface
between digital footprint
and environmental
footprint, drawing on new
approaches to the
environment from
pervasive and locative
media and work on
issues related to climate
change and sustainability
http://futuresonic.com/09/env20
67. One billion eyes
"A populace so knowing and capable that
all problems get noticed and addressed,
quickly, by a billion eyes."
- David Brin
68. Biotagging
Discovering and creating a
folksonomy of the city's
urban wildlife. People
moved through a range of
microclimates observing
and identifying the plants,
animals and fungi they find
along the route. A 'Rover'
vehicle was used to film and
collect data. Participants
were able to think up their
own ways to classify and
record the wildlife they
discovered.
Christian Nold, Rebecca Ellis,
John Tweddle, Drew Hemment
69. Climate Bubbles
A playful, participatory
project in which bubble
blowing games enable
people across the city
of Manchester to test air
flow circulation, and by
sharing the results
online, enable the Met
Office to get a snapshot
the Urban Heat Island
phenomenon
Drew Hemment, Carlo
Buontempo, Alfie Dennen
70. Open Data Cities (2009-10)
FutureEverything is leading the charge to
make Manchester an Open Data City.
73. Globally Networked Event (GloNet)
Developing a new type of global event taking us to
new corners of the globe and reducing air travel.
Shifting from a single city event, to one taking
place simultaneously at venues around the globe.