No Pausing for Breath: FutureEverything's 20th Anniversary

As you'd probably guess, FutureEverything isn't in the habit of looking backwards. Founded by Drew Hemment in 1995 as Futuresonic (before its 2010 name change), the conference and live showcase keeps an unflinching eye on the horizon as it brings together music, performance, art and digital technology – be it exploring the pros and cons of open data, investigating the prospects of locative media as far back as 2003, or in presenting unique performances from futurists of both their own generation (Steve Reich, Philip Glass) and ours (Kode9, Ryoji Ikeda, Tim Hecker). Anniversaries are different, though. They provide an irresistible urge to pause for breath — but for FutureEverything such a notion could feel contradictory.

“It’s been challenging,” admits FutureEverything executive director Tom Higham, “but it’s also an opportunity to say 'this is where we are now.' The programme isn’t looking backwards, we're looking at what we’ve been through over past festivals – locative journalism, environmental sensors, open data – and asking ‘what’s next? Are we making a difference?'”

FutureEverything founder Hemment agrees. The original Futuresonic quickly evolved into something far greater in scope, with Hemment becoming instrumental in open data discourse, including establishing the pioneering Greater Manchester Data Synchronisation programme. One of numerous year-round projects FutureEverything invests in, its portal of open data aims to help Manchester's governance, businesses and residents develop mutually beneficial data services. However, Hemment points out: “Cut us down the middle and you can read ‘open, local, bottom-up is best.’ But if an idea becomes doctrine it’s no longer good. So we do want to take stock a little and think about the values and ideas that can take us forward.”

"It's about hacking reality, looking for a different take on the world" – Drew Hemment

As such, the forthcoming 2015 instalment isn't an attempt to look into the oracle of digital culture to latch on to a great leap forward – it's a documentation of what’s actually going on in the present, technologically and culturally. Provocation is a key facet of the FutureEverything programme; in a world where, increasingly, only hardline stances appear to gain recognition, the event provides a platform for those who openly consider all sides.

Key speakers at this year's conference include data artist Jer Thorp, who, by way of accessible graphic presentations, humanises data to coerce out of it coded messages within the media — for instance, he traces the way that the New York Times used the term ‘terrorism’ more as its use of ‘communism’ declined between 1981 and 2009. There’s also Italian conceptual artist Paolo Cirio, whose notorious Daily Paywall piece questioned economic models and distribution of information, by stealing articles from paywall sites and offering the article's writer and readers various ways to earn money from them. “These are artists who are highly critical of current society’s perception that we need more surveillance to protect our own freedom of speech, when it would actually present a problematic contradiction of that,” says Higham. “But these are difficult issues, we’re not trying to be a group of clever people pointing at another group of people and laughing.”

Higham points at the surge in Uber taxis as an example of what's likely to come up within one of the conference’s themes of ownership. “In the tech festival sector there’s a celebration of its solutionism and sharing economy — but what does it mean for the rights of the drivers and employment conditions and how it’s regulated? We don’t want to just tell people things are great and them not need to know any more. We’re about opening up some of the complexities of such issues, but without alienating people.”

The live programme also features plenty of figures willing to probe, prod and antagonise, from the more obvious, like Ariel Pink and Alec Empire — who, in one of the festival’s few nods to its anniversary, will perform his 1995 LP Low on Ice in full – to the likes of London-based label PC Music, who were subject to digital reams of thinkpieces in 2014 over the skewered auto-tune pop with which they’ve become synonymous. “It would seem remiss to avoid it,” comments senior producer Mark Carlin. “Some would say cynically we’ve thrown it in because everyone’s talking about it — but that's valid! We're trying to give an experience of everything across the board and whatever you think about it you can’t ignore it.”

Elsewhere on the bill, several burgeoning artists reflect the festival’s desire to explore and question the flood of data we're riding upon. Tri Angle Records' Boothroyd’s 2014 EP Idle Hours couldn't be anything other than a product of our post-Millennial ADD age, with samples drawn from YouTube videos, bringing to mind someone impatiently clicking through clips. “It's interesting you say that, though, because I've had a couple people tell me it sounds 'retro' too,” he tells The Skinny over email – “although admittedly I'd never say that I'd consider myself a 'futurist,' because that makes me sound like a wanker.”  

Gazelle Twin's recent record Unflesh, meanwhile, was a viscerally thrilling mix of bludgeoning industrialism, offset by vocals that careered from murmured spoken word to operatic flight. Her video for Belly of the Beast mixed footage filmed undercover in supermarkets with CCTV footage from supermarkets ravaged by earthquakes. “It took on both sides of my fascination with the look of that technology, and the implications it has towards society – especially in the sense of criminalising people,” Gazelle Twin – real name Elizabeth Bernholz – says. “It’s a topic that I find myself returning to again and again, the uncanny world that the pure aesthetic of some of this technology presents. It's also interesting to witness the impact on culture of technology constructed to form a power structure from a singular, all-seeing source.”

Last autumn, FutureEverything debuted in Moscow, in an event that showcased the festival's greater commitment to both artist development and international outreach, and how it looks at itself moving forwards. “With any festival it’s difficult to maintain energy and build relationships when you’re only doing something once a year,” says Carlin. “Events like Moscow are something we’re keen to explore further, moving to one place and informing one another and then moving that information on – engaging audiences and collaborators multiple times.” Among the new collaborations forged while in Russia, the festival developed the work Simple Harmonic Motion with sound and light artist Memo Akten. Composed for 16 percussionists drawn from the Royal College of Northern Music, it’ll form part of the Manchester event’s opening night.

Moscow also saw the world premiere of Young Turks producer Koreless and visual artist Emmanuel Biard’s collaboration The Well – an example of FutureEverything's changing relationship with returning artists, in that the organisation has worked on the project from initial idea to finished concept. “It’s a move away from that obsession with the new, and the one-upmanship of festival culture, and working towards more long-term development with artists,” says Carlin; “Koreless and Emmanuel Biard was 18 months in the marking.” For Biard, who for a long time has been the visual provocateur behind influential Manchester club night Hoya:Hoya, the festival has been hugely beneficial. Performing at last year’s event with Evian Christ, their union has now become a regular thing. It's these benefits for the artists and communities around FutureEverything beyond its three-day event that ensure the organisation's constant renewal.

“The ethos and manifesto behind it is still much the same,” says Hemment. “It’s still about art and music, about hacking reality, looking for a different take on the world. The big shift is from putting groundbreaking projects and people we admire on stage, to being involved year-round." Higham admits that the lifespan of a technologically-orientated festival is typically very short, "but through tenacity and force of will we've managed to turn 20. I think that's a remarkable thing."