Map of minds points the way at Manchester’s FutureEverything Festival
Manchester people can see their thoughts and ideas illuminate an interactive map at this week’s FutureEverything festival.
Artist Doctor Adam Nieman is bringing OurCity, a ‘mass participation experiment’, to life. It uses VoiceYourView software developed at Lancaster University.
Comments can be submitted via the web, SMS or smart phone. The technology will enable Dr Nieman to cluster whatever is said by location or theme. These clusters will appear on the map in the form of ‘floating bubbles’.
The OurCity installation will tour to Dresden and Berlin but Dr Nieman said: “This is very much about Manchester.”
FutureEverything is a festival of art, music and ideas. Doctor Nieman explained that the festival team were looking to work with the computer science department at Lancaster.
Dr Nieman was recruited because his art centres on science, data and geography.
Year Seven pupils at Manchester Communication Academy based in Harpurhey, kick-started the project.
They were taken on a tour of the city centre and asked to record their aspirations and fears about the future. Dr Nieman, who is also Creative Director of GovEd Communications, said that the pupils’ comments set the agenda for OurCity.
John Sibbald is Director of Specialisms at the academy, which opened in September 2010 and focuses on languages, drama, media, technology and presentation skills.
Mr Sibbald said: “The pupils thoroughly enjoyed their city tour.”
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He said that they produced a range of suggestions for what the Manchester of tomorrow will need.
The ideas included shelters for the homeless and primary schools for the future offspring of young city centre flat-dwellers.
Mr Sibbald also said that some pupils also had ‘wackier’ suggestions such as a theme park with rides.
One of the key themes of the four-day festival is ‘technology is not what it used to be.’ The main exhibition, The Data Dimension, features artists ‘exploring the flourishing field of data visualisation’.
Earlier this year the Arts Council announced that it was awarding FutureEverything a 32% increase in funding.
FutureEverything spokeswoman Angela Conley expressed gratitude and said: “This increase will help stabilise the festival, giving us more confidence to plan ahead.”
Visitors to OurCity, at the newly built 4 Piccadilly Place, will look down on a metre tall by metre wide map.
You can participate in the project by clicking on www.is.gd/ourcity
Dr Nieman added that, when you submit a comment, you will receive someone else’s comment in return – a feature he calls ping-pong.
Read more at www.futureeverything.org/art/ourcity
FutureEverything continues until Saturday 14th May, although the art exhibitions, including OurCity, continue until 22nd May.
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